The Aladdin Tipple in Aladdin, Wyoming, one of the last surviving coal tipples in the American West. A tipple was modern mining technology in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The upper, roofed structure received coal from the mountainside and stored it. When a trap door was opened, gravity sent the coal downward while three chutes inside a large one sorted the coal by nut, egg, or lump size before depositing it into train cars below. Photo by Carol Highsmith.