%1 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/ en Fishers Peak State Park http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fishers-peak-state-park <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Fishers Peak State Park</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--3692--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--3692.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/fishers-peak"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Fishers_peak_0.jpg?itok=MScFaA9J" width="1090" height="778" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/fishers-peak" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Fishers Peak</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>At 9,633 feet, Fishers Peak is a prominent mountaintop in Las Animas County, Colorado, near the New Mexico border. Historically part of the Santa Fe Trail, an important commercial route in the nineteenth century, the peak and surrounding area are now part of Colorado's forty-second state park, Fishers Peak State Park, created in 2019.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> <div class="carousel-item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--3693--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--3693.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/fishers-peak-trinidad-2018"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Trinidad%2C_Colorado_from_Simpsons_Rest.jpeg?itok=CG50wTPE" width="1024" height="683" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/fishers-peak-trinidad-2018" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Fishers Peak &amp; Trinidad, 2018</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Fishers Peak is the most prominent backdrop for the town of Trinidad in southern Colorado. Officials and residents of Trinidad were instrumental in preserving the area around Fishers Peak as part of Fishers Peak State Park in 2019. An important commercial corridor in the nineteenth century, the Fishers Peak area now offers recreational opportunities.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> <button class="carousel-control-prev" type="button" data-bs-target="#carouselEncyclopediaArticle" data-bs-slide="prev"> <span class="carousel-control-prev-icon" aria-hidden="true"></span> <span class="visually-hidden">Previous</span> </button> <button class="carousel-control-next" type="button" data-bs-target="#carouselEncyclopediaArticle" data-bs-slide="next"> <span class="carousel-control-next-icon" aria-hidden="true"></span> <span class="visually-hidden">Next</span> </button> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2022-06-13T15:31:42-06:00" title="Monday, June 13, 2022 - 15:31" class="datetime">Mon, 06/13/2022 - 15:31</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fishers-peak-state-park" data-a2a-title="Fishers Peak State Park"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Ffishers-peak-state-park&amp;title=Fishers%20Peak%20State%20Park"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Established in 2019 as Colorado’s forty-second state park, Fishers Peak State Park covers 19,200 acres south of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/el-corazon-de-trinidad-national-historic-district"><strong>Trinidad</strong></a> near the New Mexico border. The mountainous area includes a cluster of hills and mesas that give way to the Colorado plains to the north and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/raton-pass-0"><strong>Raton Pass</strong></a>, a historic gateway to New Mexico, to the south. The park’s iconic peak was initially known as “Raton” but later changed to “Fisher,” perhaps in honor of US military officer Woldemar Fischer, who supposedly attempted to ascend it during the Mexican-American War in 1846.</p> <p>On account of its location and elevation, the Fishers Peak area served for hundreds of years as a resource-rich corridor for Indigenous people traveling between the grasslands of what would become New Mexico and Colorado. In the nineteenth century, the Fishers Peak area was an important segment of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/santa-f%C3%A9-trail-0"><strong>Santa Fé Trail</strong></a>’s mountain route. During the early-to-mid twentieth century, the area’s ecology suffered during intense coal mining around the base of the peak. It later became a private cattle ranch owned by Marc and Evelyne Jung. In 2019 a group of state and national conservation entities, including <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-parks-and-wildlife"><strong>Colorado Parks and Wildlife</strong></a>, completed the purchase of 19,200 acres around Fishers Peak. Over the next year, the property was developed into the state’s second-largest state park (after <strong>State Forest State Park</strong>).</p> <h2>Formation and Features</h2> <p>&nbsp; &nbsp;Beginning about a million years ago, horizontal lava flows shaped the hard basalt cap of Fishers Peak and the adjacent mesa of the same name. Erosive forces chewed away at the stubborn basalt to sculpt the peak into its current form. At 9,633 feet, Fishers Peak is higher than any point to the east in North America.</p> <p>The peak’s cultural importance stems from its amalgam of mesa and river geology. The mesas in particular served as what geographer Willis Lee described as “inverted oases”—broad expanses of high-elevation terrain that attracted more moisture amid an otherwise dry environment. Because of the water it received, the top of Fishers Peak and the flat surrounding slopes supported a variety of flora and fauna, including lush grasslands that attracted game and were perfect for grazing cattle. Meanwhile, snowmelt from the top of the mesas fed small creeks and tributaries, including Raton Creek, emptying into the <strong>Purgatoire River</strong> near Trinidad.</p> <p>Thus, the geology of Fishers Peak made it a biodiverse landscape that attracted many Indigenous groups and, later, white Americans and Nuevomexicanos (also known as <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/terminology-latino-experience-colorado"><strong>Hispanos</strong></a>). Indigenous habitation dates back at least 12,000 years to the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/clovis"><strong>Clovis</strong></a> peoples. Settler colonists arrived in the eighteenth century, and recreational visitors started using the area in the mid-twentieth century.</p> <h2>Indigenous Period</h2> <p>Human beings have lived in southeastern Colorado for at least 12,000 years. With the <strong>Sangre de Cristo Range</strong> to the south and west, the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado%E2%80%99s-great-plains"><strong>Great Plains</strong></a> to the north and east, and Raton Pass carving a convenient passageway between them, the area of Fishers Peak drew numerous Indigenous groups, including the Muache <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/search/google/ute"><strong>Utes</strong></a>, <strong>Jicarilla Apaches</strong>, <strong>Pueblos</strong>, and <strong>Comanches.</strong> For the region’s Indigenous people, Fishers Peak served as a navigation tool, a reliable source of food and game, and a neutral meeting ground during conflicts with other groups and encroaching settlers.</p> <h2>Settler Colonialism</h2> <p>From heavily trafficked trade routes to farming, ranching, and industrial mining, settler colonialism transformed the landscape around Fishers Peak.</p> <p>Colonization of the Fishers Peak area was made possible by opening the Santa Fé Trail after Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821. The trail linked the economies of the United States and Mexico via Indigenous trade networks on the southern plains. After the Mexican-American War, Euro-American and Hispano colonists began raising cattle and sheep in the vicinity of Raton Mesa. This provided a reliable protein source for hungry miners and travelers along the Santa Fé Trail until the trade route dried up and was replaced by railroads after the <a href="/article/civil-war-colorado"><strong>Civil War</strong></a>.</p> <p>In 1859 Hispano colonists built the first cabins near the site of present-day Trinidad, and by 1871 the city had a population of about 1,000, making the Fishers Peak area a place of permanent human occupation for the first time. During this period, invading colonists and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/indigenous-treaties-colorado"><strong>treaties</strong></a> forced the Muache Utes out of the area.</p> <p>The first coal mines in the area opened with rail connections in the 1870s, and by 1882 Trinidad’s population had reached 4,000. It doubled again by 1910, as coal production soared. The city’s coal economy shifted its culture from a Hispano-influenced agrarian community into an American-dominated industrial hub. Photographs of treeless slopes around Fishers Peak from its coal-mining heyday show the effect of this transformation on the landscape. Mining and railroad activities dominated and exploited the Fishers Peak environment from the late 1870s until about 1930.</p> <p>Ranching near Fishers Peak revived as an essential supporting industry for coal mining and later surpassed it in importance, as coal extraction waned over the course of the twentieth century. In a 2021 interview, Trinidad local Troy Velarde recalled that his great-grandfather had worked for the mines and raised a few sheep on the side. Velarde’s father, Salvador, was also a miner until the coalfields began to close; he then found work as a ranch hand. Velarde himself spent much of his time on horseback from the age of six and grew up to be general manager of Crazy French Ranch, which was later sold to the state as a public trust to become Fishers Peak State Park. The Velarde family’s shift from mining to ranching mirrored the region’s larger twentieth-century transition, while the transformation of Crazy French Ranch into public recreational space reflected the area’s twenty-first-century direction.</p> <h2>Tourism and Recreation</h2> <p>As the most recent classification of people to use the Fishers Peak area, recreationists began to appear as a distinct group during the mid-to-late twentieth century. Coal had gone bust by 1960, and like many other places in Colorado, Trinidad was pivoting away from resource extraction toward an economy focused on tourism and recreation. In 1967 the National Park Service designated Raton Mesa as a National Natural Landmark, and in 1968 Trinidad Reservoir was built to help control flooding and provide recreational opportunities. By the early 1980s, the former coal goliath <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-fuel-iron"><strong>Colorado Fuel &amp; Iron</strong></a> (CF&amp;I) had relinquished much of its claims to land in southeastern Colorado, and Fishers Peak was parceled and sold to various ranching and real estate outfits. By the 1990s, French millionaire Marc Jung had acquired some 19,000 acres of these parcels, creating the large Crazy French Ranch. However, due in part to the preferences of its owners, the property was never well developed, and very little ranching was done there. Reforestation occurred and animal habitats recovered, paving the way for the area to become a public natural space in the twenty-first century.</p> <h2>Creating a State Park</h2> <p>After Marc Jung died in the late 1990s, his widow put Crazy French Ranch up for sale. The effort to make the property a public space began in 2017, when Trinidad resident Jay Cimino partnered with Mayor Phil Rico to have the city buy Crazy French Ranch from the Jung estate. After securing support from the Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land—two of the largest conservation groups in the country—Trinidad’s city council approved the purchase of a 4,600-acre tract of Crazy French Ranch. However, the two conservation groups recognized the importance of the surrounding land and proposed the acquisition of the entire 19,200-acre property. Since its management at that size would be beyond the capacity of Trinidad, the Fishers Peak group approached Great Outdoors Colorado and Colorado Parks and Wildlife with a plan to buy and manage the property as a state park. Each organization chipped in another $7 million to purchase the ranch, bringing its final sale price in 2019 to $24.5 million. On October 30, 2020, Governor <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/jared-polis"><strong>Jared Polis</strong></a> officially announced the opening of Fishers Peak State Park. Road improvements, trail and amenity construction, and further archaeological investigation are all part of the state’s management plan for the park.</p> <p>The history of the Fishers Peak area reflects the natural tendency of certain Colorado landscapes to draw people together in both cooperation and conflict. As a gateway environment, a valuable “reverse oasis” in an otherwise arid region, a store of natural resources, and a source of splendid scenery and outdoor recreation, the area played a significant role in Colorado history.&nbsp;</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/rose-shaun" hreflang="und">Rose, Shaun</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/ishers-peak" hreflang="en">ishers peak</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/fishers-peak-state-park" hreflang="en">fishers peak state park</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/trinidad" hreflang="en">Trinidad</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/santa-fe-trail" hreflang="en">Santa Fe Trail</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-parks-and-wildlife" hreflang="en">colorado parks and wildlife</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/fishers-peak-history" hreflang="en">fishers peak history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/las-animas-county" hreflang="en">Las Animas County</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Carl Abbott, Stephen J. Leonard, and Thomas J. Noel, <em>Colorado: A History of the Centennial State</em>, 5th ed. (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2013).</p> <p>Thomas G. Andrews, “‘Made by Toile’? Tourism, Labor, and the Construction of the Colorado Landscape, 1858–1917,” <em>Journal of American History</em> 92, no 3 (2005).</p> <p>Sam Brasch, “<a href="https://www.cpr.org/2019/09/12/an-iconic-peak-outside-trinidad-will-be-part-of-colorados-newest-state-park/">An Iconic Peak Outside Trinidad Will Be Part of Colorado’s Newest State Park</a>,” CPR, September 12, 2019.</p> <p>J. Brooks, <em>Captives &amp; Cousins: Slavery, Kinship, and Community in the Southwest Borderlands</em> (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002).</p> <p>Richard Carrillo et al. “<a href="https://issuu.com/coloradopreservation/docs/historic-context-study-ranching/113">Historic Context Study of the Purgatoire River Region</a>,” December 21, 2011.</p> <p>Minette Carrier Church, “<a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/251737191/abstract/7B22449822AD4C2EPQ/1">Homesteads on the Purgatoire: Frontiers of Culture Contact in 19th Century Colorado</a>,” (PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2001).</p> <p>Great Outdoors Colorado, “<a href="https://www.goco.org/news/releases/agreement-reached-on-fishers-peak-crazy-french-ranch">Agreement Reached on Fisher’s Peak / Crazy French Ranch</a>,” January 4, 2019.</p> <p>Devin Flores, “<a href="https://www.historycolorado.org/story/2020/07/09/fishers-peak-brief-history-colorados-newest-state-park">Fishers Peak: A Brief History of Colorado’s Newest State Park</a>,” July 9, 2020.</p> <p>Willis T. Lee, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/207551">The Raton Mesas of New Mexico and Colorado</a>,” <em>Geographical Review</em> 11, no. 3 (1921).</p> <p>Maria Montoya, “Creating Community at a Global Crossroads,” presented at the Borderlands Talks, April 8, 2021.</p> <p>Robert A. Murray, <em>Citadel on the Santa Fe Trail</em> (Bellevue, NE: Old Army Press, 1970).</p> <p>National Park Service, “<a href="http://npshistory.com/publications/proposed-parks/co-raton-mesa-nm.pdf">Raton Mesa National Monument: A Proposal</a>,” National Park Service, 1967.</p> <p>L. Pompia, “Oral History with Roy Boyd” (Interview), Trinidad Historical Society, February 26, 1985,</p> <p>Santa Fe Trail Research, “<a href="https://www.santafetrailresearch.com/research/kit-carson-trinidad-freigting.html">Kit Carson to Trinidad in 1870: Diary of a Freighting Trip Canada, Consumption, &amp; Kansas Pacific</a>,” n.d.</p> <p>Santa Fe Trail Research, “<a href="https://www.santafetrailresearch.com/mileagecharts/sft-mountain.html">Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail</a>,” n.d.</p> <p>Daliah Singer, “<a href="https://www.5280.com/welcome-to-fishers-peak-colorados-newest-state-park/">Welcome to Fishers Peak, Colorado’s Newest State Park</a>,” <em>5280</em>, December 2020.</p> <p>Jacob Swisher, “<a href="https://www.historycolorado.org/story/borderlands-southern-colorado/2020/02/20/were-they-mexicans-or-coloradans-constructing-race">Were They Mexicans or Coloradans? Constructing Race and Identity at the Colorado–New Mexico Border</a>,” History Colorado, February 20, 2020.</p> <p>Morris Taylor, “<a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/7221fa21561b5b183e55e02fd3b673de/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&amp;cbl=1816555">Some Aspects of Historical Indian Occupation of Southeastern Colorado</a>,” <em>Great Plains Journal</em> 4, no. 1 (1964).</p> <p>Morris Taylor, <em>Trinidad, Colorado Territory</em> (Trinidad, CO: Trinidad State Junior College, 1966).</p> <p>Troy Velarde, Interview with Public Lands History Center, June 30, 2021.</p> <p>Elliott West, <em>The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, &amp; the Rush to Colorado</em> (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998).</p> <p>Western Mining History, “<a href="https://westernmininghistory.com/towns/colorado/trinidad/">Trinidad Colorado</a>,” Western Mining History, n.d.</p> <p>Christian J. Zier, Stephen M. Kalasz, Mary W. Painter, Mark Mitchell, Amy Holmes, and Michael McFaul, <em>Colorado Prehistory: A Context for the Arkansas River Basin</em> (Denver: Colorado Council of Professional Archaeologists, 1999).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Virginia McConnell Simmons, <em>The Ute Indians of Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico</em> (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2000).</p> <p>Veronica E. Velarde Tiller, <em>The Jicarilla Apache Tribe: A History </em>(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Mon, 13 Jun 2022 21:31:42 +0000 yongli 3690 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org United Mine Workers of America http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/united-mine-workers-america <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">United Mine Workers of America</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2021-01-21T14:09:27-07:00" title="Thursday, January 21, 2021 - 14:09" class="datetime">Thu, 01/21/2021 - 14:09</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/united-mine-workers-america" data-a2a-title="United Mine Workers of America"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Funited-mine-workers-america&amp;title=United%20Mine%20Workers%20of%20America"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>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 southern coalfields of <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fremont-county"><strong>Fremont</strong></a>, <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/huerfano-county"><strong>Huerfano</strong></a>, and <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/las-animas-county"><strong>Las Animas</strong></a> Counties. In the spring of 1913, the UMWA led a strike there that resulted in the <a href="/article/ludlow-massacre"><strong>Ludlow Massacre</strong></a> and the ensuing <strong>Coalfield Wars</strong>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The UMWA’s involvement in the Coalfield Wars made it one of the most famous unions in Colorado history. Unlike Colorado’s other famous union, the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/western-federation-miners"><strong>Western Federation of Miners</strong></a> (WFM), the UMWA still exists today; it serves about 70,000 workers across seven districts in the United States and Canada. Colorado is part of the union’s western district, which serves about 4,000 members, most of whom belong to the <strong>Navajo Nation</strong>.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Origins</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>With coal fueling most of the nation’s industry during the late nineteenth century, coal companies accumulated great wealth and political power. In Colorado, <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/william-jackson-palmer"><strong>William Jackson Palmer</strong></a>’s <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-fuel-iron"><strong>Colorado Fuel and Iron</strong></a> was among the largest corporations in the nation, consisting not only of coal mines throughout the state but also <strong>railroads</strong> and a <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/minnequa-steelworks-office"><strong>steel mill</strong></a> in <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/pueblo"><strong>Pueblo</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Meanwhile, nineteenth-century coal miners held one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. They worked fourteen or sixteen hours a day in dirty, cramped conditions. Mine shafts could collapse, flood, or fill up with flammable gas and explode, like when the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/jokerville-mine-explosion"><strong>Jokerville Mine</strong></a> blew up near <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/crested-butte"><strong>Crested Butte</strong></a> in 1884. Companies paid miners not in cash but in scrip, a kind of company currency that could be used only at company stores, which were often the sole local source of tools and food. This practice ensured that most wages were returned to the company. Miners also paid the company to live in “company towns,” corporate-controlled villages that reflected companies’ desires to keep their workforce close and under control.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In this arrangement, workers held little power. Before the 1890s, miners were often fired or jailed for trying to improve their situation by organizing and striking. These brutal corporate reprisals created fertile ground among workers for the formation of labor unions.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Formation</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The United Mine Workers was forged in the battlegrounds of the Midwestern coalfields, where workplace accidents and punishment for labor activism were common. The UMWA began on January 25, 1890, when two Ohio-based unions, the Knights of Labor and the National Miners’ Federation, joined forces in Columbus. Their constitution called for a strategy of “conciliation, arbitration, and strikes” to improve pay and working conditions for miners. Among their initial demands was an end to company stores and the outlawing of “non-resident police officers” who were often deployed against striking miners. Dues were set at five cents per month.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The union’s initial membership consisted mostly of British immigrants. The UMWA was among the first unions to explicitly allow African American miners in its ranks, though they were not treated equally and were often relegated to more menial jobs. The union also included workers who fought on both sides of the <strong>American</strong> <strong>Civil War</strong> and later brought together various groups of European immigrants, breaking down language barriers with solidarity based on common problems. Over the years, the UMWA’s inclusive approach to organizing became its hallmark, allowing the union to outlast other, more exclusive unions.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1897 the union scored its first victory when it earned an eight-hour work day from mine operators after a strike that involved 150,000 coal workers across the Midwest. Later, in 1902, the UMWA became the first union to be recognized by the federal government when President Theodore Roosevelt negotiated the end to another strike in the Midwest. Companies, however, were reluctant to recognize the union, so labor strife persisted throughout the twentieth century.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>First Activity in Colorado: Strike of 1894</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The UMWA made early inroads in Colorado, which was the heart of the western coal industry at the time. In 1890 two colliers from Erie, on the <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/front-range"><strong>Front Range</strong></a>, founded the state’s first UMWA chapter. By 1892 there were some 800 members throughout the state, including Italians, Austrians, Greeks, Britishers, Latino, and others.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1894 miners in Fremont County participated in the UMWA’s nationwide strike, the first activity associated with the union in Colorado. Groups of strikers traveled to Las Animas and Huerfano Counties, encouraging other coal miners to join in the strike. A depressed regional economy—reeling from the <strong>Panic of 1893</strong>—hurt the union’s recruiting efforts, but the strikers persevered. They reorganized into larger groups and continued marching for solidarity in the southern coalfields, even as they witnessed company-hired thugs beating union members in some of the camps. Strikers numbered some 1,200 strong by the time their procession reached <strong>Trinidad</strong>. Miners from Crested Butte walked out in solidarity as well.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Among the strikers’ demands was a fairer pay system that included a semimonthly payment in cash instead of scrip, as well as abolition of the company store. But the strikers could only hold out for so long, living off food and other donations from friendly farmers and townspeople. In August 1894, 400 strikers from Fremont County narrowly voted to return to work at prestrike wages, a decision echoed by the other UMWA groups in Colorado. Although the 1894 strike was unsuccessful, it proved that southern Colorado was fertile ground for union activity and that unions had community support.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Strike of 1901</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>By the turn of the twentieth century, the power of coal bosses and companies such as CF&amp;I created a terrible situation for Colorado coal miners. When they attempted to organize for a redress of grievances such as pay and work conditions, local authorities jailed, fired, or assaulted them on behalf of companies. Huerfano County Sheriff Jefferson Farr was particularly known for his violent raids on union gatherings. One observer referred to this expression of corporate power in the southern coalfields as “a reign of terror.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Under these conditions, in January 1901, UMWA workers in southern Colorado organized a strike against CF&amp;I in solidarity with other company workers in Gallup, New Mexico. This time, CF&amp;I chief <strong>John Osgood</strong> gave in to some of the miners’ demands, including revision of the unfair compensation system that paid miners by weight of coal mined. This system often created unsafe work environments, as it drove miners to spend more of their time gathering coal instead of shoring up safety features. Osgood agreed to several changes that made the weight system fairer but did not dispose of it. The strike also failed to win concessions from bosses on things such as scrip or company stores.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the wake of the 1901 strike, the state of Colorado created a legislative committee to investigate the working and living conditions of coal miners. When the committee’s work was published, its account of miners living in rudimentary housing on paltry wages and enduring beatings by sheriffs turned public sentiment against companies like CF&amp;I and generated sympathy for unions. The investigation prompted CF&amp;I to set up a “sociological department” in 1901 to improve living conditions in company towns, many of which lacked basic necessities such as clean water. In this way, the UMWA’s partially successful 1901 strike laid the groundwork for future labor gains.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Labor Wars of 1903–4</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>After a brief lull in 1902, Colorado was again rocked by labor conflict in 1903–4. The Western Federation of Miners led walkouts in the metal mining districts of <a href="/article/telluride"><strong>Telluride</strong></a> and <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/cripple-creek"><strong>Cripple Creek</strong></a>, while in September 1903 the UMWA again organized a strike among southern coalfield workers. The strikers made many of the same demands as in 1894, including semimonthly payments in cash, higher wages, and adherence to laws that required proper ventilation in mine shafts. Again, they were defeated, as Governor <strong>James Peabody</strong> was an antiunionist who sent in the National Guard to crush the strikes.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Ludlow and the Coalfield Wars</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Even though companies like CF&amp;I had promised to shorten workdays and reform company towns, historian Clare V. McKanna notes that “town life had improved little” by 1913. That fall, UMWA coal miners in southern Colorado again went on strike to demand better wages and improvements to working and living conditions. Again, they were met with force from mine owners and the government. On behalf of mine owners, who had already bought such union-busting tools as an armor-plated car, Governor <strong>Elias M. Ammons</strong> deployed the National Guard to the coal camps in Las Animas County. On April 20, 1914, guardsmen opened fire on armed miners at the Ludlow tent colony, about fifteen miles north of Trinidad. Guardsmen then lit the encampment on fire, and thirteen women and children—families of the miners—burned to death while taking shelter in a pit beneath a mattress in one of the tents.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>When other miners in the area learned of the guard’s actions, they went on the warpath. Dozens of people were killed on both sides over the next week, until President Woodrow Wilson sent in the US Army on April 28. The strike did not end until December 10, 1914.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The <em>Rocky Mountain News </em>referred to the incident that started the Coalfield Wars as the “Ludlow Massacre,” and the guard’s callous disregard for miners’ families won the union public sympathy. UMWA leaders leveraged the tragedy into a successful public relations campaign that turned even more Americans against the companies. In response, CF&amp;I owner John D. Rockefeller, Jr., sought to forge a middle route by creating a company union. Although this signaled a tolerance for worker organization that scarcely existed before Ludlow, the formation of the company union dealt a blow to the UMWA because it did not gain the recognition it sought during the strike.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Post-Ludlow Activity</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The 1920s saw more labor disputes across the state, especially in the northern coalfields in <a href="/article/boulder-county"><strong>Boulder County</strong></a>. Tensions remained high in the south, too. In 1921 CF&amp;I cut miner pay by thirty cents, prompting independent mines in southern Colorado to do so as well. In response, the UMWA organized another strike, doling out $800 to striking miners and their families during the work stoppage. After this unsuccessful strike, mining demographics began to shift, as about 60 percent of new hires in the mining industry were of Mexican or other Spanish-speaking ancestry. Other strikes occurred again in 1922 and 1927, neither of which afforded workers much respite from their ongoing plight. Instead, the strikes of the 1920s, combined with changes in federal law, helped convince CF&amp;I to abandon its company union in 1933.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Labor and industry were both decimated by the <strong>Great Depression</strong> of the 1930s, but the election of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and a prolabor Democratic Congress in 1932 was a shot in the arm for the nation’s struggling labor movement. In 1933 Roosevelt signed the National Industrial Recovery Act, which banned company unions and allowed collective bargaining. Two years later, the Wagner Act compelled businesses to bargain with unions that had majority employee support. With two scrawls of his pen, Roosevelt accomplished what the UMWA had sought for more than three decades—union recognition.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By the 1940s, Colorado’s UMWA chapters had more Latino members, as the Spanish-speaking working class expanded through immigration and guest-worker programs like the <strong>Bracero Program</strong>. In April 1946, UMWA President John L. Lewis organized a nationwide strike to win union-sponsored healthcare, another aspect of miners’ lives that remained under company control. Company doctors had incentives to downplay conditions such as black lung, a deadly respiratory disease caused by breathing in coal dust. The 1946 strike involved 400,000 miners from twenty-six states, including Colorado, where coal mines in Routt County went “idle” and railroads from <strong>Steamboat Springs</strong> to <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/aspen"><strong>Aspen</strong></a> ran fewer trains on account of the coal shortage. Eventually, President Harry Truman saw the strike as a threat to the nation’s postwar economic recovery, so he ended it by presenting UMWA leadership with an agreement that created the UMWA health and welfare fund, which still serves union members today.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Over the ensuing decades, the power of coal companies waned as oil began to overtake coal as the nation’s preeminent fossil fuel. This translated into fewer strikes and direct actions by unions like the UMWA.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Today</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The UMWA survived President Ronald Reagan’s union-busting campaign and endures today. The union serves not only coal miners but also workers from the manufacturing, health care, and corrections industries. It has more than 70,000 members from all fifty states as well as Canada.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In an era marked by widespread divestment from coal, Navajo coal miners in the UMWA’s western district are among the strongest advocates for continuing coal production. In 2013 the UMWA helped organize Navajo miners to support a new lease that would have kept their nation’s coal plant operating until 2044. Although the new lease passed, the plant’s parent company, Salt River Project, decided to abandon the lease after finding cheaper energy elsewhere.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In Colorado, the legacy of the UMWA is tied to the Ludlow Massacre. Union leaders voted to put up a monument to the victims of the massacre in 1916, and in 2014 Governor <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/john-hickenlooper"><strong>John Hickenlooper</strong></a> included UMWA representatives on his team tasked with commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the tragedy.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/united-mineworkers-america" hreflang="en">united mineworkers of america</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/united-mine-workers" hreflang="en">United Mine Workers</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/labor-history" hreflang="en">labor history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-labor-history" hreflang="en">colorado labor history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/union" hreflang="en">union</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/labor-unions" hreflang="en">labor unions</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/ludlow" hreflang="en">ludlow</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/las-animas-county" hreflang="en">Las Animas County</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/coal-mining" hreflang="en">coal mining</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/coal-miners" hreflang="en">coal miners</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/coal" hreflang="en">coal</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/william-jackson-palmer" hreflang="en">william jackson palmer</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-fuel-iron" hreflang="en">colorado fuel &amp; iron</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/john-d-rockefeller-jr-0" hreflang="en">john d rockefeller jr</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/rockefeller" hreflang="en">rockefeller</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/trinidad" hreflang="en">Trinidad</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/ludlow-massacre" hreflang="en">Ludlow Massacre</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/coalfield-wars" hreflang="en">coalfield wars</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Carl Abbott, Stephen J. Leonard, and Dave McComb, <em>Colorado: A History of the Centennial State </em>3rd ed. (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 1994).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Thomas G. Andrews, <em>Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War </em>(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=STP19460404&amp;e=01-04-1946-----en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-strike-------0-----">Coal Mines Idle as New Contract Is Being Debated</a>,” <em>Steamboat Pilot</em>, April 4, 1946.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=ADT19460509.2.7&amp;srpos=74&amp;e=01-04-1946-----en-20--61-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-strike-------0-----">Coal Strike Stops Aspen Daily Train</a>,” <em>Aspen Daily Times</em>, May 9, 1946.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.dispatch.com/article/20120125/NEWS/301259720">Columbus Mileposts——Jan. 25, 1890: United Mine Workers Form; Daily Wage Low</a>,” <em>Columbus Dispatch</em>, January 25, 2012.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=STP19460530.2.41&amp;srpos=131&amp;e=01-04-1946-----en-20--121-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-strike-------0-----">Commenting on Current Events</a>,” <em>Steamboat Pilot</em>, May 30, 1946.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Alan Derickson, “The United Mine Workers of America and the Recognition of Occupational Respiratory Diseases, 1902–1968,” <em>American Journal of Public Health</em>, 81, no. 6 (June 1991).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Herbert Hill, “Myth-Making as Labor History: Herbert Gutman and the United Mine Workers of America,” <em>International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society </em>2, no. 2 (Winter 1988).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“Independent Mines Close,” <em>Herald Democrat </em>(Leadville, CO), December 5, 1921.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Library of Congress, “<a href="https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/great-depression-and-world-war-ii-1929-1945/labor-unions-during-great-depression-and-new-deal/">Labor Unions During the Great Depression and New Deal</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Clare V. McKanna, <em>Homicide, Race, and Justice in the American West, 1880–1920 </em>(Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1997).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Fawn-Amber Montoya, ed., <em>Making an American Workforce: The Rockefellers and the Legacy of Ludlow </em>(Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2014).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>F. Darrell Munsell, <em>From Redstone to Ludlow: John Cleveland Osgood’s Struggle Against the United Mine Workers of America</em> (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2009).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>United Mine Workers of America, “About,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>UnionFacts.com, “<a href="https://www.unionfacts.com/union/United_Mine_Workers">United Mine</a> Workers,” updated November 15, 2016.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>UnionFacts.com, “<a href="https://www.unionfacts.com/lu/58575/UMW/22">United Mine Workers<strong>,</strong> District 22</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CTR18940314.2.14&amp;srpos=3&amp;e=-------en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22united+mineworkers%22-------0--">Washington Notes</a>,” <em>Colorado Transcript</em>, March 14, 1894.</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Keith Gildart, “Two Kinds of Reform: Left Leadership in the British National Union of Mineworkers and the United Mineworkers of America, 1982–1990,” <em>Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas</em> 3, no. 2 (2006).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>UMWA Union, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5nzONL68Rs">: 125 Years of Struggle and Glory</a>,” YouTube, April 21, 2017.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="https://umwa.org/">United Mine Workers of America</a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>University of Denver, “<a href="https://www.du.edu/ludlow/cfhist3.html">A History of the Colorado Coal Field War</a>.”</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Thu, 21 Jan 2021 21:09:27 +0000 yongli 3475 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Hispano Settlement in the Purgatoire Valley http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/hispano-settlement-purgatoire-valley <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Hispano Settlement in the Purgatoire Valley</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2017-02-22T13:20:10-07:00" title="Wednesday, February 22, 2017 - 13:20" class="datetime">Wed, 02/22/2017 - 13:20</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/hispano-settlement-purgatoire-valley" data-a2a-title="Hispano Settlement in the Purgatoire Valley"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fhispano-settlement-purgatoire-valley&amp;title=Hispano%20Settlement%20in%20the%20Purgatoire%20Valley"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Adobe buildings in towns such as <strong>Trinidad</strong> and the remnants of plazas or villages attest to early Hispano settlement along the <strong>Purgatoire River</strong> in southern Colorado. Today, Hispanos—descendants of Mexicans who lived in what became the US southwest after 1848—still account for a portion of the Purgatoire valley’s population.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Located south of the <strong>Spanish Peaks</strong> and east of the <strong>Sangre de Cristo Mountains</strong>, the Purgatoire valley has a long history of human occupation, dating back to the <a href="/article/paleo-indian-period"><strong>Paleo-Indian period</strong></a>. From 1821 to 1848 the area was part of Mexico, and a branch of the <a href="/article/santa-fé-trail-0"><strong>Santa Fé Trail</strong></a> ran along the Purgatoire to <a href="/article/raton-pass-0"><strong>Ratón Pass</strong></a>. During that period the area was a hub of activity related to the Rocky Mountain <a href="/article/fur-trade-colorado"><strong>fur trade</strong></a>. In the 1840s the Mexican government established <strong>land grants</strong> in the area to encourage settlement. The United States acquired the area after the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, and Hispano settlement began shortly thereafter.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The Penitente Brotherhood</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The hills west of Trinidad are scattered with adobe or stone moradas—chapter houses of <strong>Los Hermanos Penitentes</strong>, a religious brotherhood that dates back almost 1,000 years and had arrived in southern Colorado with Hispano settlement during the 1850s. At that time few villages had a resident priest, so the Brothers dedicated themselves to preserving the Catholic faith through prayer and devotion to the death of Christ. Every Holy Week, the Brothers would call the village to repentance and to union with the divine through a reenactment of the Passion of Christ. Throughout the year the Brothers would care for the sick and needy, as well as help families bury their dead. These practices continue today. Floyd Trujillo, a Hermano Brother, once wrote, “We know the role we accept and, like Christ, we take the cross and follow him. We help the people. We help those that need help. We never say no.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The religious beliefs and history of the Penitente Brotherhood in the region brought art and music that both complemented and mirrored the hauntingly beautiful southwestern landscape. Known as <em>santos</em>, the holy images depict Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the saints. Santos include <em>retablos,</em> images painted on hand-worked panels of pine or metal, and <em>bultos</em>, statues carved out of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/cottonwood-trees"><strong>cottonwood</strong></a> root. The art of the santos flowered during the 1800s when <em>santeros</em>, or saint-makers, traveled across New Mexico and Colorado to create holy images for the villages. Today, examples of these santos can be seen in the <strong>A. R. Mitchell Museum of Western Art</strong> in Trinidad.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Felipe Baca and Trinidad</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Trinidad, now the largest city and seat of <a href="/article/las-animas-county"><strong>Las Animas County</strong></a>, was the most significant of all the early Hispano settlements along the Purgatoire. In 1860 New Mexican <a href="/article/don-felipe-baca"><strong>Don Felipe Baca</strong></a> and a partner camped near the site of present-day Trinidad on their way to deliver corn to <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a>. After stopping in the area again on the way back, Baca decided to make his home there. In 1862 twelve Hispano families came with him from northern New Mexico. In the company of a few Anglo settlers, the Hispano families built plazas surrounded by thick walls of adobe—sand mixed with straw and water and dried in the sun—as a defense against <a href="/search/google/ute"><strong>Ute</strong></a> Indians, who had lived in the valley for centuries and objected to Hispano encroachment.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Hispano settlers continued to come, however, and both sides of the river were soon populated with settlements. Though the daily lives of the settlers presented them with a consistently heavy work load, they found time for religious celebrations, fiestas, and horse racing. By 1866 Trinidad had its first general store, school, and Catholic church, all made possible by personal efforts and land donations from Baca. Baca himself served as president of the Trinidad school board from 1866–68.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The Madrid Placita</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In the spring of 1862, as Baca built up Trinidad some fourteen miles downriver, <strong>Hilario Madrid</strong> stood on a grassy bench overlooking the Purgatoire valley and the hills beyond. It was there that he decided to build a placita, a single-family compound built of adobe. The placita included an L-shaped main building with walls twenty-one inches thick and a sod storage room. Across a patio stood cattle sheds and a shelter for domestic animals. Nearby was the horno, a beehive-shaped oven used to bake bread, cook meat, and dry corn. For almost a century this secure placita was home to the Madrid family, including José Miguel Madrid, who was elected to the Colorado State Senate in 1932.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Relations with Anglo Settlers</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Although both groups helped settle the area together, tension developed between Anglos and Hispanos in the Purgatoire valley. This tension occasionally boiled over into violence, as it did on <strong>Christmas Day, 1867</strong>, after an Anglo man was jailed for shooting a Hispano man. When other Anglos, some of whom came from out of town, tried to free the shooter, Hispano Las Animas County Sheriff Juan Gutiérrez raised the alarm. Trinidad’s Hispanos then took up arms against the town’s Anglo population. Eventually, US troops were sent in to help diffuse the standoff, which lasted into the early days of 1868.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Anglo hostility toward Hispanos was rooted in “<strong>Manifest Destiny</strong>,” the belief that Anglo- and European Americans were destined to wrest the entire North American continent from the lesser “races,” which included Mexicans and Native Americans. This belief led Anglos to view Mexicans and Hispanos as generally inferior and uncivilized, if agreeable, people. For instance, writing from Santa Fé in 1867, a reporter for <em>The Rocky Mountain News </em>asserted that Mexican “people as a mass are extremely ignorant, and ignore education,” and that they “should never have been citizens of the United States.” The Anglo observer William E. Pabor echoed this sentiment in 1883 after he visited Hispano settlements in the Purgatoire valley, writing that “Mexicans” were “rude” and “uncultivated husbandmen” and that “their method of raising wheat is slovenly, and without signs of thrift.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Hispanos, of course, had employed just as much “thrift” as any Anglo or European in southern Colorado, as they dug <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/irrigation-colorado"><strong>irrigation</strong></a> ditches, built towns, herded sheep, planted crops, and served in public offices, including those of the <a href="/article/colorado-territory"><strong>Colorado Territory</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After the 1870s, coal mines and railroads brought changes to southern Colorado and the Purgatoire valley. Hispano land ownership dropped by 62 percent between 1880 and 1900. Many Hispanos took jobs in coal mines or on railroad crews, and Anglo cattle largely replaced Hispano sheep. By the 1930s most of the early Hispano settlements had receded into memory; nonetheless, their influence is seen daily in the eclectic culture of today’s Purgatoire valley.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><strong>Adapted from "Trinidad Lake," Historic Marker, History Colorado, 1997.</strong></p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/hispano-settlement" hreflang="en">hispano settlement</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/hispano-history-colorado" hreflang="en">hispano history colorado</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/latino-history" hreflang="en">latino history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/latinos-colorado" hreflang="en">latinos in colorado</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/purgatoire-river" hreflang="en">Purgatoire River</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/trinidad" hreflang="en">Trinidad</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/trinidad-history" hreflang="en">trinidad history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/hispanos-southern-colorado" hreflang="en">hispanos southern colorado</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/southern-colorado-history" hreflang="en">southern colorado history</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Bonnie J. Clark, <em>On the Edge of Purgatory: An Archaeology of Place in Hispanic Colorado</em> (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/cgi-bin/colorado?a=d&amp;d=RMD18671219.2.25&amp;srpos=113&amp;e=-------en-20--101-byDA-txt-txIN-%22Mexicans%22+-------0-">From Santa Fe—Balls and Parties—Mexican Life—Personal</a>,” <em>Rocky Mountain News</em>, December 19, 1867.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>William E. Pabor, <a href="https://mountainscholar.orgbitstream/handle/10217/46927/Colorado_As_An_Agricultural_State.pdf?sequence=1"><em>Colorado as an Agricultural State</em></a> (New York: Orange Judd, 1883).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Martha Quillen, “<a href="https://www.cozine.com:8443/2001-december/mexican-land-grants-in-colorado">Mexican Land Grants in Colorado</a>,” <em>Colorado Central Magazine</em>, December 1, 2001.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Morris F. Taylor, <em>Trinidad, Colorado Territory</em> (Pueblo, CO: O’Brien Printing, 1966).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Abbey Christman, Richard Carrillo, and Roche Lindsay, <a href="https://www.historycolorado.org/sites/default/files/files/OAHP/Programs/SHF_Survey_PurgatoireRiver2011.pdf"><em>Cultural Resource Survey of the Purgatoire River Region</em></a> (Denver: Colorado Preservation, 2011).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Historic Trinidad (Trinidad Tourism Board), "<a href="http://www.historictrinidad.com/history.html">Area History</a>," 2014.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Rocky Mountain PBS, <a href="https://video.rmpbs.org/video/2365918089/">"Trinidad,"</a> <em>Colorado Experience</em>, December 22, 2016.</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Wed, 22 Feb 2017 20:20:10 +0000 yongli 2381 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Las Animas County http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/las-animas-county <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Las Animas County</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--2048--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--2048.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/las-animas-county"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Las_Animas_County_0.png?itok=TJ9NkRIw" width="1024" height="741" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/las-animas-county" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Las Animas County</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Las Animas County, the largest county in Colorado, was established in 1866.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2016-11-14T16:20:10-07:00" title="Monday, November 14, 2016 - 16:20" class="datetime">Mon, 11/14/2016 - 16:20</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/las-animas-county" data-a2a-title="Las Animas County"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Flas-animas-county&amp;title=Las%20Animas%20County"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Las Animas County, the largest county in Colorado, covers 4,775 square miles in the southern end of the state, east of the <strong>Sangre de Cristo Mountains</strong>. It was originally part of a larger Huerfano County that encompassed all of southeast Colorado. Today, it is bordered by <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/huerfano-county"><strong>Huerfano County</strong></a> to the northwest, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/pueblo-county"><strong>Pueblo</strong></a> and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/otero-county"><strong>Otero</strong></a> Counties to the north, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/bent-county"><strong>Bent County</strong></a> to the northeast, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/baca-county"><strong>Baca County</strong></a> to the east, the state of New Mexico to the south, and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/costilla-county"><strong>Costilla County</strong></a> to the west.</p> <p>Las Animas County encompasses a number of important geographic features, including (from west to east) the <strong>Spanish Peaks</strong>, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/raton-pass-0"><strong>Ratón Pass</strong></a>, and the <strong>Purgatoire (purgatory) River</strong>, a tributary of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/arkansas-river"><strong>Arkansas River</strong></a>. <em>Las Animas </em>is Spanish for “souls,” a reference to the lost souls of sixteenth-century Spanish soldiers allegedly killed along the Purgatoire River. The North, Middle, and South Forks of the Purgatoire flow east out of the Sangre de Cristos and converge to form the main river near the small community of <strong>Weston</strong>. Shadowed by State Highway 12, the river continues east through the industrial ghost town of Segundo, the former coal-mining town of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/cokedale-historic-district"><strong>Cokedale</strong></a>, and the county seat of <strong>Trinidad</strong>. Flowing northeast out of the foothills, the Purgatoire takes a southward bend near Hoehne before continuing northeast again, cutting a canyon through the plains of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/comanche-national-grassland"><strong>Comanche National Grassland</strong></a>.</p> <p><strong>Interstate 25</strong> runs along the foothills in eastern Las Animas County, connecting the town of <strong>Aguilar</strong> and the city of Trinidad before continuing north to <strong>Walsenburg</strong> and south to Raton, New Mexico. US Highway 160 runs east from Trinidad to the small town of <strong>Kim</strong>. South of US 160 lay the small communities of Trinchera and Branson, the southernmost town in Colorado. US Highway 350 runs northeast from Trinidad into Otero County and passes through the unincorporated communities of Model, Tyrone, Thatcher, and Delhi.</p> <p>Historically, the Las Animas County area was inhabited by various indigenous peoples, including the Nuche (<strong><a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/search/google/Ute">Ute</a></strong>), <strong>Apache</strong>, and<strong> Comanche</strong>. The first Anglo-Americans arrived in 1821, when trade with Mexico was opened up via the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/santa-f%C3%A9-trail-0"><strong>Santa Fé Trail</strong></a>. In 1866 Las Animas County was established as part of the <a href="/article/colorado-territory"><strong>Colorado Territory</strong></a>. By the early twentieth century its coal mines were among the most productive in the nation. The county was the site of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ludlow-massacre"><strong>Ludlow Massacre</strong></a>, a deadly conflict between striking miners and state militia in the coalfields north of Trinidad on April 20, 1914. Today Las Animas County has a population of 14,058, with more than 9,000 living in Trinidad.</p> <h2>Native Americans and Spaniards</h2> <p>The land south of the Spanish Peaks and east of the Sangre de Cristos has a long history of human occupation, beginning around 11,500 years ago with <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/paleo-indian-period"><strong>Paleo-Indian</strong></a> groups and continuing through the Middle <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/archaic-period-colorado"><strong>Archaic</strong></a> period (3,000–1,000 BC), the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/sopris-phase"><strong>Sopris</strong></a> culture (AD 950–1200), and the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/apishapa-phase"><strong>Apishapa</strong></a> culture (AD 1050–1400). Most of these groups were hunter-gatherers who lived off <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/rocky-mountain-elk"><strong>elk</strong></a>, <a href="/article/mule-deer"><strong>mule deer</strong></a>, and other game. The Apishapa culture left behind <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/rock-art-colorado"><strong>rock art</strong></a>, images of human and animal figures carved into boulders or cliff faces.</p> <p>By the time the Apishapa left the area in the 1400s, Ute people began arriving from the west. What is now western Las Animas County was originally home to a band of Utes called the Muache, or “cedar bark people.” Their territory lay east of the Sangre de Cristos, extending north into the Wet Mountain Valley and along the Front Range and south into New Mexico. The Utes had particular reverence for the Spanish Peaks, which they referred to as <em>Huajatolla</em>, roughly translated as “breasts of the earth.” Like other indigenous people before them, the Utes were hunter-gatherers, but unlike some, they did not build permanent dwellings. Instead, they lived in temporary or portable structures such as <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/wickiups-and-other-wooden-features"><strong>wickiups</strong></a> and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/tipi-0"><strong>tipis</strong></a>. In 1640 the Utes obtained horses from Spanish Santa Fé, affording them greater mobility.</p> <p>The Jicarilla Apache, a semi-sedentary people who fished, hunted, and farmed, also occupied what is now Las Animas County by the seventeenth century. This brought them into conflict with the Ute, who began attacking their settlements. The Apache’s plight did not improve with the arrival of the Comanche, a horse-mounted people who came from the north and conquered Colorado’s southeastern plains in the early eighteenth century. The Muache Ute and Comanche formed an alliance, and by about 1730 they had driven the Apache from the Purgatoire and Arkansas Valleys. With their common enemy gone, Ute-Comanche relations soured, and by the 1750s the Muache were joining the Spanish in battle against the Comanche.</p> <p>It was once thought that Spanish explorers, namely a party led by Francisco Leyva de Bonilla in 1593, were the first to visit the Purgatoire River in the sixteenth century. An attack by Native Americans killed all but one of the Bonilla party at some point after it left New Mexico and reached the <a href="/article/colorado%E2%80%99s-great-plains"><strong>Great Plains</strong></a>. The attack was initially thought to have occurred on the Purgatoire; the river was so named because of the unblessed Catholic souls that were allegedly sent to <em>el purgatorio—</em>purgatory—along its banks. The name stuck (its current version is French), but the river may be named for the souls of men who never reached it—the location of the Bonilla expedition’s demise remains uncertain.</p> <p>By the mid-eighteenth century the northern boundary of Spanish New Mexico lay near the northern edge of present-day Las Animas County. However, for more than 100 years Ute and Comanche raids had prevented Spanish settlement north of Taos. The Spanish Era in North America came to an end with Mexican independence in 1821.</p> <h2>Mexican Era</h2> <p>Spanish authorities had previously barred trade with Americans, but a newly independent Mexico quickly opened trade with the United States in the 1820s. The Santa Fé Trail, which connected Missouri and Santa Fé, became the most important trade route in the nineteenth-century southwest. The trail had two branches, one of which—the Mountain Branch—took traders through present-day Las Animas County. From Missouri, the route followed the Arkansas River west to the Purgatoire, where it turned south to Ratón Pass and on to Santa Fé. Mexicans, Native Americans, and European Americans all traded along the trail. In 1833 the American trader <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/william-bent"><strong>William Bent</strong></a> established <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/bents-forts"><strong>Bent’s Fort</strong></a> on the Arkansas River, which then marked the border between Mexico and the United States. The <a href="/article/nineteenth-century-trading-posts"><strong>post</strong></a> soon became the center of trade along the Santa Fé Trail, worrying some Mexican officials who thought the Americans might try to encroach on their northern territories.</p> <p>In an effort to affirm ownership of that area, the Mexican government began issuing <strong>land grants</strong> in what is now New Mexico and Colorado in 1832. In 1841 Mexico gave the Canadian trader <strong>Charles Beaubien</strong> and Mexican official Guadalupe Miranda the Maxwell grant, which included land in present New Mexico as well as what is now the southwest corner of Las Animas County. Two years later, Mexico awarded a land grant to Cornelio Vigil and <strong>Ceran St. Vrain</strong>, a naturalized Mexican citizen and partner of William Bent. This massive grant covered the western half of present-day Las Animas County, stretching between the Purgatoire and Arkansas Rivers and into the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/san-luis-valley"><strong>San Luis Valley</strong></a>. Conflict with white Texans and Comanches, however, delayed Mexican settlement of the land grants, and any hope Mexico had of retaining its northern territories disappeared in 1846, when US General <strong>Stephen W. </strong><strong>Kearny</strong>’s Army of the West clambered over Ratón Pass and invaded Mexico.</p> <p>As the Mexican-American War raged in 1847, John Hatcher, an employee of the Bent, St. Vrain &amp; Company, set up a farm in the Purgatoire Valley, intending to supply Bent’s Fort with corn and other produce. Hatcher built log cabins, completed the area’s first irrigation ditch, and planted fields, but Utes drove him off the land before the crops could be harvested.</p> <h2>Early American Era</h2> <p>The United States acquired the Las Animas County area as part of the land ceded by Mexico at the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848. By then the regional <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fur-trade-colorado"><strong>trade in furs</strong></a> and bison hides had declined; in 1849 William Bent was forced to abandon his post on the Arkansas. After the trader-turned-scout <strong>Richard Wootton</strong> passed through the Purgatoire Valley in 1858, several Hispano families (former Mexican citizens who became Americans after 1848) set up ranches in the area.</p> <p>A regional market for food and other supplies was created when the <a href="/article/colorado-gold-rush"><strong>Colorado Gold Rush</strong></a> of 1858–59 spurred the development of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a>. In 1860 the New Mexicans <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/don-felipe-baca"><strong>Don Felipe Baca</strong></a> and Pedro Valdez loaded four wagons with corn and other goods and headed north for Denver. On their way to and from the new mining town, they camped along the Purgatoire near the site of present-day Trinidad. Baca envisioned a prosperous settlement there, and decided to return with his family in 1861.</p> <p>Also in 1860, another group of New Mexican traders led by Albert and Ebenezer Archibald passed through the Trinidad area on their way to sell sauerkraut and onions in Denver. When the brothers returned to the area to start a farm in March of the following year, they found Baca and two other men, William Frazier and Riley Dunton, building log homes. These modest structures became the foundation for modern Trinidad.</p> <p>As Baca and others built homes on the Trinidad site, Congress established the <a href="/article/colorado-territory"><strong>Colorado Territory</strong></a>. However, the area was still largely the domain of the Utes and their native allies. Despite the US government’s earlier attempts to remove the Utes by treaty, in 1865 there was still a significant population of Muaches near the Spanish Peaks who refused to abide the Anglo/Hispano encroachment on their homelands. That year, Wootton completed a toll road over Ratón Pass, increasing the amount of white traffic through the region. This led to conflict between Utes and whites over livestock theft along the roads. Amid growing distrust and discord between federal Indian officials and the Utes in 1866, Muaches led by Kaniache began attacking white and Hispano ranches and other settlements in the Purgatoire Valley. US cavalry arrived, and with the help of local volunteers, defeated the Utes in battle.</p> <h2>County Development</h2> <p>Trinidad incorporated on February 6, 1866, and three days later the territorial legislature formed Las Animas County out of the southern part of what was then Huerfano County. In 1868 the legislature amended the boundaries again, shrinking Huerfano County to its current size and creating what are now the western boundaries of Las Animas County. Eastern Las Animas County stretched to the Kansas border until <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/baca-county"><strong>Baca County</strong></a> was created in 1889.</p> <p>When the town was founded, the only stage lines connecting Trinidad to Denver went by way of Bent’s Fort, remnants of the once-burgeoning Santa Fé Trail. In 1867 Abraham Jacobs and William Jones established the Denver and Santa Fe Stage &amp; Express Company, which started a direct line south from Denver to Trinidad. The stage line led to the creation of dozens of stations between the two destinations, including many in northern Las Animas County. It also fed the development of Trinidad, which by 1867 had a general store, Catholic church, and schools, as well as one of two drug stores in the 400 miles between Denver and Santa Fe.</p> <p>Las Animas County’s industrial future also began to take shape in 1867, as <a href="/article/william-jackson-palmer"><strong>William Jackson Palmer</strong></a> explored rich coal deposits near Trinidad. Palmer, who dreamed of a grand railroad line chugging south from Denver through utopian cities, became convinced that Las Animas County coal would fuel his industrial empire in the West.</p> <p>As Trinidad developed along the Purgatoire, Hispano settlement commenced along the Apishapa River farther north. In 1866 farmer Julian Gonzales built the first irrigation ditch in the area, and in 1867 Agapito Rivali built a trading post catering to Hispano farmers and Indians. As more Hispanos set up farms and ranches in the area, a small adobe town developed where the Apishapa flows out of the foothills onto the plains; this town was the beginning of present-day Aguilar.</p> <h2>Early Social Strife and Cooperation</h2> <p>By 1870 there were a number of small Hispano and Anglo settlements in western Las Animas County. These settlers brokered an uneasy coexistence with the Utes, who resented the encroachment on their land. In the <a href="/article/ute-treaty-1868"><strong>Treaty of 1868</strong></a>, the Ute leader <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ouray"><strong>Ouray</strong></a> and several others agreed to move to a large reservation on the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/western-slope"><strong>Western Slope</strong></a>, but many Utes continued to travel to traditional hunting grounds, including the Purgatoire Valley. As late as 1873 the <em>Denver News </em>reported that “Kanneache [sic] and his band, which have never yet obeyed the treaty of 1868 . . . have been in the habit of annoying the settlers of the valleys of the Cucharas and the Huerfano.” The paper opined that this activity “should be stopped—peacefully, if possible, forcibly, if necessary.”</p> <p>Such forcible action, however, did not come to southern Colorado but rather to northwest Colorado in 1879. After the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/meeker-incident"><strong>Meeker Incident</strong></a> there in September, Utes living in northern Colorado were removed to Utah. Meanwhile, the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/brunot-agreement"><strong>Brunot Agreement</strong></a> of 1873, also negotiated by Chief Ouray, gave the United States the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/san-juan-mountains"><strong>San Juan Mountains</strong></a> and created a reservation for southern Colorado’s Utes near present-day <strong>Durango</strong>. By the 1880s most of the Muache Utes had left Las Animas County for the reservation.</p> <p>If there were tensions between Native and non-native people in early Las Animas County, there were also divisions between Anglo and Hispano settlers. Their heads filled with notions of an Anglo-centric “<strong>Manifest Destiny</strong>,” many Anglos in southern Colorado saw Hispanos as a lower class of people. After visiting the Purgatoire Valley, Anglo observer <strong>William E. Pabor</strong> captured this sentiment in an 1883 agricultural publication, writing that “Mexicans” were “rude” and “uncultivated husbandmen” and that “their method of raising wheat is slovenly, and without signs of thrift.”</p> <p>Tension between Anglos and Hispanos in Trinidad was on display far earlier than 1883, however. On Christmas Day, 1867, an Anglo man had shot a Hispano man in Trinidad and was jailed. When other Anglos tried to free the shooter, Las Animas County Sheriff Juan Gutiérrez, a Hispano, raised the alarm, and the town’s Hispanos took up arms against the Anglos. Eventually, US troops were called in to help diffuse the standoff. Local Utes offered to help Gutiérrez, but the sheriff rebuked them, so they watched the gunfight from the surrounding hills. Hispano politician <strong>Casimiro Barela</strong> also witnessed Anglo-Hispano tension on multiple occasions while serving as county sheriff from 1874–75.</p> <p>Though tension between Anglos and Hispanos produced conflict, for the most part both groups managed to coexist. Hispano ranchers sold wool and other goods at Anglo shops in Trinidad, and in the 1860s both Anglos and Hispanos served as county commissioners, county clerks, sheriffs, judges, and other government positions.</p> <p>Las Animas County also produced some of the first Hispano members of the Anglo-dominated territorial and state governments. Baca and Barela were among the first Hispanos to serve in the territorial legislature in the 1870s, and Barela even helped draft the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-constitution"><strong>Colorado Constitution</strong></a> just before the territory became a state in 1876. Barela also led the push for a resolution that required Colorado laws to be published in Spanish as well as English for twenty-five years.</p> <h2>Coal Mining and Labor Conflicts</h2> <p>While Hispanos and Anglos were busy establishing Las Animas County’s early towns and ranches, William Palmer was busy turning his dreams of a Colorado empire into reality. By 1875 he had extended his <strong>Denver &amp; Rio Grande Railroad</strong> (D&amp;RG) south from Denver, founding the towns of Colorado Springs and South Pueblo. The line also extended west into the coalfields of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fremont-county"><strong>Fremont County</strong></a>, where Palmer built collieries in 1872.</p> <p>In 1876 the D&amp;RG reached Aguilar, and later that year it reached the Purgatoire River northeast of Trinidad. There Palmer’s railroad built the town of El Moro, disappointing residents in Trinidad who anticipated an economic boom with the railroad’s arrival. To manage his new coal mines and other industrial endeavors, Palmer formed the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-fuel-iron"><strong>Colorado Coal &amp; Iron Company</strong></a> (CC&amp;I) in 1880. In 1881 the company completed the Minnequa Works in Pueblo, the nation’s first steel mill west of the Missouri River.</p> <p>Coal shipped from mining camps around Trinidad and Aguilar fueled Palmer’s steel works, as well as the many smelters in Pueblo and Denver that extracted gold and silver from raw ore. By the 1890s Las Animas County mining camps included Grey Creek, Engleville, Starkville, and Sopris near Trinidad, as well as Hastings, Delagua, and Berwind south of Aguilar. The camps drew workers of more than a dozen nationalities, including Mexicans, British, Italians, Swiss, Germans, African Americans, and Greeks. With the influx of workers and families tied to the coal industry, the county’s population surged from 4,276 in 1880 to 21,842 in 1900.</p> <p>Coal miners in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries worked between ten and twelve hours per day in extremely dangerous conditions for meager wages. Often they were paid in scrip, company cash that could only be redeemed at a company store in exchange for necessities such as tools and food. Knowing that Colorado’s economy depended on their labor, many miners joined unions such as the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/united-mine-workers-america"><strong>United Mine Workers of America</strong></a> (UMWA) and organized strikes to demand better pay, shorter work days, and safer working conditions.</p> <p>In 1894 more than 1,200 striking coal miners from across southern Colorado converged in Trinidad in an attempt to stage a strike that would suspend coal production and force companies such as <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-fuel-iron"><strong>Colorado Fuel &amp; Iron</strong></a> (CF&amp;I)—the descendant of Palmer’s CC&amp;I—to address their grievances. Companies like CF&amp;I and the Trinidad Coal and Coke Company responded to union pressure by hiring strikebreakers, firing strikers, and closing off other camps to prevent union influence. The strikers failed to shut down the industry, however, and so eventually had to return to work at pre-strike wages and conditions.</p> <p>Though it failed to achieve its goals, the 1894 strike nonetheless demonstrated the growing power of the labor movement in Las Animas County. But it pales in comparison to the Coalfield Wars, which cast a shadow of death and destruction over the county in 1913–14. Conditions and pay had changed little since the 1890s, and the UMWA again found traction in the southern coalfields. In the summer of 1913, several thousand mineworkers, their families, and sympathizers convened in Trinidad and declared their intent to strike.</p> <p>The strike began in September and continued throughout the fall, and as attempts to reconcile the two sides failed, Colorado officials grew anxious at the possible fuel shortfall for the winter. Governor <strong>Elias M. Ammons</strong> sent in the National Guard to suppress the strikers, ratcheting up tension. Sporadic conflict between the National Guard and strikers continued throughout the winter. The powder keg finally exploded on April 20, 1914, when gunfire erupted between the National Guard and strikers near the union’s Ludlow tent colony north of Trinidad. Many of the miners’ families fled the tent colony once the fighting began, so the National Guard believed the camp to be empty when they set it on fire. Hidden in a pit underneath one of the tents, however, were thirteen women and children, who died of smoke inhalation.</p> <p>After hearing about the events at Ludlow, other miners went on a rampage across the southern Coalfields, killing mine operators and guards. It is still not known how exactly how many people died during the entire conflict, but at least nineteen died at Ludlow, making the event the deadliest labor conflict in American history. In 1918 the UMWA built a statue at the Ludlow site to honor those killed in the massacre. Coal mining continued in Las Animas County until the 1920s, when demand tapered off due to the availability of other fuels.</p> <h2>Today</h2> <p>Today, the Las Animas County economy, especially in the eastern part, reflects its pastoral and agricultural heritage. In 2012 it had 602 farms and a total of nearly 42,000 cattle and calves, and it ranked near the middle of the state’s sixty-four counties in corn and wheat production.</p> <p>Tourism is also a major part of the county economy. Every year, thousands of outdoor enthusiasts visit the <strong>Spanish Peaks Wilderness</strong> to climb, camp, hike, bike, and fish around the prominent twin mountains. Trinidad’s historic district, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/el-corazon-de-trinidad-national-historic-district"><strong>El Corazón de Trinidad</strong></a> (“the heart of Trinidad”), was created in 1972 and attracts heritage tourists with its eclectic mix of Anglo and Hispano architecture. The city is also home to a thriving creative district and arts community, as well as <strong>Trinidad State Junior College,</strong> which was established in 1925 and has an enrollment of 2,219 as of 2013.</p> <p>Trinidad Lake State Park surrounds the 800-acre <strong>Trinidad Lake</strong>, a reservoir built for flood control purposes in the late 1950s. The lake is well-stocked with fish, making it a popular destination for anglers, while the surrounding park offers camping, an archery range, and ten miles of hiking trails, among other amenities.</p> <p>After the <a href="/article/dust-bowl"><strong>Dust Bowl</strong></a> of the 1930s, the federal government bought 440,000 acres of cultivated land in southern Otero and northeast Las Animas Counties and returned it to native grassland. In 1960 this land was designated as the Comanche National Grassland. In 1991, after staging tank drills in the area for twenty years, the US Department of Defense added <strong>Picketwire Canyon </strong>to the Comanche National Grassland (“picketwire” is the Anglo mispronunciation of “purgatoire”). The canyon is the site of 150-milion-year-old dinosaur tracks as well as parts of the historic Santa Fé Trail. Picturesque landscapes and native prairies draw hikers, birdwatchers, and other outdoor enthusiasts.</p> <p>In 2009 the Ludlow Massacre site was declared a National Historic Landmark, and April 20, 2014, marked the hundredth anniversary of the tragedy. To commemorate the massacre, Governor <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/john-hickenlooper"><strong>John Hickenlooper</strong></a> organized a commission that planned a slew of activities, including a speakers’ series, symposia, a play, museum exhibits, and a Sunday church service at the Ludlow site.</p> <p>In 2016 the Colorado Economic Development Commission added Las Animas County to its rural Jump-Start Program, which offered tax breaks to approved businesses for locating to the state’s most distressed areas. Las Animas County officials have said that industrial hemp and self-driving cars are among the industries they are attempting to attract with the incentives.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/las-animas-county" hreflang="en">Las Animas County</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/las-animas-county-history" hreflang="en">las animas county history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/ludlow-massacre" hreflang="en">Ludlow Massacre</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-fuel-iron" hreflang="en">colorado fuel &amp; iron</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/william-jackson-palmer" hreflang="en">william jackson palmer</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/trinidad" hreflang="en">Trinidad</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/spanish-peaks" hreflang="en">spanish peaks</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/aguilar" hreflang="en">aguilar</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/comanche-national-grassland" hreflang="en">comanche national grassland</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/hoehne" hreflang="en">hoehne</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/purgatoire-river" hreflang="en">Purgatoire River</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/ludlow" hreflang="en">ludlow</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/coal-mining" hreflang="en">coal mining</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/raton-pass" hreflang="en">raton pass</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/felipe-baca" hreflang="en">felipe baca</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/casimiro-barela" hreflang="en">casimiro barela</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Carl Abbott, Stephen J. Leonard, and David McComb, <em>Colorado: A History of the Centennial State </em>3rd ed. (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 1995).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Apishapa Valley Historical Society, “<a href="https://www.aguilarhistory.com/html/jraguilar.htm">The Jose Ramon Aguilar Story</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Apishapa Valley Historical Society, “<a href="https://www.aguilarhistory.com/html/history.htm">History</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Thomas G. Andrews, <em>Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War </em>(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Richard Carrillo, Abbey Christman, Kathleen Corbett, Lindsay Joyner, and Jonathon Rusch, <a href="https://issuu.com/coloradopreservation/docs/historic-context-study-ranching"><em>Historic Context Study of the Purgatoire River Region</em></a> (Denver: Colorado Presevation, Inc., 2011).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Phil Carson, <em>Across the Northern Frontier: Spanish Explorations in Colorado </em>(Boulder, CO: Johnson Books, 1998).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Colorado Parks &amp; Wildlife, “<a href="https://cpw.state.co.us/placestogo/parks/TrinidadLake/Pages/default.aspx">Trinidad Lake</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>José E. Fernández, <em>The Biography of Casimiro Barela</em> (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2003).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Pekka Hämäiläinen, <em>The Comanche Empire </em>(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Janet Lecompte, <em>Pueblo, Hardscrabble, Greenhorn</em> (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>William E. Pabor, <a href="https://mountainscholar.orgbitstream/handle/10217/46927/Colorado_As_An_Agricultural_State.pdf?sequence=1"><em>Colorado As An Agricultural State</em></a> (New York: Orange Judd, 1883).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Martha Quillen, “<a href="https://www.cozine.com:8443/2001-december/mexican-land-grants-in-colorado">Mexican Land Grants in Colorado</a>,” <em>Colorado Central Magazine</em>, December 1, 2001.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Virginia McConnell Simmons, <em>The Ute Indians of Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico </em>(Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2000).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>US Army Corps of Engineers, “<a href="https://www.spa.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/Recreation/Trinidad-Lake/">Trinidad Lake Project</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>US Department of Agriculture, “<a href="https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/AgCensus/2012/Online_Resources/County_Profiles/">2012 Census of Agriculture County Profile: Las Animas County Colorado</a>,” National Agricultural Statistics Service.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Morris F. Taylor, <em>Trinidad, Colorado Territory </em>(Pueblo, CO: O’Brien Printing &amp; Stationery, 1966).</p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/cgi-bin/colorado?a=d&amp;d=TEP18730912.2.43&amp;srpos=2&amp;e=-------en-20-TEP-1-byDA-txt-txIN-utes-------0-"><em>Trinidad Enterprise</em>, September 12, 1873</a>.</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Colorado Preservation, Inc., “<a href="https://coloradopreservation.org/programs/endangered-places/endangered-places-archives/el-corazon-de-trinidad/">El Corazón de Trinidad</a>.”</p> <p><a href="https://vlsicad2022.org/">Corazón de Trinidad Creative District</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.historictrinidad.com/tourism.html">Historic Trinidad</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.lasanimascounty.net/">Las Animas County</a></p> <p>Rocky Mountain PBS,&nbsp;<a href="https://video.rmpbs.org/video/2365918089/">"Trinidad,"</a>&nbsp;<em>Colorado Experience</em>, December 22, 2016.</p> <p><a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/psicc/recarea/?recid=80758">Spanish Peaks Wilderness</a></p> <p><a href="https://trinidad.co.gov/">Trinidad</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.trinidadstate.edu/">Trinidad State Junior College</a></p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Mon, 14 Nov 2016 23:20:10 +0000 yongli 2049 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org El Corazon de Trinidad National Historic District http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/el-corazon-de-trinidad-national-historic-district <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">El Corazon de Trinidad National Historic District</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--1605--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--1605.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/main-street-trinidad-1870s"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/El-Corazon-de-Trinidad-National-Media-1_0.jpg?itok=KHcz6MVX" width="1000" height="567" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/main-street-trinidad-1870s" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Main Street, Trinidad, 1870s</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>In the 1860s Hispano settlers established Trinidad along the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fé Trail. By the 1870s the area's good land and economic opportunities had attracted many Anglo-American settlers as well.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> <div class="carousel-item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--1226--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--1226.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/trinidad-1907"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/El-Corazon-Media-2_0.jpg?itok=EpA_k5qb" width="1000" height="800" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/trinidad-1907" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Trinidad, 1907</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>After the 1870s, the success of cattle and coal led Trinidad to a five-decade period of economic prosperity during which many impressive civic, commercial, and residential buildings were constructed.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> <div class="carousel-item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--1607--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--1607.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/bloom-mansion"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/El-Corazon-de-Trinidad-National-Historic-District-Media-3_0.jpg?itok=rS_AaYdX" width="1000" height="693" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/bloom-mansion" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Bloom Mansion</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>One of the most elaborate residences constructed in Trinidad, the cattle baron Frank Bloom's 1882 mansion is a Second Empire showpiece. Today it is part of History Colorado's Trinidad History Museum.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> <div class="carousel-item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--1229--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--1229.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/jaffa-opera-house"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/El-Corazon-Media-4_0.jpg?itok=LtaLYaqX" width="1000" height="768" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/jaffa-opera-house" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Jaffa Opera House</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>In 1882 the Jaffa brothers, prominent Jewish merchants in Trinidad, built a 700-seat opera house at the town's main intersection. The opera house is now part of the Corazon de Trinidad National Historic District, which includes many historic buildings downtown.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> <button class="carousel-control-prev" type="button" data-bs-target="#carouselEncyclopediaArticle" data-bs-slide="prev"> <span class="carousel-control-prev-icon" aria-hidden="true"></span> <span class="visually-hidden">Previous</span> </button> <button class="carousel-control-next" type="button" data-bs-target="#carouselEncyclopediaArticle" data-bs-slide="next"> <span class="carousel-control-next-icon" aria-hidden="true"></span> <span class="visually-hidden">Next</span> </button> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2016-03-15T15:22:36-06:00" title="Tuesday, March 15, 2016 - 15:22" class="datetime">Tue, 03/15/2016 - 15:22</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/el-corazon-de-trinidad-national-historic-district" data-a2a-title="El Corazon de Trinidad National Historic District"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fel-corazon-de-trinidad-national-historic-district&amp;title=El%20Corazon%20de%20Trinidad%20National%20Historic%20District"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>El Corazon de Trinidad (“the heart of Trinidad”) National Historic District covers a particularly well-preserved portion of downtown Trinidad that includes many blocks of adobe and brick buildings from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Established in 1861 along the <a href="/article/santa-f%C3%A9-trail-0"><strong>Santa Fé Trail</strong></a>, Trinidad flourished from the late 1870s to the 1910s as the capital of southern Colorado’s coal-producing region. Mine closures and economic decline in the twentieth century ended up saving many of the city’s historic buildings, which have been the target of preservation efforts since the 1960s.</p> <h2>Early Settlement</h2> <p>The land around what is now Trinidad was occupied in the eighteenth century by Comanches and Kiowas, in the early nineteenth century by Cheyennes and Arapahos, and in the mid-nineteenth century by Jicarilla Apaches and Southern Utes. Starting in the 1820s, it also lay along the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fé Trail, which passed through the area between La Junta and <a href="/article/raton-pass"><strong>Raton Pass</strong></a>. Commerce along this branch of the trail increased after the Mexican-American War (1846–48), and the site of present-day Trinidad provided a good spot for traders and wagon trains to set up camp near the <strong>Purgatoire River</strong>.</p> <p>Around 1860 Hispano settlement began to push north from New Mexico to the area east of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Looking to expand their sheep business, the Gutiérrez family built the first permanent cabins at the site of Trinidad in 1859. Several more families, including that of <strong>Felipe Baca</strong>, followed in 1860–61; the town may have been named after one of Baca’s daughters. The new settlement developed around the intersection of two different segments of the Santa Fé Trail, which became the town’s two major streets, Main and Commercial. By 1861 the settlers had built irrigation ditches and were starting to raise wheat, corn, and sheep for sale in Pueblo. The town quickly became the main population center in the Purgatoire Valley and served as a vital connection to northern New Mexico and Santa Fe.</p> <p>Trinidad was originally part of <a href="/article/huerfano-county"><strong>Huerfano County</strong></a>, but as the area’s population grew, the <a href="/article/colorado-territory"><strong>Territory of Colorado</strong></a> created <a href="/article/las-animas-county"><strong>Las Animas County</strong></a> in 1866 and made Trinidad its seat. Largely Hispano in its early years, after the Civil War the city received an influx of Anglo-American settlers drawn by the area’s good land and economic opportunities. By 1870 the city had 600 residents. One of those was the Santa Fé Trail entrepreneur John Hough, who in 1869 built a two-story adobe house along Main Street. In 1873 Felipe and Dolores Baca bought the house, now known as the Baca House, for 22,000 pounds of wool. It is the oldest house still standing in Trinidad.</p> <h2>Boom and Bust</h2> <p>In the late 1870s Trinidad entered a long period of economic prosperity. In 1876 the <strong>Denver &amp; Rio Grande Railroad</strong> reached <strong>El Moro</strong>, just a few miles away, and two years later the <strong>Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad</strong> connected to Trinidad. The railroads made the city an important distribution point for traffic between the plains and the Southwest. The railroads also changed the city’s cultural flavor. Although Trinidad retained Spanish-language newspapers, Hispano-owned shops, and a local Hispano elite, it became increasingly tied to a wider Anglo-dominated network of commercial markets and cultural influence.</p> <p>In the 1880s Trinidad served as the headquarters for several large cattle operations, but the range cattle business declined later that decade as more homesteaders moved to the area. Meanwhile, coal mining and related businesses were building steam. The first coal mines near Trinidad were established by the railroads in the late 1870s. In 1876 <a href="/article/william-jackson-palmer"><strong>William Jackson Palmer</strong></a> of the Denver &amp; Rio Grande started the Southern Colorado Coal and Town Company. The quality of the coal in the area made possible the production of coke, a higher-carbon substance that makes a better fuel, so Palmer built coke ovens at El Moro and used the coke to produce steel in Pueblo mills. Large-scale production began in 1878.</p> <p>By the 1880s Las Animas and Huerfano Counties were the top two coal-producing counties in Colorado, with the richest coal lying in an easily accessible strip between Trinidad and Walsenburg. Trinidad’s population doubled that decade, from about 2,200 in 1880 to roughly 5,500 in 1890, and several grand brick buildings served as evidence of the city’s growing wealth. In 1879 the Grand Union Hotel (later called the Columbian) went up at the corner of Main and Commercial Streets. A few years later the Jaffa brothers, Jewish merchants, built a 700-seat opera house across Main Street from the hotel. Holy Trinity Catholic Church was completed in 1885, a new city hall in 1888.</p> <p>One of the more elaborate houses built during this period was the cattle baron <strong>Frank Bloom</strong>’s 1882 mansion on Main Street, a Second Empire showpiece with a four-story central tower. Bloom’s mansion was near “Aristocracy Hill,” home to many of the city’s wealthiest residents. One of the Jaffa brothers and several other prominent Jews lived in the area. In 1889 they hired the architect <strong>Isaac Hamilton Rapp</strong> to build <strong>Temple Aaron</strong>, which was&nbsp;the oldest continuously used Jewish synagogue in the state before it closed in 2016.</p> <p>Coal production continued to climb in the 1890s and early 1900s, turning Trinidad into a major urban center. In 1892 a series of mergers culminated in the creation of the <a href="/article/colorado-fuel-iron"><strong>Colorado Fuel and Iron Company</strong></a> (CF&amp;I), which dominated the area for the next two decades and helped make Colorado the top coal-producing state in the west.</p> <p>The coal money pouring into Trinidad resulted in a surge of new public buildings, businesses, and houses. In the first decade of the twentieth century the city added a Carnegie Public Library (1904), a new city hall (1909), and a new post office (1910), all with elegant classical elements. New commercial buildings on Main Street included the Toltec Hotel, the Colorado Building, and the Masonic Temple block.</p> <p>Las Animas and Huerfano Counties had more than 8,000 coal miners in the late 1890s, a number that doubled by World War I. These miners consisted largely of European immigrants who broadened Trinidad’s ethnic mix beyond the older Hispano and Anglo elements to include Germans, Scandinavians, Italians, Slavs, and other southern and eastern European groups. This diversity was reflected in new church parishes and newspapers.</p> <p>Facing low wages and dangerous working conditions, many miners joined the <strong>United Mine Workers</strong> and organized several major strikes in the 1890s and early 1900s. In April 1914 tensions between miners and owners reached their climax in the <a href="/article/ludlow-massacre"><strong>Ludlow Massacre</strong></a>, the deadliest labor conflict in US history, when National Guard troops attacked a tent colony of miners about fifteen miles north of Trinidad.</p> <p>The Ludlow Massacre did not cause the decline of coal mining in the area around Trinidad, but it serves as a convenient turning point in the region’s history. Over the next few decades, industrial changes and economic depression resulted in greatly reduced demand for coal. Mines in the area began to close in the 1920s. Even when the national economy recovered during and after World War II, mines around Trinidad continued to close because of high extraction costs and increasing competition from other fuels. As a result, Trinidad’s growth ground to a halt. Its population peaked in 1940 at more than 13,000, then started a slow decline for the next fifty years.</p> <h2>Preservation</h2> <p>Largely because it had suffered decades of economic stagnation during which few new buildings were constructed downtown, Trinidad reached the second half of the twentieth century with its Victorian core largely intact. The city began a gradual economic revival based on tourism and historic preservation. In 1955 the Old Baca House and Pioneer Museum opened; the Colorado Historical Society (now <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/history-colorado-colorado-historical-society"><strong>History Colorado</strong></a>) acquired it in 1960 and started to operate it as a regional museum. The next year the society acquired the Bloom House on the same block and added it to the museum complex.</p> <p>In response to growing concerns about the modernization and proposed demolition of some downtown buildings to encourage new development, in 1970 the Trinidad Historical Society conducted a comprehensive survey of the city’s historic buildings. In 1972 El Corazon de Trinidad National Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places.</p> <p>Despite its status as a historic district, downtown Trinidad has not been immune to economic pressures or the effects of time. Several buildings within the historic district have faced the threat of destruction through neglect or redevelopment. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the nonprofit Colorado Preservation, which promotes historic preservation across the state, listed the Toltec Hotel and the entire Corazon de Trinidad district as “Endangered Places.” Since then grants from the State Historical Fund have helped save several notable buildings, including the Toltec Hotel. Temple Aaron closed in 2016 because its shrinking congregation could not support the building's rising maintenance costs.</p> <p>History Colorado continues to operate the Trinidad History Museum on a block along East Main Street. Visitors can walk through the Baca-Bloom Heritage Gardens, view exhibits at the Santa Fé Trail Museum, and tour the Baca House and Bloom Mansion. The Santa Fé Trail Museum houses the ticket office and gift shop, and the 1906 Barglow Building serves as the museum’s offices and meeting space. History Colorado restored the Bloom Mansion in the 2010s.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/trinidad" hreflang="en">Trinidad</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/santa-fe-trail" hreflang="en">Santa Fe Trail</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/felipe-baca" hreflang="en">felipe baca</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/las-animas-county" hreflang="en">Las Animas County</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/frank-bloom" hreflang="en">Frank Bloom</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/temple-aaron" hreflang="en">Temple Aaron</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/jaffa-opera-house" hreflang="en">Jaffa Opera House</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/trinidad-history-museum" hreflang="en">Trinidad History Museum</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/baca-house" hreflang="en">Baca House</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/bloom-mansion" hreflang="en">Bloom Mansion</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Willard Louden, ed., <em>The Historic Buildings of Central Trinidad</em> (Trinidad, CO: Trinidad Historical Society, 1970).</p> <p>A. W. McHendrie, “Trinidad and Its Environs,” <em>Colorado Magazine</em> 6, no. 5 (1929).</p> <p>Jesse Paul, <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2016/10/06/temple-aaron-trinidad-closes-after-127-years/">"Why Colorado's Longest-Operating Jewish Temple—One of the Oldest in the West—Has Closed After 127 Years,"</a>&nbsp;<em>Denver Post</em>, October 6, 2016.</p> <p>Gerald H. Stokes, <em>A Walk through the History of Trinidad</em>, 5th ed. (Trinidad, CO: Trinidad Historical Society, 1995).</p> <p>Morris F. Taylor, <em>Trinidad: A Centennial Town</em> (Trinidad, CO: O’Brien Printing and Stationery, 1976).</p> <p>Morris F. Taylor, <em>Trinidad, Colorado Territory</em> (Trinidad, CO: Trinidad State Junior College, 1966).</p> <p>William Wyckoff, <em>Creating Colorado: The Making of a Western American Landscape, 1860–1940</em> (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Thomas G. Andrews, <em>Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War</em> (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010).</p> <p>Rocky Mountain PBS, <a href="https://video.rmpbs.org/video/2365888582/">"Dana Crawford,"</a>&nbsp;<em>Colorado Experience</em>, November 10, 2016.</p> <p>Rocky Mountain PBS, <a href="https://video.rmpbs.org/video/2365918089/">"Trinidad,"</a>&nbsp;<em>Colorado Experience</em>, December 22, 2016.</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Tue, 15 Mar 2016 21:22:36 +0000 yongli 1225 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org