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Colorado Fuel & Iron

The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) was a coal and steel company based in Denver and Pueblo. Most of its coal mines were located in southern Colorado. Its only steel mill was located in Pueblo. The firm came into existence as a result of a…

Colorado Springs

Colorado Springs is the second-most populous city in Colorado, with more than 456,000 residents. Located about sixty miles south of Denver at the base of Pikes Peak, it is the county seat of El Paso County and one of the most popular tourist destinations…

Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

Rising about 2,800 feet over its famously scenic forty-five-mile route, the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad was originally built in 1881–82 as part of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway’s effort to reach the mines of the San Juan Mountains…

El Paso County

El Paso County covers 2,130 square miles in east central Colorado, situated between the southern end of the Front Range and the Great Plains. Pikes Peak, the state’s most famous mountain, lies within its borders, and the county seat, Colorado Springs, is…

Glen Eyrie

Originally built in the early 1870s at the mouth of Queens Canyon in Colorado Springs, Glen Eyrie was home to city founder William Jackson Palmer. In the early twentieth century Palmer expanded the house into an elaborate stone castle, but he died soon…

Jokerville Mine Explosion

On January 24, 1884, the Jokerville Mine outside of Crested Butte was full of methane gas and exploded, killing fifty-nine workers. As the third-deadliest mine disaster in Colorado history, the Jokerville explosion demonstrated the dangers of coal mining…

Las Animas County

Las Animas County, the largest county in Colorado, covers 4,775 square miles in the southern end of the state, east of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. It was originally part of a larger Huerfano County that encompassed all of southeast Colorado. Today,…

Monument Valley Park

Monument Valley Park is a roughly two-mile linear park along Monument Creek in the heart of Colorado Springs. Developed and donated to the city by William Jackson Palmer, the 165-acre park opened in 1907 and has been one of the city’s most popular…

Palmer Lake Star

The Palmer Lake Star at 500 Highland Road lies on a steep 58 percent slope of Sundance Mountain west of the Town of Palmer Lake. Built in 1935 to spur civic pride during the depths of the Great Depression, the 457-foot-wide star represents the star of…

Pueblo

Pueblo is a city of approximately 110,000 people located near the confluence of Fountain Creek and the Arkansas River, along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. It is the county seat of Pueblo County, lying just off Interstate 25 about 100 miles…

Pueblo County

Pueblo County covers 2,398 square miles in southeast Colorado, from the southern Front Range and Wet Mountains in the west to the Arkansas River valley and Great Plains in the east. It is bordered by El Paso County to the north, Crowley and Otero…

Rio Grande County

Rio Grande County is located in the western San Luis Valley in south-central Colorado. It covers 912 square miles and ranges in elevation from 7,000 feet on the valley floor to over 13,000 feet atop several mountain peaks. Del Norte is the county seat,…

United Mine Workers of America

The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) formed in 1890 to fight for better pay and working conditions for the nation’s coal miners. In Colorado the union was most active in the early twentieth century, with thousands of members joining strikes in the…

William Jackson Palmer

William Jackson Palmer (1836–1909) was a military general, railroad tycoon, and founder of Colorado Springs. Though a Quaker from Delaware, Palmer fought for the Union Army during the Civil War. After the war, he moved west and became a civil engineer…

William Jackson Palmer’s Environmental Legacy

General William Jackson Palmer (1836–1909) had a lasting impact on the environment of southern Colorado. Palmer’s initial impact on the Colorado environment resulted from his network of railroads through his Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Company. This…