Digital map reveals coal tunnels under Red Lodge

BILLINGS (AP) — Students at Montana State University Billings College of Technology have created a digital, three-dimensional model of coal mine tunnels crisscrossing under Red Lodge that give a much better picture than the century-old, ink-on-linen maps.

Red Lodge Mayor Brian Roat tells the Billings Gazette (http://bit.ly/t7t7ab) that many people hadn't realized how vast the underground complex extended until viewing the computerized map.

Historians say organized mining began in the area in 1889 and persisted through the early 1980s. Roat says the tunnels have filled with water and aren'...