History:

Diamondville got its name from the quality of the superior-grade coal from the local mines that seemed to resemble black diamonds.

In 1868, a man by the name of Harrison church discovered coal near the Hams Fork River. He built a cabin on the hill where part of modern Diamondville now stands. Realizing the area’s potential, he sought financial backing from a group in Minneapolis, who eventually formed the Hams Fork River Coal Company, incorporated in 1884. Later S.F. Fields, a promoter from Salt Lake City, Utah, took over management of the company and with the financial backing of the Anaconda Mining Company, renamed it the Diamond Coal & Coke Company.

Diamondville was incorporated about 1896 with a Scot immigrant, Thomas Sneddon, as the first Mayor. Most of the original settlers came from Almy, Wyoming, where they had been working in the Almy mines, which had been closed after explosions in 1881, 1886, and 1896.

Since there were no houses, the people lived in what was called “Shack Town,” shacks and dugouts in the side of the hill in proximity to the mine. About one hundred feet from Shack Town, the Hams Fork River provided water. Some of the ruins of Shack Town were still visible until the summer of 1977 when the Union Pacific Railroad Company realigned the railroad tracks.