“This idea of learning from each other, including learning from each other’s mistakes, is pretty critical,” said David Wendt, founder of the Jackson Hole Center for Global Affairs, which organized the forum at the Center for the Arts.

Several speakers acknowledged a common desire to return to the heyday of prosperous minerals industries.

“A lot of people still hope there will be some revival of the coal economy,” said Tian Zhiyu, an associate professor at China’s Energy Research Institute.

But he and most experts agreed that in the face of efforts to halt climate change, and greater competition from renewable energy providers, demand for coal will continue to fade.

One region that had to do away with coal entirely was the Ruhr area of Germany, north of Frankfurt. Jurgen Kretschmann, chairman of the Society of Mining Professionals, related the history of Ruhr, which just capped a centuries-old coal tradition with the closure of its last mine.

“This was the economic powerhouse of Germany for a long time,” he said. “It was one of the main reasons for the economic recovery of Germany after World War II.”

In fact, Germans referred to the coal extracted there as an “economic miracle.” But as they depleted their resources, mining ever deeper became too expensive and the industry collapsed. Since 1960 the region’s population has shrunk by 600,000, more than 10 percent.

Len Carlman, a Jackson lawyer who attended the forum, half-joked that Kretschmann should pass the slides from his presentation to Wyoming legislators who attended so they can use Germany’s story to “scare” their colleagues into action.

“Your description of starting too late and the hardship that your region has experienced is a frightening forecast for what could happen in Wyoming,” Carlman told Kretschmann, “if we don’t stay the course with ENDOW and other long-term strategies that build on ideas we’re hearing here today.”

The forum comes amid Wyoming’s latest effort to diversify the state’s economy: a 20-year plan called the ENDOW (Economically Needed Diversity Options for Wyoming) initiative, which seeks to create more than 100,000 jobs and boost GDP by $30 billion by 2038.

In many ways, judging by the saga of Ruhr, Wyoming has the right idea.

Kretschmann said education was invaluable as they pursued other industries to replace and supplement coal. The region is now home to two dozen universities. Likewise, ENDOW emphasizes expanding the reach and influence of the University of Wyoming.

Kretschmann said the Ruhr region also developed a long-term plan, like ENDOW, setting milestones decades down the road.

“That’s an important lighthouse project that the people are proud of in the region,” he said. “People see something’s happening. Something good is happening.”

In Germany, Kretschmann said, they retrained tens of thousands of workers and tried to attract new companies to mining areas, in some cases establishing renewable energy projects on the sites of former mines.

But with Wyoming’s revenue so dependent on minerals it will be difficult to benefit much from other industries. The economic forecasting firm REMI found that under Wyoming’s tax system, which depends largely on minerals, bringing in more diverse industries would actually harm the economy.

“Until we change our tax structure we need to stay with extractive industries,” said Sen. Michael Von Flatern, R-Campbell.

Wyoming is, however, moving toward sustainability within those industries, he said. The oft-cited Integrated Test Center, for one, is a state-funded effort to study carbon capture and sequestration.

Other options include investing in value-added products, he said. Instead of being shipped out of state, coal can be used to develop things like carbon fiber.

There are plenty of obstacles, especially for rural regions. Multiple speakers agreed that economic solutions have to arise at the local level, but in a sparsely populated state like Wyoming many small communities may not be inclined to innovate.

University of Alberta professor Lars Hallstrom described the problem of “homophily” that he sees working with municipalities in rural Canada. That refers to the idea that the same group of people in these areas does “the same thing over and over and over again,” never exploring new ideas.

“I’m sorry to be pessimistic,” he said, “but it’s a rather dire picture without some very, very innovative thinking.”