The Western Slope Stompers march hand-in-hand down the parade route on Saturday morning in New Castle. This was the town's 38th Burning Mountain Festival. The first was celebrated on July 14, 1973. In the background is one of the mountains where coal was mined starting in the late 1800s. It's also one of the mountains where an underground coal vein still smolders today. The Burning Mountain Festival is named after that mountain and the coal seam in the Grand Hogback that also still smolders today.