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Alferd Packer

Alferd E. Packer (1842–1909), also “Alfred,” was a prospector who became famous after confessing to eating his dead comrades while trapped in the San Juan Mountains in February 1874. With the group starving and disoriented, it appears likely that Packer…

Avalanche

Avalanches are quite common in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. They can occur anywhere there is a sizeable amount of snow and steep slopes, meaning most of Colorado’s High Country (from 10,000 to 13,000 feet) is prone to avalanches. The massive snow slides…

Barger Gulch Site

There are few places in western North America richer in Paleo-Indian archaeology than Middle Park, the valley that forms the headwaters of the Colorado River in Grand County. Within Middle Park, the Barger Gulch area preserves an impressive amount of…

Base and Industrial Metal Mining in Colorado

Miners came to Colorado for gold, stayed for silver, and survived after the 1890s by diversifying into a wide range of base and industrial metals such as lead, copper, zinc, molybdenum, tungsten, vanadium, radium, and uranium. Often ignored or discarded…

California Gulch Superfund Site

Established by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1983, the California Gulch Superfund Site encompasses about eighteen square miles in central Lake County, including the city of Leadville. One of the nation’s first Superfund sites, it was…

Coal Mining in Colorado

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, coal mining was the most important industry in Colorado. Coal mines served as the crucibles of empire, churning out the fuel needed to power the railroads, precious-metal mines, and smelters that…

Colorado Fuel and Iron Strike of 1959

In 1959 union members at the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) in Pueblo participated in a nationwide strike for better job security. The strike led to a nationwide shortage of American-made steel, while the suspension of mining operations and…

Colorado Gold Rush

The discovery of gold near present-day Denver in 1858–59 drew thousands of people to present-day Colorado, prompting the political organization of first a US territory and later a state. Many current cities and towns, including Denver, Boulder,&nbsp…

Colorado Territory

The Territory of Colorado (1861–76) was the predecessor to the state of Colorado, created on February 28, 1861. The territory was formed in response to the secession crisis as well as a massive influx of white immigrants during the…

Columbine Mine Massacre

On November 21, 1927, members of a Colorado militia fired into a crowd of hundreds of striking miners in the Weld County town of Serene, killing six and wounding twenty. The Columbine Massacre showed that little had changed in Colorado in terms of…

Empire Chief Mine and Mill

The Empire Chief Mine and Mill site is an abandoned nineteenth-century metal mining complex in Hinsdale County, located several miles west of Lake City on the southern slope of Sheep Mountain (83 Sunny Ave, Empire, CO 80438). The mine was established in…

Georgetown Loop

The Georgetown Loop is a rail line running between Georgetown and Silver Plume that showcases Colorado’s mountain scenery and mining heritage. The Georgetown Loop represents a major part of Colorado’s formative history—railroad development—as well as one…

Gold King Mine Spill

Around 10:30 am on August 5, 2015, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) crew ruptured a plug of rock and soil at the Gold King Mine north of Silverton, releasing an estimated 3 million gallons of contaminated wastewater. This water ran into Cement…

Leadville Strike of 1880

The Leadville strike of 1880 was the first major labor conflict in the central Colorado silver boomtown, shutting down most of the area’s mining district from May 26 to mid-June as miners pressed owners and managers for higher wages, an eight-hour…

Leadville Strike of 1896–97

The Leadville strike of 1896–97 was a nine-month labor conflict pitting the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) against the owners of the district’s mines. The strike began in June 1896, when miners requested higher wages and were rejected, and reached a…

Lena Stoiber

Lena Alma Allen Webster Stoiber Rood Ellis (1862–1935) was the “Bonanza Queen” of Silverton. Known as “Captain Jack” or “Jack Pants” to the miners who worked for her, she was a tough boss who worked in conjunction with her second husband, Edward G…

Precious Metal Mining in Colorado

From the 1850s to the 1920s, gold and silver mining drove Colorado’s economy, making it into an urbanized, industrial state. The rapid development of Colorado’s mineral resources had political, social, and environmental consequences. The mining of gold…

Sand Wash Basin Tool Stone Sites

Located northwest of Craig in Moffat County, the Sand Wash Basin is an area of Bridger Formation rock outcrops that prehistoric peoples mined extensively as a source for stones to make tools with. Bridger Formation chert is typically light to dark brown,…

Shenandoah-Dives Mining Company

The Shenandoah-Dives Mining Company was active in the San Juan Mountains from the 1930s through the 1960s. As one of the largest mining operations in the region during the twentieth century, the company’s history exemplifies the boom and bust cycles and…