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Cripple Creek

Cripple Creek was the site of the last and greatest mining boom in Colorado, attracting tens of thousands of people to the western flank of Pikes Peak in the 1890s. After it was destroyed by fire in 1896, the town and surrounding mining district reached…

Emma Florence Langdon

Emma Florence Langdon (1875–1937) was a linotype operator, historian, and labor leader celebrated for her courageous defense of the freedom of the press during the Colorado Labor Wars. When National Guardsmen arrested five prounion employees of the…

Fort Peabody

Built on Imogene Pass during the Western Federation of Miners strike in Telluride in 1903–4, Fort Peabody was a Colorado National Guard post intended to prevent deported union members and activists from returning to Telluride via the pass. Named after…

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…

Teller County

Teller County, named for former US senator and railroad mogul Henry M. Teller, covers 559 square miles of the high country west of Pikes Peak in central Colorado. It is bordered by Douglas County to the north, El Paso County to the east, Fremont County…

Western Federation of Miners

Founded in 1893, the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was one of the largest and most active labor unions in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American West. The union was involved in some of the most important labor disputes in Colorado…

“Little Rome”

“Little Rome” was a residential area in Henson, a San Juan mining camp a few miles west of Lake City that peaked in the 1890s. Henson is notable for being the site of an 1899 strike carried out at the Ute Ulay and Hidden Treasure mines by Italians…