SAN JUAN COUNTY, N.M. – Nearly two years after the San Juan Generating Station closed down, Four Corner residents are saying goodbye to the coal plant that brought in hundreds of jobs and millions in revenue. 

“I mean, this is sort of the closure of an era,” said Mike Eisenfeld, with San Juan Citizen Alliance. 

While some people fought to keep the station up and running, others say it was time for a new era. 

“The four stacks came down, and I think it symbolically represents an opportunity for transition,” said Eisenfeld. 

With so much history, emotions ran high as the stacks came down.

The four 400-foot tall stacks that once stood upon the San Juan Generating Station near Shiprock now lay on the ground.

Eisenfeld says he’s been tracking the coal plant for nearly two decades, and with all the positives it brought in, there was a downside.

He says the 1973 power plant provided electricity for places as far away as California.

“San Juan Generating Station had a significant legacy of not only providing electricity but also a high amount of pollution,” Eisenfeld said. 

With all of the pollution, he says the shutdown, that came 31 years earlier than expected, was needed.

“So we think the community is better off without that pollution, and we think that it gives us the opportunity to transition and transform this area into something different economically,” said Eisenfeld. 

Now it’s time for folks to figure out the next big move for the area.