%1 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/ en Coal Mining in Colorado http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/coal-mining-colorado <!-- 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">Coal Mining in Colorado</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="2021-02-16T13:06:10-07:00" title="Tuesday, February 16, 2021 - 13:06" class="datetime">Tue, 02/16/2021 - 13:06</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/coal-mining-colorado" data-a2a-title="Coal Mining in Colorado"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fcoal-mining-colorado&amp;title=Coal%20Mining%20in%20Colorado"></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>In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, coal mining was the most important industry in Colorado. Coal mines served as the crucibles of empire, churning out the fuel needed to power the railroads, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/precious-metal-mining-colorado"><strong>precious-metal mines</strong></a>, and smelters that helped develop the region. They were also contested sites of worker resistance and rebellion where the power dynamics of industrial capitalism were acted out in tragic ways.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Although it is no longer mined in Colorado at the rates it once was, coal has maintained its relative importance to the state’s energy economy through the present. Today, coal mining remains an important industry in the <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/moffat-county"><strong>Moffat County</strong></a>, and coal-fueled power plants provide electricity to hundreds of thousands of residents along the <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/front-range"><strong>Front Range</strong></a>. These coal mines and power plants are sources of air and water pollution, and the industries coal helped fuel are equally pollutive.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Formation of Coal</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>About 70 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous Period, much of Colorado was covered by a shallow, tropical sea. When the uplift of the <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/rocky-mountains"><strong>Rocky Mountains</strong></a> began about a million years later, it pushed up the inundated land, giving rise to many swampy bogs. It was in these bogs that Colorado’s coal began to form as millions of years of the sun’s energy became trapped in vegetation that died and decomposed on top of itself. The plant material was gradually compressed into a primordial muck that eventually hardened into coal.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>When engineer <strong>Ferdinand V. Hayden</strong> surveyed the geology of Colorado in the late 1860s and early 1870s, he identified several areas that held vast coal reserves. These included the Raton Basin in southern Colorado, whose coal Hayden described as being “inexhaustible and of excellent quality,” as well as the northwest part of what was then <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-territory"><strong>Colorado Territory</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The Advent of Industrial Coal</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The earliest coal mining in Colorado took place in the late 1850s near the fledgling town of <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a>, but industrial development of the state’s coal resources awaited the arrival of <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/william-jackson-palmer"><strong>William Jackson Palmer</strong></a> in the late 1860s. Over the next two decades, Palmer turned coal into Colorado’s most important commodity. In addition to founding the tourist town of <a href="/article/colorado-springs"><strong>Colorado Springs</strong></a> in 1871, Palmer opened dozens of new coal mines in southern Colorado, and his <strong>Denver &amp; Rio Grande Railroad</strong> (D&amp;RG) brought that coal to market in Denver. To manage his new coal empire, Palmer started Colorado Coal &amp; Iron, which eventually became <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-fuel-iron"><strong>Colorado Fuel and Iron</strong></a> (CF&amp;I), arguably the state’s most powerful coal company. The southern Colorado towns of <strong>Trinidad</strong> and <strong>Walsenburg</strong> became important hubs of coal mining and transport, with the latter known as “The City Built on Coal.”</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Coke and Industry</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Coal mining in Colorado developed alongside precious-metal mining. In addition to providing the fuel needed to transport gold and silver ore, coal also warmed the homes of residents in Denver and other mushrooming Front Range cities.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By the 1860s, as gold and silver miners left behind panned-out streambeds and began extracting more metal-bearing ore from the mountains, it became apparent that extreme heat was needed to separate gold and silver from the rock that held it. Coal would provide that heat, but not just any coal would do. Smelters, the heat-driven facilities that melted gold and silver ore to extract the metals, required coal that would burn hot enough to melt rock. This type of coal, a densely layered type called <em>coking coal</em>, was formed by the supercompression of underground coal seams. When heated without oxygen, coking coal turns into <em>coke</em>, a fuel that burns hot enough to melt rock and forge steel.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the 1880s, coke became even more essential in Colorado, as it fueled William Jackson Palmer’s <strong>steel mill</strong> in <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/pueblo"><strong>Pueblo</strong></a>. Coking coal was most commonly found in Colorado’s southern coalfields, making those fields even more important to the state’s industrial economy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Major Coal Mining Locations</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>As Palmer’s southern coalfields coalesced in <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/las-animas-county"><strong>Las Animas</strong></a> and <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/huerfano-county"><strong>Huerfano</strong></a> Counties, railroad expansion allowed other parts of the state to become major coal producers as well. In 1881 the D&amp;RG reached <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/crested-butte"><strong>Crested Butte</strong></a>, in northern <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/gunnison-county"><strong>Gunnison County</strong></a>, which would contain some of the most productive mines in the state; it was also the site of the grisly <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/jokerville-mine-explosion"><strong>Jokerville Mine Explosion</strong></a> that killed fifty-nine workers in 1884. Toward the end of that decade miners began tapping coalfields in <a href="/article/boulder-county"><strong>Boulder County</strong></a>, which fueled the growth of towns such as <strong>Louisville</strong> and <strong>Lafayette</strong> in the 1890s.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/garfield-county"><strong>Garfield County</strong></a> in western Colorado also held productive mines, including the volatile Vulcan Mine, which suffered <strong>three deadly explosions</strong> between 1896 and 1918. In the early 1900s, thanks to the completion of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-northwestern-pacific-railway-hill-route-moffat-road"><strong>Moffat Road</strong></a> rail line, a relatively smaller coal industry developed in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/routt-county"><strong>Routt County</strong></a> in the northwest part of the state. After the Moffat Road reached Craig in 1913, the coal beds of Moffat County could be tapped, too.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By 1917 Colorado had 238 coal mines operating throughout the state, most of which were divided between three companies: CF&amp;I, <strong>Rocky Mountain Fuel Company</strong>, and <strong>Victor American Fuel Company</strong>. That year, the state’s coal mines produced a total of some 12.5 million tons of coal, an increase of nearly 2 million tons from the previous year.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Even as it gradually lost market share to oil and natural gas, coal mining continued throughout the twentieth century in Colorado. In Moffat County, for instance, production reached more than 100,000 tons annually between 1943 and 1951. Mining in the state also shifted during this period from deep mining, the kind that sent miners far belowground, to open-pit mining, where heavy machinery is used to excavate shallower coal seams. By the 1960s, coal production had dwindled to the point where the industry had only a small fraction of its earlier power and influence.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Work in the Coal Mines</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Working in coal mines was dirty and dangerous, and labor conditions were dismal and underregulated. Most coal mines grouped together men from more than a dozen different nations and backgrounds, including Austria, Britain, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Poland, and the United States. In the 1880s, coal miners worked from fourteen to sixteen hours per day for paltry wages that were often paid in scrip, a kind of currency that could be used only at company stores. Since many coal camps were remote, these stores were often the sole local source of food and supplies, keeping miners tethered to the company. Moreover, coal companies such as CF&amp;I often built whole company towns, where workers paid rent to live. Along with company stores, company housing ensured that most wages were returned to the company.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the mines, workers inhaled coal dust all day long, which led to the devastating respiratory disease known as black lung. Mine shafts could collapse or flood. Rock slides and fires were also common; in 1917 the state mine inspector reported that sixty-six miners died from routine accidents, including “falls of rock, falls of coal, mine cars and motors, explosives,” and “electricity.” In addition, methane and other flammable gases released from coal beds often built up in the mines, and each morning an inspector had to check the air quality before work could begin. Employed since the early 1800s, safety lamps, whose flames burned differently when held close to flammable gases, helped determine whether a mine’s air quality was safe. Davy lamps with longer wicks were also used to burn off harmful gases.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Most mines employed inspectors to monitor safety conditions, but even a slight mistake could spell instant death for dozens of miners. This was the case in the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/hastings-mine-explosion"><strong>Hastings Mine Explosion</strong></a>, Colorado’s deadliest mining disaster, which occurred north of Trinidad in 1917. For unknown reasons, the mine inspector took apart his safety lamp and attempted to relight it with a match, triggering a gas-fueled explosion that killed 121 workers. In addition, some mines exploded despite being declared safe; this occurred in the Jokerville Mine blast of 1884, which killed fifty-nine miners. A total of eighty-five workers perished during the three explosions of the Vulcan Mine between 1896 and 1918. These disasters reflected the troubling trend of Colorado miners dying at a rate of twice the national average between 1884 and 1912.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Labor Strife</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Coal miners were victims of owner exploitation and hazardous working conditions, and they often tried to improve their lot. As early as the 1870s, they organized strikes and walkouts, and later they joined unions such as the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/united-mine-workers-america"><strong>United Mine Workers of America</strong></a> (UMWA), formed in 1890. The first UMWA local in Colorado was formed in the Boulder County town of Erie that year, and the union organized its <strong>first major strike</strong> during the <strong><a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/panic-1893">financial calamity</a> </strong>of 1893-94. Thousands of coal miners across the state walked off the job, hoping to produce a coal shortage that would force owners to meet their demands of abolishing company stores and paying workers in cash. In the end, however, there were not enough walkouts to produce a shortage, so miners went back to work under prestrike conditions. By 1900 similar actions had earned some hard-won improvements, including a state law mandating an eight-hour workday, but coal miners had to pressure companies such as CF&amp;I to follow the laws.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Recognizing the power of strikes, mine owners and companies took them seriously, employing both economic oppression and violence to stop them. Owners fired striking workers and hired strikebreakers to work for lower wages than strikers were demanding, hoping to end the strikes. When these approaches failed, mine owners and companies raised citizen militias or petitioned the state to call in the National Guard to force miners back to work.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In Colorado the UMWA 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>, Huerfano, and Las Animas Counties. A <strong>strike in 1903–4</strong> again called for the abolition of scrip and company stores, as well as implementation of the state’s eight-hour workday law. The failure of that strike led to rising tensions that exploded again in the spring of 1913. The UMWA led a strike in the southern coalfields that involved about 90 percent of the state’s coal workers and resulted in the <a href="/article/ludlow-massacre"><strong>Ludlow Massacre</strong></a> when National Guard members fired on striking miners and set the strikers’ tent colony on fire. It was the deadliest labor conflict in state history.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Coal mining conditions were hardly improved for miners by the time another major conflict broke out in the late 1920s. In 1927, during a strike in the northern coalfields of <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/weld-county"><strong>Weld County</strong></a>, the Colorado State Police (then known as the Colorado Rangers) <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/columbine-mine-massacre-0"><strong>opened fire on strikers</strong></a> and their wives at the Rocky Mountain Fuel company town of Serene, killing six and wounding twenty.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Strikes and labor conflict became less common after the passage of the federal Wagner Act in 1935, which recognized workers’ rights to unionize. Still, there remained periods of strife, such as in 1978, when miners at the Allen and Maxwell Mines in Las Animas County walked off the job for three months as part of a national strike organized by the United Mine Workers.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Environmental Effects</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In addition to the injuries and health hazards to workers, coal mining has produced a number of negative environmental effects that Coloradans continue to deal with today. Air pollution is the largest environmental cost of coal production. To make the air in coal mines breathable, methane and other harmful gases are vented out into the atmosphere, contributing to local smog and global climate change. The West Elk Mine in Gunnison County is the largest methane emitter in Colorado, belching out emissions in 2017 that equaled those of 98,000 cars. Abandoned coal mines also release methane. Nationwide, coal mines account for almost 10 percent of all methane emissions.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In addition, mines often need to be expanded to maintain their profitability, which leads to deforestation and other forms of habitat destruction. As such, environmental groups often take the coal industry to court over mine expansion as well as pollution. At the West Elk Mine, for example, a proposed expansion into a designated roadless forest resulted in years of litigation before it was ultimately blocked in 2020—but only after the company illegally bulldozed a road through the area.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Coal-fueled power plants are another major source of pollution. In 2020 <strong><em>The Denver Post</em></strong> named Colorado’s six coal-fired power plants among the state’s top ten greenhouse gas emitters. Coal-fired power can contaminate water sources, too; in 2019 an investigation by the <strong>Platte River Power Authority </strong>found that groundwater near the Rawhide Energy Station in <a href="/article/larimer-county"><strong>Larimer County</strong></a> was contaminated with selenium, a chemical that can harm both humans and wildlife. Aware of coal’s ongoing potential to harm air and water quality and wildlife, environmental groups such as the <strong>Sierra Club</strong> and <strong>WildEarth Guardians</strong> have repeatedly sued to stop the expansion of the coal industry in the state.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Today</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Despite its environmental effects, coal mining continues in Colorado today. In Moffat County, coal still underwrites the local economy. As much as 46 percent of the total property value in the county is generated from its two major coal mines, the Colowyo and Trapper Mines. The Craig Station power plant, completed in the early 1980s and operated by the <strong>Westminster</strong>-based Tri-State Generation and Transmission company, provides hundreds of jobs in Moffat County and supplies power to some 250,000 square miles in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Wyoming. Despite its importance to local economies in places like Craig, Tri-State has decided to shut down the company’s coal-fired plants in Colorado and New Mexico by 2030.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Even though production has declined almost every year since 2012, Colorado remains the eleventh-largest producer of coal in the country, with nearly one-quarter of its coal exported to other countries. The West Elk Mine remains one of the state’s largest, employing around 220 people and producing nearly 4 million tons of coal in 2016. Coal from within and beyond the state provides more than half of Colorado’s net electricity generation. This means that coal will play a part in Colorado’s economy for at least the next decade, even as state and industry leaders move toward less pollutive and renewable energy sources.</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/coal-mining" hreflang="en">coal mining</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/coal-mining-colorado" hreflang="en">coal mining in colorado</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/coal-mines" hreflang="en">coal mines</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/moffat-county" hreflang="en">Moffat County</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/craig" hreflang="en">Craig</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/energy" hreflang="en">energy</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/smelter" hreflang="en">smelter</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/railroads" hreflang="en">railroads</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colowyo" hreflang="en">colowyo</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/routt-county" hreflang="en">routt county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/west-elk-mine" hreflang="en">west elk mine</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/crested-butte" hreflang="en">crested butte</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/jokerville-mine" hreflang="en">jokerville mine</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/garfield-county" hreflang="en">Garfield County</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/vulcan-mine" hreflang="en">vulcan mine</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/hastings-mine-explosion" hreflang="en">hastings mine explosion</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/boulder-county" hreflang="en">boulder county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/weld-county" hreflang="en">weld county</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/ludlow-massacre" hreflang="en">Ludlow Massacre</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/colorado-fuel-iron" hreflang="en">colorado fuel &amp; iron</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/pueblo" hreflang="en">pueblo</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/coking-coal" hreflang="en">coking coal</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/huerfano-county" hreflang="en">huerfano county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/walsenburg" hreflang="en">walsenburg</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/lafayette" hreflang="en">Lafayette</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/louisville" hreflang="en">louisville</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/strike" hreflang="en">Strike</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/united-mineworkers-america" hreflang="en">united mineworkers of america</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/umwa" hreflang="en">umwa</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/unions" hreflang="en">unions</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/columbine-mine-massacre" hreflang="en">columbine mine massacre</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>John Aguilar, “<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2020/06/18/west-elk-mine-court-ruling-poania/">State Orders Coal Company to Cease Expansion of West Elk Mine Into Roadless Area Near Paonia</a>,” <em>The Denver Post</em>, June 18, 2020.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Thomas G. Andrews, <em>Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War </em>(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Aspire Mining Limited, “<a href="https://aspiremininglimited.com/what-is-coking-coal/">What Is Coking Coal</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Allen Best, “Amid the Pandemic, Can Colorado Still Lead on a Just Transition From Coal?” <em>Energy News Network</em>, August 5, 2020.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Sam Brasch, “<a href="https://www.cpr.org/2020/03/05/craig-colorado-believes-in-coal-now-it-needs-a-plan-to-reinvent-itself/">Craig, Colorado Believes in Coal. Now It Needs a Plan to Reinvent Itself</a>,” <em>Colorado Public Radio</em>, March 5, 2020.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Center for Biological Diversity, “<a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/lawsuit-launched-over-illegal-air-pollution-colorado-coal-mine-2019-12-17/">Lawsuit Launched Over Illegal Air Pollution at Colorado Coal Mine</a>,” December 17, 2019.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Tessa Cheek, “<a href="https://www.coloradoindependent.com/2015/05/14/environmentalists-are-targeting-colorado-coal-successfully/">Environmentalists Are Targeting Colorado Coal, Successfully</a>,” <em>Colorado Independent</em>, May 14, 2015.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Tamara Chuang, “<a href="https://coloradosun.com/2019/03/19/colorado-coal-ash-water-contamination/">Chemical Contamination From 7 Colorado Coal-Fired Power Plants Found During Groundwater Monitoring</a>,” <em>Colorado Sun</em>, March 19, 2019.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>City of Lafayette, Colorado, “<a href="https://www.lafayetteco.gov/DocumentCenter/View/152/Coal-Mining-Heritage-of-Lafayette?bidId=">The Coal Mining Heritage of Lafayette</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.craigdailypress.com/news/craig-station-works-to-supply-the-demand/">Craig Station Works to Supply the Demand</a>,” <em>Craig Press</em>, October 14, 2014.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>James Dalrymple, <a href="https://spl.cde.state.co.us/artemis/nrserials/nr930010internet/nr9300101917internet.pdf"><em>Fifth Annual Report of the State Inspector of Coal Mines—1917</em></a> (Denver: Eames Brothers, 1917).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2017/09/08/feds-approve-west-elk-mine-expansion/">Feds Approve Expansion of West Elk Mine in Western Colorado Against Environmental Group Objections</a>,” <em>Grand Junction Daily Sentinel</em> (via <em>The Denver Post</em>), September 8, 2017.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Ferdinand V. Hayden, <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2003/0384/report.pdf"><em>Preliminary Field Report of the United States Geological Survey of Colorado and New Mexico</em></a> (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1869).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Bruce Finley, “<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2020/01/19/colorado-air-pollution/">What’s Polluting Colorado’s Air? 125 million Tons a Year of Heat-Trapping and Hazardous Gases</a>,” <em>The Denver Post</em>, January 19, 2020.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Mark Jaffe, “<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2015/05/11/colorado-mine-approvals-failed-to-look-at-environmental-impacts/">Colorado Mine Approvals Failed to Look at Environmental Impacts</a>,” <em>The Denver Post</em>, May 11, 2015.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2020/05/lawsuit-targets-arch-coal-s-illegal-air-pollution-colorado-coal-mine">Lawsuit Targets Arch Coal’s Illegal Air Pollution at Colorado Coal Mine</a>,” Sierra Club, May 14, 2020.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Noré V. Winter et al., <a href="https://www.treadofpioneers.org/pdf/Routt_County_Historic_Context_1994.pdf"><em>Historic Context of Routt County</em></a> (Boulder, CO: Winter and Company, 1994).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Kelsey Ray, “<a href="https://www.coloradoindependent.com/2016/05/03/colorados-worst-methane-polluter-is-an-arch-coal-mine-west-elk-john-hickenlooper/">Colorado’s Worst Methane Polluter Is an Arch Coal Mine</a>,” <em>Colorado Independent</em>, May 3, 2016.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Christopher J. Schreck, “<a href="https://scalar.usc.edu/works/the-colorado-fuel-and-iron-company/strikes-and-other-labor-disputes">Strikes and Other Labor Disputes</a>,” Labor Relations in the Industrial West, updated December 14, 2016.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Brian K. Trembath, “<a href="https://history.denverlibrary.org/news/remembering-colorados-coal-warsand-coal-miners">Remembering Colorado’s Coal Wars  . . . And Coal Miners</a>,” Denver Public Library Western History and Genealogy Department, September 2, 2015.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>University of Denver, “<a href="https://www.du.edu/ludlow/cfhist.html">A History of the Colorado Coal Field War</a>,” Colorado Coal Field War Project, n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>US Energy Information Administration, “<a href="https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/coal/mining-and-transportation.php">Coal Explained: Mining and Transportation of Coal</a>,” updated October 28, 2019.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>US Energy Information Administration, “<a href="https://www.eia.gov/state/analysis.php?sid=CO">Colorado: Profile Analysis</a>,” updated March 19, 2020.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>US Environmental Protection Agency, “<a href="https://www.epa.gov/cmop/sources-coal-mine-methane">Coal Mine Methane Sources</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Bian Zhengfu et al., “Environmental Issues From Coal Mining and Their Solutions,” <em>Mining Science and Technology </em>20 (2010).</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>Earthjustice.org, “<a href="https://earthjustice.org/features/colorado-forests-and-coal">Coal’s Toll on Colorado’s Forests</a>,” updated June 8, 2017.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Ferdinand V. Hayden, <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/70038931"><em>Seventh Annual Report of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, embracing Colorado</em></a> (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1873).</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>Randall H. McGuire and Paul Reckner, “<a href="https://users.clas.ufl.edu/davidson/Historical%20archaeology%20fall%202015/Week%204/McGuire%20&amp;amp;%20Reckner%202003.pdf">Building a Working-Class Archaeology: The Colorado Coal Field War Project</a>,” <em>Industrial Archaeology Review</em> 25, no. 2 (2003).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Jonathan H. Rees, <em>Representation and Rebellion: The Rockefeller Plan at the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 1914–1942 </em>(Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2010).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Tue, 16 Feb 2021 20:06:10 +0000 yongli 3536 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Vulcan Mine Explosions http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/vulcan-mine-explosions <!-- 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">Vulcan Mine Explosions</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="2021-02-08T15:47:21-07:00" title="Monday, February 8, 2021 - 15:47" class="datetime">Mon, 02/08/2021 - 15:47</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/vulcan-mine-explosions" data-a2a-title="Vulcan Mine Explosions"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fvulcan-mine-explosions&amp;title=Vulcan%20Mine%20Explosions"></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>Between 1896 and 1918, the Vulcan Mine in <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/garfield-county"><strong>Garfield County</strong></a> exploded three times, killing a total of eighty-five workers. The successive blasts prompted action from labor unions and politicians to make coal mines safer. At the site of the Vulcan Mine today, there remains an active underground coal fire that was lit in the mine’s first explosion on February 18, 1896. It is one of more than two dozen active coal fires in the area of <strong>New Castle</strong>, which all began in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Origins</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In the 1890s, Garfield County was a hub of coal production in Colorado. By 1896 ten coal mines operated throughout the county, employing more than 450 workers. As early as 1893, the <strong>Atchison, Topeka &amp; Santa Fe Railroad</strong> (ATSF) owned and operated the Vulcan Mine near present-day New Castle, along the Colorado Midland Railway about two miles south of the <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-river"><strong>Colorado River</strong></a>. The local industry’s nexus was <strong>Carbondale</strong>, an aptly named rail town north of <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/aspen"><strong>Aspen</strong></a>. In mines like the Vulcan, miners from Sweden, Austria, Great Britain, Mexico, and a dozen other nations worked fourteen- to sixteen-hour days in dangerous conditions for paltry wages paid in scrip, a kind of company cash that was valid only at company stores. The company stores were often the lone source of food and supplies in the area, ensuring that most wages were returned to the company.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>These grievances often led to strikes, like the one that occurred at the Vulcan Mine in October 1893, and prompted miners to join unions such as the <a href="/article/western-federation-miners"><strong>Western Federation of Miners</strong></a> (WFM) or the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/united-mine-workers-america"><strong>United Mine Workers of America</strong></a> (UMWA).</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Safety at the Vulcan Mine</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Coal seams naturally emit methane, a flammable gas. In the 1890s, inspectors checked coal mines daily for signs of gas buildup, including odors and dead animals. Miners also used Davy Lamps, long-wicked lamps that prevented gas buildup by burning it. But these precautions could not avert every disaster; in 1884 the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/jokerville-mine-explosion"><strong>Jokerville Mine</strong></a> in <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/crested-butte"><strong>Crested Butte</strong></a> blew up after miners were given the postinspection all-clear.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>To avoid explosions, miners and managers also used a process called dampening, in which water was sprayed in mines to remove flammable coal dust from the air. If dampening was not done, the air could ignite, leading to an explosion if methane was present.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>During an ATSF inspection at the Vulcan Mine on September 20, 1895, foreman James Harrison was “satisfied that everything was well conditioned.” He observed the mine to be “well timbered” and was optimistic that an additional ventilation fan, installed in October, would improve the mine’s air quality and safety. It appeared to have helped; even after the deadly explosion the next year, state mining inspector David Griffiths wrote that he considered the mine to be “in good and safe condition, and there was no accumulation of gas and dust.”</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>First Explosion</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>No matter how safe managers thought the Vulcan to be, the mine proved otherwise for the first time on February 18, 1896. At 11:27 am, an earth-shaking explosion killed all forty-nine men at work that day, including Harrison and miners from nine different nations. state mine inspector Griffiths knew the time of the explosion in part because “on the body of one of the men a watch was found that had evidently stopped instantly, owing to the violence of the explosion.” Describing the aftermath, Griffiths wrote, “every man in the mine died instantly . . . the fans located on the surface . . . were blown to pieces,” and “every wooden stopping and door in the mine was broken . . . shattered like matchwood.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Although there were several theories about why the mine exploded, Griffiths could not pinpoint the exact cause and was not convinced it could have been prevented. In his annual report for 1896–97, he advocated for new laws “for the health and safety of our miners.” He recommended the appointment of a board expressly for that purpose, with equal representation for miners and management. It is not known whether Griffiths’s suggestions affected state policy, but by 1901 the state did have a “legislative investigating committee” that traveled to coal fields where labor disputes were ongoing or imminent.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Second Explosion</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>After the 1896 blast, the ATSF leased the Vulcan and the rest of its mines to <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-fuel-iron"><strong>Colorado Fuel and Iron</strong></a> (CF&amp;I), one of the largest coal producers in the nation. By 1913 the Vulcan was being operated by the Coryell Mine Leasing Company. That year, on December 16, another explosion at the mine took the lives of thirty-seven workers. Unlike the first explosion, gas was not part of the cause; state mine inspector James Dalrymple found that “flame and dust” were to blame. Although he found fault in workers’ use of open lamps at the tops of the chutes, Dalrymple concluded that operators had violated mining-law provisions calling for proper dampening.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>More than a year later, a coroner’s jury agreed, ruling that “the explosion was due to negligence of the mine owners,” who did not keep the “mine property properly sprinkled to prevent the accumulation of dust.” In March 1914, the Coryell Company agreed to pay $1,000 to the families of each of the victims. Eventually, the <strong>Rocky Mountain Fuel Company</strong>, CF&amp;I’s chief rival in the state’s coal industry, acquired the Vulcan Mine.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Third Explosion</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The final deadly blast in the history of the Vulcan Mine occurred at 7:30 pm on November 4, 1918. Three men—Robert Wilkes, Cad Davis, and Milton Bell—were killed, and four others were injured. The large explosion came after workers had been cleaning and repairing various parts of the mine that had been damaged in several smaller explosions. This time, the mine was too dangerous for deputy state mine inspector James Graham to enter, so he had to rely on the accounts of witnesses, most prominently mine foreman Morgan Williams. After receiving Williams’s statement, Graham concluded that “the accident was caused by an accumulation of explosive gases in Rooms 22 to 26 coming in contact with fire.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The mine was sealed off after the deadly blast, but it kept exploding “at intervals of several hours.” After claiming the lives of eighty-nine men in three major explosions and causing countless other injuries, the volatile Vulcan Mine was closed for good. Coal production in general began to decline during this period, as the metal mining industry it served also tapered off. Oil eventually replaced coal as the dominant energy source in the state.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Legacy</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The reopening of the Vulcan Mine after the first and second deadly explosions shows that Colorado’s coal mine operators truly had little regard for miner safety; if they did, they would have provided better ventilation and reconsidered practices like the pay-by-weight policy, which paid miners per ton of coal mined instead of time. The result of this was that miners spent more time digging coal instead of shoring up safety features or paying attention to warning signs of explosions. Labor unions such as the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) consistently listed the weight payment system as a grievance during strikes. Eventually, unions won abolition of this system, even though hundreds of miners had already died in accidents and explosions.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Vulcan Mine explosions also helped make the modern landscape around New Castle. Even though its mines have not operated for nearly a century, the area is still the site of some two dozen underground coal fires, lit by explosions in the coal industry’s heyday. These burns, which can be identified by the lack of snow in certain areas during winter, are normally self-contained but can sometimes erupt into bigger blazes; in 2002 a fire sparked by a burning coal seam destroyed thirty houses in New Castle.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Vulcan explosions also help track the evolution of mine safety and labor history. As the nineteenth century moved into the twentieth, procedures like dampening became part of state mining law, and more workers joined labor unions that called for increased corporate responsibility for miners’ safety. The massive casualties of explosions at the Vulcan and other coal mines show why labor unions became so popular. They also tally with the high price Coloradans paid for cheap coal in the early twentieth century.</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/vulcan-mine" hreflang="en">vulcan mine</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/vulcan-mine-explosion" hreflang="en">vulcan mine explosion</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/garfield-county" hreflang="en">Garfield County</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/new-castle" hreflang="en">new castle</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/western-slope" hreflang="en">Western Slope</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/energy-development" hreflang="en">energy development</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/coal-mines" hreflang="en">coal mines</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/labor-history" hreflang="en">labor history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/strikes" hreflang="en">strikes</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/mine-explosions" hreflang="en">mine explosions</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/mining" hreflang="en">mining</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>Cyccommute, “<a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/vulcan-mine-disasters#:~:text=The%20mine%20is%20on%20private,Main%20Street%20in%20New%20Castle.">Vulcan Mine</a>,” <em>Atlas Obscura</em>, n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>James Dalrymple, <a href="https://spl.cde.state.co.us/artemis/nrserials/nr930010internet/nr9300101913internet.pdf"><em>First Annual Report of the State Inspector of Coal Mines: 1913</em></a> (Denver: Smith-Brooks Printing, 1914).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>James E. Fell and Eric Twitty, “<a href="https://www.historycolorado.org/sites/default/files/media/document/2017/651.pdf">The Mining Industry in Colorado</a>,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, 2008.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>James Graham, “Report on Explosion at Vulcan Mine, Garfield County, Colorado, November 4, 1918,” in <a href="https://spl.cde.state.co.us/artemis/nrserials/nr930010internet/nr9300101918internet.pdf"><em>Sixth Annual Report of the Inspector of Coal Mines of the State of Colorado: 1918</em></a> (Denver: Eames Brothers, 1919).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>David Griffiths, <a href="https://spl.cde.state.co.us/artemis/nrserials/nr930010internet/nr930010189596internet.pdf"><em>Seventh Biennial Report of the Inspector of Coal Mines of the State of Colorado, 1895–1896</em></a> (Denver: Smith-Brooks Printing Co., 1897).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=DEI19140109-01.2.35&amp;srpos=9&amp;e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22vulcan+mine%22-------0-----">Jury Blames Negligence for Vulcan Mine Disaster</a>,” <em>Delta Independent</em>, January 9, 1914.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>New Castle, Colorado, “<a href="https://www.newcastlecolorado.org/community/page/new-castle-heritage">New Castle Heritage</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CFT19010126-01.2.6&amp;srpos=2&amp;e=--1897---1902--en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22coal+commission%22-------0-----">No Coal Strike Down South</a>,” <em>Colorado Daily Chieftain</em>, January 26, 1901.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Luke Runyon, “<a href="https://www.kunc.org/arts-life/2014-08-01/new-castles-coal-legacy-smolders-under-burning-mountain">New Castle’s Coal Legacy Smolders Under Burning Mountain</a>,” KUNC, August 1, 2014.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=MPT19140327.2.14&amp;srpos=10&amp;e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22vulcan+mine%22-------0-----">Widows of 37 Killed at Vulcan Mine to Be Paid $1,000 Each</a>,” <em>Middle Park Times</em>, March 27, 1914.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Amy Zimmer, “<a href="https://www.coloradovirtuallibrary.org/resource-sharing/state-pubs-blog/time-machine-tuesday-the-vulcan-mine-explosion/">Time Machine Tuesday: The Vulcan Mine Explosion</a>,” Colorado State Publications Blog, Colorado Virtual Library, June 16, 2015.</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>Dale Shrull, <em>The Legend of the Burning Mountain: An Early History of New Castle</em> (Glenwood Springs, CO: Stoney Mountain, 2000).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Mon, 08 Feb 2021 22:47:21 +0000 yongli 3528 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Western Federation of Miners http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/western-federation-miners <!-- 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">Western Federation of Miners</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="2021-01-21T15:17:40-07:00" title="Thursday, January 21, 2021 - 15:17" class="datetime">Thu, 01/21/2021 - 15:17</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/western-federation-miners" data-a2a-title="Western Federation of Miners"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fwestern-federation-miners&amp;title=Western%20Federation%20of%20Miners"></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>Founded in 1893, the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was one of the largest and most active labor unions in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American West. The union was involved in some of the most important labor disputes in Colorado and American history, including the <strong>1894 Cripple Creek Strike</strong>, the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/leadville-strike-1896%E2%80%9397"><strong>Leadville Strike of 1896–97</strong></a>, and the <strong>Colorado Labor Wars of 1903–4</strong>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The WFM stood out among other labor unions at the time on account of its steadfast belief in socialism and its willingness to use violence against the property and agents of industry. In 1905 WFM leaders helped create a larger union, the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/industrial-workers-world"><strong>Industrial Workers of the World</strong></a> (IWW), but eventually the two unions separated. In 1967 the WFM merged with the <strong>United Steel Workers of America</strong>.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Origins</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In the late nineteenth century, <a href="/article/precious-metal-mining-colorado"><strong>mining operations</strong></a> across the American West were becoming more consolidated, with large companies acquiring not only mines but also the mills, railroads, and smelters. This happened in part because the technological demands of hard-rock mining increasingly required more capital investment, which drove many smaller and medium-sized firms out of the mining industry. A major <a href="/article/panic-1893"><strong>crash in silver prices</strong></a> in 1893 only exacerbated this trend, as only the wealthiest companies could make the investments required to continue operation. As large companies like <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-fuel-iron"><strong>Colorado Fuel and Iron</strong></a> became more powerful, they assumed greater control over their labor forces, which began to push back against corporate exploitation.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Whether they worked in coal or metal mines, nineteenth-century miners held one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. They worked fourteen-hour shifts in dirty, cramped conditions. Mine shafts could collapse, flood, or fill 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. Meanwhile, mill and smelter workers were also subject to injuries from machinery, toxic air, and other workplace hazards. Many 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 ensured that most wages were ultimately returned to the company.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In this arrangement, workers held little power. Before the 1890s, when they struck to protest their pay, hours, and conditions, they were often fired or jailed for trying to improve their situation. These brutal corporate reprisals created fertile ground among workers for the formation of labor unions.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Formation</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1893—the year silver prices collapsed and threw thousands of miners into poverty—miner Edward Boyce formed the Western Federation of Miners from a jail cell in Butte, Montana. Union chapters soon sprang up in other western states, and the WFM grew after its success during the 1894 <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/cripple-creek"><strong>Cripple Creek</strong></a> Strike in one of Colorado’s wealthiest gold districts.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The WFM started out as a more traditional union, but its leadership soon took a radical turn in response to escalating conflicts with organized, antagonistic mine owners. In the wake of the Leadville Strike of 1896–97, in which armed strikers attacked strikebreakers in a confrontation that left five dead, WFM president Boyce announced support for “rifle clubs” among union members. In 1897 the WFM withdrew from its coalition with the American Federation of Labor (AFL), which had failed to support the strike. In 1902 the union elected a socialist president, Charles Moyer. Historian Katherine Benton Cohen writes that the WFM “did not shy away from lawbreaking and sabotage, nor did its opponents.”</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Activity in Colorado</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The WFM’s formation stemmed from violent conflicts in Idaho and Montana, but in 1900 the union moved its headquarters to Denver, Colorado. It is in Colorado where the WFM solidified its reputation as one of the most powerful labor unions in the West.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>WFM activity in Colorado began with the 1894 Cripple Creek Strike, where the union was helped by a sympathetic politician, <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/populism-colorado"><strong>Populist</strong></a> Governor <strong>Davis Waite</strong>. During the conflict, Waite initially refused to send in the <strong>National Guard</strong> to assist mine owners. When owners got the local sheriff to bring in an armed, strike-breaking posse, WFM members dynamited the train platform where the posse was about to disembark. Violence continued on both sides until Waite finally brokered an agreement that favored the miners, gaining the WFM fame and a broader membership. By 1903 the union had 28,000 members in Colorado across forty-two local chapters.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Part of the 1894 agreement was an eight-hour workday, and in 1899 the Colorado legislature enshrined that into state law. But in 1903 mining and smelting companies broke their promise and the law, cutting wages to make up for lost productivity. This prompted WFM strikes across the state, from mines in <strong>Idaho Springs</strong>, <a href="/article/telluride"><strong>Telluride</strong></a>, and Cripple Creek to smelters and mills in <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a>. Urged by WFM secretary <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/william-dudley-haywood"><strong>Bill Haywood</strong></a>, nearly 4,000 miners left their posts in the Cripple Creek District. When mine owners hired strikebreakers to keep mines operating, WFM strikers clashed with strikebreakers, sabotaged mine equipment, and even dynamited a mine, acts that resulted in casualties for both sides.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>This time, however, the WFM ran into a less sympathetic governor in <strong>James Peabody</strong>, who declared martial law in Cripple Creek and sent in the National Guard to arrest strikers and kick them out of the district. Eventually, jailed strikers were freed by a court order, and those who were deported were paid a total of $60,000. Meanwhile, Peabody also sent National Guardsmen to Telluride, where in 1904 National Guard captain and local mine manager <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/bulkeley-wells"><strong>Bulkeley Wells</strong></a> built <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fort-peabody"><strong>Fort Peabody</strong></a> on a mountain pass east of town to keep WFM miners out of <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/san-miguel-county"><strong>San Miguel County</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>During the Cripple Creek Strike, Haywood wrote directly to President Theodore Roosevelt, arguing that “a duty devolves upon you as President of the United States to investigate the terrible crimes that are being perpetrated in Colorado in the name of law and order.” In 1905 the Roosevelt administration began such an investigation, uncovering documents such as “yellow dog” contracts, in which the signer pledged not to join a union as a condition of employment. The contracts, legal then but later banned in the 1930s, were clear attempts to disempower workers.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>For all the efforts and sacrifices of its members, the WFM’s actions in Colorado made little headway for workers. By 1904 most mines had reopened with nonunion labor, and WFM membership had dropped by about 4,000 across the state.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>From the West to the World</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Even though the union met with some success in its early years, by 1905 the WFM’s involvement in violent disputes across the American West resulted in declining membership, as well as a lack of allies and public support. To address these shortcomings, WFM leaders, including Secretary Haywood and President Moyer, met in Chicago to form a new, international workers’ union. The result was the International Workers of the World, also known as the “Wobblies.” The IWW adopted the core principles of the WFM, which now reaffirmed its existence as “an industrial union endorsing socialism and united economic and political action by the working class,” according to historian Eric Clements.  </p>&#13; &#13; <p>However, the IWW was plagued with leadership problems from the start. It was also ideologically split between moderate unionists, who favored bargaining with corporations, and radicals who sought an end to the existing arrangement between companies and workers. Eventually, the infighting resulted in a more moderate WFM detaching itself from a radical IWW in 1907. Bill Haywood, long known as a radical unionist, was among those who stayed with the IWW. Meanwhile, at its 1908 convention, the WFM reelected Moyer as president and announced it would focus on growing its ranks instead of pursuing a more radical agenda. Three years later, the WFM rejoined the AFL.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Decline</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Several factors contributed to the waning influence of the WFM in the 1910s, but among the most important were the failures of its strikes during the previous decade and the infighting that undermined it. In Colorado, hard-rock mining was also in decline during that period, as most of the profitable veins had been tapped out and many surviving mines folded when metals prices declined after World War I. In 1916 the WFM changed its name to the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers (IUMMSW).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-world-war-i"><strong>World War I</strong></a>, when the nation’s attention turned to the alleged evils of Communism, the Socialist IWW suffered declines in membership and public support. Mining and industrial unions did not regain power until the 1930s, when the WFM/IUMMSW was again revived under a Communist banner; this time, the union’s influence spread not only through the West but also the South and East, especially among steelworkers. But after <strong>World War II</strong>, anti-Communist sentiment prevailed again, and aside from a 1950 strike among zinc miners in New Mexico, the IUMMSW was not very active. In 1967 the union merged with the United Steelworkers of America.</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/western-federation-miners" hreflang="en">Western Federation of Miners</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/jokerville-mine" hreflang="en">jokerville mine</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/mining-history" hreflang="en">mining history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/mining-colorado" hreflang="en">mining colorado</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/labor-unions" hreflang="en">labor unions</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/strikes" hreflang="en">strikes</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/cripple-creek" hreflang="en">Cripple Creek</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/leadville" hreflang="en">Leadville</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/telluride" hreflang="en">Telluride</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver" hreflang="en">Denver</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/smelter" hreflang="en">smelter</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/crested-butte" hreflang="en">crested butte</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/teller-county" hreflang="en">teller county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/san-miguel-county" hreflang="en">san miguel county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/front-range" hreflang="en">front range</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/metal-mines" hreflang="en">metal mines</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/hard-rock-mining" hreflang="en">hard rock mining</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> </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, 1994).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>AFL-CIO, “<a href="https://aflcio.org/about/history/labor-history-events/battle-cripple-creek">The Battle of Cripple Creek</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Katherine Benton-Cohen, <em>Borderline Americans: Racial Division and Labor War in the Arizona Borderlands</em> (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>David R. Berman, <em>Radicalism in the Mountain West, 1890–1920: Socialists, Populists, Miners, and Wobblies</em> (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2007).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Eric L. Clements, “Pragmatic Revolutionaries? Tactics, Ideologies, and the Western Federation of Miners in the Progressive Era,” <em>Western Historical Quarterly</em> 40, no. 4 (Winter 2009).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>History Matters, “<a href="https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5653/">Ideas in Conflict: Opposing Views of the Cripple Creek Strike</a>,” George Mason University, n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>History Matters, “<a href="https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5654">Union-Busting at Cripple Creek</a>,” George Mason University, n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>William Philpott, <em>The Lessons of Leadville: Or, Why the Western Federation of Miners Turned Left</em> (Denver: Colorado Historical Society, 1995).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>University of Colorado Libraries, “<a href="https://www.colorado.edu/libraries/2018/03/16/western-federation-miners#:~:text=The%20Western%20Federation%20of%20Miners%20(WFM)%2C%20which%20in%201916,in%20the%20nonferrous%20metals%20industry.">The Western Federation of Miners</a>,” March 16, 2018.</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>Jan MacKell, <em>Cripple Creek District: Last of Colorado’s Gold Booms </em>(Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2003).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>MaryJoy Martin, <em>The Corpse on Boomerang Road: Telluride’s War on Labor 1899–1908 </em>(Ouray, CO: Western Reflections, 2004).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Benjamin McKie Rastall, “<a href="https://librarycollections.law.umn.edu/documents/darrow/Labor_History_Cripple_Creek_thesis_1908_Rastall.pdf">The Labor History of the Cripple Creek District: A Study in Industrial Evolution</a>,” <em>Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin</em>, no. 198 (1906).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Pikes Peak Library District, <em>The Colorado Labor Wars: Cripple Creek 1903–1904, A Centennial Commemoration </em>(Colorado Springs: Pikes Peak Library District, 2006).</p>&#13; &#13; <p> </p>&#13; &#13; <p>Sharon Lynne Reitman, <em>Class Formation and Union Politics: The Western Federation of Miners and the United Mine Workers of America, 1880–1910</em> (PhD diss., University of Michigan, 1991).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Arnold Stead, <em>Always on Strike: Frank Little and the Western Wobblies</em> (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2014).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>George G. Suggs, Jr., “Catalyst for Industrial Change: The WFM, 1893–1903,” <em>Colorado Magazine</em> 45, no. 4 (Fall 1968).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Thu, 21 Jan 2021 22:17:40 +0000 yongli 3476 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 Colorado Fuel and Iron Strike of 1959 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-fuel-and-iron-strike-1959 <!-- 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">Colorado Fuel and Iron Strike of 1959</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="2020-10-16T11:15:59-06:00" title="Friday, October 16, 2020 - 11:15" class="datetime">Fri, 10/16/2020 - 11:15</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/colorado-fuel-and-iron-strike-1959" data-a2a-title="Colorado Fuel and Iron Strike of 1959"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fcolorado-fuel-and-iron-strike-1959&amp;title=Colorado%20Fuel%20and%20Iron%20Strike%20of%201959"></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>In 1959 union members at the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-fuel-iron"><strong>Colorado Fuel and Iron Company</strong></a> (CF&amp;I) in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/pueblo-0"><strong>Pueblo</strong></a> participated in a nationwide strike for better job security. The strike led to a nationwide shortage of American-made steel, while the suspension of mining operations and steel production at CF&amp;I caused Pueblo to enter an economic depression. After 110 days, President Eisenhower invoked the Taft-Hartley Act to order steelworkers to return to their jobs for an eighty-day cooling-off period. On January 15, 1960, the <strong>United Steel Workers of America</strong> (USWA) reached an agreement that met union demands, and CF&amp;I resumed normal operations.</p> <h2>Origins</h2> <p>The <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ludlow-massacre"><strong>Ludlow Massacre</strong></a> of 1914 shocked the nation and forced CF&amp;I to alter some of its labor practices. Owner John D. Rockefeller, Jr., brought in Canadian labor-relations expert MacKenzie King to improve working conditions and develop one of the first company-dominated trade unions to combat the negative publicity generated by Ludlow. The company union they created, called the Employee Representation Plan (ERP), aimed to avoid the emergence of outside union formation—a strategy later outlawed by the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. In the meantime, the ERP gave the company’s coal miners and other workers a voice but with company oversight. This was a step forward for workers, but CF&amp;I employees still wanted to unionize throughout this period, leading to two decades of minor labor disputes.</p> <p>The ERP remained a dominant force and voice of the workers until CF&amp;I’s mine employees gained the power to organize themselves under the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933. As part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/new-deal-colorado"><strong>New Deal</strong></a>, the act created the National Recovery Administration (NRA) to encourage collaboration among industry, labor, and government to create fair labor practices and set fair market prices. The act also allowed employees to bargain with unions without the fear of company retaliation or bullying. The <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/united-mine-workers-america"><strong>United Mine Workers of America</strong></a> (UMWA) took advantage of this new law by starting to organize at CF&amp;I mines. Within a month, 95 percent of company miners joined the UMWA, effectively ending the ERP. The company’s steelworkers unionized a decade later, joining the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) in 1942.</p> <h2>Colorado Fuel and Iron 1959 Strike</h2> <p>Despite unionization, occasional labor disputes continued at CF&amp;I. Nothing grew out of these frequent scuffles until 1959, when CF&amp;I steelworkers took part in a nationwide strike. The USWA wanted a work-rules clause in its contracts to keep companies from introducing new machinery, rules, or practices that would result in a reduction in the number of steelworkers or their hours. When a deal could not be reached, the USWA authorized a nationwide strike on July 15, 1959.</p> <p>The strike closed CF&amp;I for 110 days, affecting all aspects of production from mining to the forging of steel. Because CF&amp;I was central to Pueblo’s economy, the city entered an economic depression. Nationally, other industries suffered, too, especially the automobile industry, because the strike caused a steel shortage at a time when many things were still made of steel. Many companies that needed steel to manufacture their goods started to look to foreign producers to meet their steel needs.</p> <p>As other industries faced layoffs, the uncompromising attitude of both parties in the strike led President Dwight Eisenhower to intervene. Invoking the Taft-Hartley Act, a 1947 law designed to restrict the power of unions, Eisenhower forced striking steelworkers to return to work for an eighty-day arbitration period, commonly known as a cooling-off period, intended to bring the parties together to reach an agreement within a set timeframe. CF&amp;I employees returned to work on November 7, 1959. In response, the USWA challenged the law in the Supreme Court and lost.</p> <p>Since 1960 was an election year, however, both political parties were worried that a resumption of the strike might lead to a recession that could harm them with voters, and they proved unwilling to support the steelmakers. With the backing of Vice President Richard Nixon, who planned to run for president that year, the USWA pressured steelmakers to concede to union demands. On January 15, 1960, the USWA won, and the union received wage increases, a cost-of-living adjustment clause, and better health and pension benefits. There would not be <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-fuel-and-iron-strike-1997"><strong>another significant strike at CF&amp;I until 1997</strong></a>.</p> <h2>Legacy</h2> <p>For workers, the successful strike of 1959 demonstrated unity and accentuated the bargaining power the steel union possessed. For the American steel industry as a whole, however, the strike marked the start of several difficult decades. By causing a shortage of domestic steel production, the strike led many American companies to start to import steel from foreign competitors. This had a lasting influence on all US steel producers. In the years after the strike, American companies such as CF&amp;I had to rely on their steel quality to maintain a competitive edge against lower-priced foreign steel. Foreign competition, continual modernization of equipment, increasing environmental regulations, and rising labor costs caused the US steel industry to struggle in the latter half of the twentieth century. CF&amp;I eventually declared bankruptcy in the early 1990s and was bought by Oregon Steel in 1993.</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/martinez-daniel-victor" hreflang="und">Martinez, Daniel Victor </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/colorado-fuel-iron-history" hreflang="en">colorado fuel &amp; iron history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-fuel-and-iron" hreflang="en">Colorado Fuel and Iron</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/cfi" hreflang="en">cf&amp;i</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/labor" hreflang="en">labor</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/strikes" hreflang="en">strikes</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-fuel-and-iron-strike-1959" hreflang="en">Colorado Fuel and Iron Strike of 1959</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/united-mine-workers-america" hreflang="en">united mine workers of america</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/united-steel-workers-america" hreflang="en">United Steel Workers of America</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>Gregory Howell, “<a href="http://www.gregoryhowell.com/colorado-fuel-iron-company">Colorado Fuel &amp; Iron Company</a>,” n.d.</p> <p>Rosemary Laughlin, <em>The Ludlow Massacre of 1913–14 </em>(Greensboro, NC: Morgan Reynolds Publishing, 2006).</p> <p>&nbsp;“<a href="https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/eras/great-depression/u-s-national-recovery-administration/">National Recovery Administration</a>,” Social Welfare History Project, Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries, January 21, 2011.</p> <p>Edward B. Shils, “Arthur Goldberg: Proof of the American Dream,” <em>Monthly Labor Review</em> 120, no. 1 (1997).</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><a href="https://www.evrazna.com/LocationsFacilities/RockyMountainSteelMills/tabid/71/Default.asp" title=" (external link)">EVRAZ Rocky Mountain Steel</a>.</p> <p><a href="https://www.steelworks.us/">Steelworks Center of the West</a>.</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Fri, 16 Oct 2020 17:15:59 +0000 yongli 3439 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Cokedale Historic District http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/cokedale-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">Cokedale 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: * 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="2017-12-11T15:27:19-07:00" title="Monday, December 11, 2017 - 15:27" class="datetime">Mon, 12/11/2017 - 15:27</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/cokedale-historic-district" data-a2a-title="Cokedale Historic District"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fcokedale-historic-district&amp;title=Cokedale%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>Nestled along Reilly Creek about eight miles west of <strong>Trinidad</strong> in <a href="/article/las-animas-county"><strong>Las Animas County</strong></a>, the Cokedale Historic District represents an excellent example of an early twentieth-century coal camp in the Raton Basin coalfield. In 1906 the American Smelting and Refining Company started construction in the area with the goal of providing adequate living conditions for the company’s coal miners and their families. Mining operations ceased in 1947, but today Cokedale remains the most intact of Colorado’s company-run coal camps.</p> <h2>Construction</h2> <p>Coal mining and coking (baking coal to produce coke used in steel production) formed a major part of Colorado’s economy at the turn of the century. In 1893 Colorado was the sixth-largest coal-producing state in the country. The Trinidad district was a hotspot for coal production, and several competing companies had mines in the area.</p> <p>One of these was the American Smelting and Refining Company (AS&amp;R), which purchased the Reilly Creek plot. AS&amp;R recognized that Trinidad coal would be ideal fuel for its smelters in El Paso and Mexico because the coal had low ash, sulphur, and phosphorus content, and high coking qualities.</p> <p>While the AS&amp;R mine at Reilly Creek was being developed, workers and miners lived in a tent colony nearby. By the autumn of 1906, construction on the town had begun, with designs drawn up by Denver architect James Murdoch. Buildings consisted of cinderblocks made of coke, cement, and quarried sandstone. Unpainted, heavy pebble dash stucco covered all the masonry structures. The houses had pyramidal roofs that extended out to cover a front porch. By the summer of 1907, the town of Cokedale was complete, and by 1909 it had more than 1,500 residents.</p> <h2>Model Camp</h2> <p>In many mining camps around the state, living conditions were dismal. Cokedale stood out, however, since the goal of the camp managers was to create a healthy and desirable living environment. In fact, Cokedale became a model mining camp. Daniel Guggenheim, whose family owned AS&amp;R, testified that workers should get sufficient wages and have access to some comforts and luxuries. Cokedale’s camp included many families, and multiple generations of the same often family worked together in the mine.</p> <p>Many camp inhabitants affirmed the mine owners’ belief that Cokedale was unique. The company maintained the houses and buildings, which encouraged pride among the inhabitants. Each house had electricity provided by the company and rent was kept at $2.00 per month, per room for forty years. AS&amp;R provided schooling for children as well as recreational activities for families. The buildings and maintenance were frequently used as models for similar company towns throughout the United States.</p> <p>Thanks to the company’s commitment to worker welfare, few miners from Cokedale participated in the coalfield strike of 1913-14. While more than 20,000 miners left other camps in the Trinidad district, Cokedale remained open. Cokedale also survived the many boom-and-bust cycles that afflicted mining camps across Colorado. Many similar coal mines ceased operations in Las Animas County after <a href="/article/colorado-world-war-i"><strong>World War I</strong></a>, but Cokedale continued to thrive until 1947.</p> <h2>Today</h2> <p>The mines at Cokedale closed in 1947 because of decreased demand, and AS&amp;R sold off the camp’s assets. Existing residents bought many of the houses and commercial structures, while most mining structures were dismantled. By 1948 the town was incorporated, with residents governing themselves for the first time in forty years.</p> <p>Since then, many of Cokedale’s houses have been remodeled or expanded, but they still reflect their original design. The camp’s coke ovens are also still visible, though they are significantly weathered. Today, people still call Cokedale home, though the population has dropped to around 200. The Cokedale Historical District, composed of 117 buildings and sites, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. In 2015 Cokedale received three separate <strong>State Historical Fund</strong> grants totaling over $130,000 for restoration.</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/bowley-nicoli" hreflang="und">Bowley, Nicoli</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/cokedale" hreflang="en">cokedale</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/cokedale-historic-district" hreflang="en">cokedale historic district</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/colorado-fuel-iron" hreflang="en">colorado fuel &amp; iron</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/coal" hreflang="en">coal</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 class="Normal1" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;">Ron Emrich, “Cokedale Historic District,” National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form (December 4, 1984).</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</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>Holly Barton, “Cokedale, 1907-1947: Anatomy of a Model Mining Community” (Trinidad, CO: Las Animas County Centennial Bicentennial Committee, 1976).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Mon, 11 Dec 2017 22:27:19 +0000 yongli 2867 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Pueblo County http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/pueblo-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">Pueblo 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--2054--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--2054.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/pueblo-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/Pueblo_County_0.png?itok=YjJU0FLG" 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/pueblo-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">Pueblo 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>Pueblo County, named for an early trading post called El Pueblo, was established in 1861 as one of the original seventeen counties of the Colorado Territory.</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="2016-11-15T10:03:28-07:00" title="Tuesday, November 15, 2016 - 10:03" class="datetime">Tue, 11/15/2016 - 10:03</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/pueblo-county" data-a2a-title="Pueblo County"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fpueblo-county&amp;title=Pueblo%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>Pueblo County covers 2,398 square miles in southeast Colorado, from the southern <a href="/article/front-range"><strong>Front Range</strong></a> and <strong>Wet Mountains</strong> in the west to the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/arkansas-river"><strong>Arkansas River</strong></a> valley and <a href="/article/colorado%E2%80%99s-great-plains"><strong>Great Plains</strong></a> in the east. It is bordered by <a href="/article/el-paso-county"><strong>El Paso County</strong></a> to the north, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/crowley-county"><strong>Crowley</strong></a> and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/otero-county"><strong>Otero</strong></a> Counties to the east, <strong><a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/las-animas-county">Las Animas</a> </strong>and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/huerfano-county"><strong>Huerfano</strong></a> Counties to the south, and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/custer-county"><strong>Custer</strong> </a>and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fremont-county"><strong>Fremont</strong></a> Counties to the west.</p> <p>Pueblo County has a population of 163,591. More than 106,000 people live in the county seat of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/pueblo"><strong>Pueblo</strong></a>—Spanish for “town” or “village”—at the confluence of Fountain Creek and the Arkansas River. <strong>Interstate 25</strong> bisects the county, running through Pueblo and <strong>Colorado City</strong> (pop. 2,193), and US Route 50 connects the farming communities of Vineland (pop. 251), <strong>Avondale</strong> (674), and Boone (339) on the Arkansas River east of Pueblo. To the southwest, at the foot of the Wet Mountains, is the community of Beulah Valley (556), and to the south lies the small town of <strong>Rye</strong> (202).</p> <p>The Pueblo County area was a Spanish possession from the sixteenth century until Mexican independence in 1821; it became one of the original seventeen counties of the <a href="/article/colorado-territory"><strong>Colorado Territory</strong></a> in 1861. The city of Pueblo developed on the site of trading posts established in the 1830s and ’40s, and in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it became the industrial center of the American West.</p> <h2>Native Americans</h2> <p>Pueblo County’s earliest inhabitants included <a href="/article/paleo-indian-period"><strong>Paleo-Indian</strong></a> and <a href="/article/archaic-period-colorado"><strong>Archaic</strong></a> peoples, as well as members of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/apishapa-phase"><strong>Apishapa</strong></a> culture, which dates from 1050 to 1450. By about 1500 the Pueblo County area was home to the Nuche or Ute people, hunter-gatherers who followed game into the high country during the summer and wintered in warmer pockets along the Front Range, such as the site of present-day Pueblo. By the mid-seventeenth century the Utes had obtained horses from the Spanish, allowing them to hunt <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/bison"><strong>bison</strong></a> on the plains. The primary Ute bands that occupied the Pueblo County area were the Tabeguache—the people of “Tava,” or Sun Mountain (<a href="/article/pikes-peak"><strong>Pikes Peak</strong></a>)—and the Muache, the “cedar bark people.” To the east, along the Arkansas River, were villages of <strong>Jicarilla Apache</strong>, a semi-sedentary people who hunted&nbsp;bison and farmed corn, beans, squash, and other vegetables along the river and its tributaries.</p> <p>By the middle of the eighteenth century, the horse-mounted Comanche had driven through Colorado on their way to claiming the Arkansas River valley, which pressed up against the northern boundary of New Spain. The Utes and Comanche formed an alliance, raiding and trading in what is now southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. In 1779, somewhere between the present-day sites of Pueblo and Colorado City, <strong>Juan Bautista de Anza</strong>, the Spanish Governor of New Mexico, drove his troops into the Comanche heartland and killed the powerful Comanche leader <strong>Cuerno Verde</strong> (Greenhorn). <strong>Greenhorn Mountain</strong>, at the southwest corner of Pueblo County, is named for the fallen chief. Despite this loss, Native Americans continued to battle the Spanish as they encroached on indigenous land. The Comanche continued their march south, eventually claiming a huge swath of land in southeast Colorado, western Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.</p> <p>By the early nineteenth century, the Arapaho, another horse-mounted people who migrated from the Upper Midwest, laid claim to the present-day site of Pueblo and other lands along the foothills in what is now Pueblo County. They developed a fierce rivalry with the Nuche. Later, the <strong>Cheyenne</strong> arrived on the Colorado plains and frequented the Pueblo County area.</p> <h2>Trade and Early Settlement</h2> <p>In 1806–7 <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/zebulon-montgomery-pike"><strong>Zebulon Pike</strong></a> led an American military expedition west to locate the headwaters of the Red and Arkansas Rivers. In November 1806 he reached the terminus of the Fountain River at the Arkansas, near present-day Pueblo. Before embarking on an unsuccessful climb of what is now known as Pikes Peak, Pike had his men build a log fortification just west of the confluence. About five feet tall on three sides, the breastwork was the first official American structure in what would become Colorado. The exact location of the breastwork remains unknown.</p> <p>After winning independence from Spain in 1821, Mexico opened trade relations with the United States along the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/santa-f%C3%A9-trail-0"><strong>Santa Fé Trail</strong></a>. Threatened by the presence of the American<a href="/article/nineteenth-century-trading-posts"><strong> trading post</strong></a> at <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/bents-forts"><strong>Bent’s Fort</strong></a> farther down the Arkansas, the Mexican government issued several <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/mexican-land-grants-colorado"><strong>land grants</strong></a> between 1832 and 1843 to encourage Mexican settlement of what is now southern Colorado. Two of these grants, the Nolan Grant and Vigil and St. Vrain Grant, included all the land south of the Arkansas River in present-day Pueblo County. However, Native Americans—predominantly Utes—fought against Mexican attempts to occupy these lands.</p> <p>In the 1830s and ‘40s, proximity to Bent’s Fort and Taos, New Mexico made the current site of Pueblo an attractive place for those involved in the Rocky Mountain <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fur-trade-colorado"><strong>fur trade</strong></a>. American trader and ex-military man John Gantt built Fort Cass on the site in 1833, pioneering the liquor trade in the Arkansas Valley. By 1841 Teresita Sandoval, a Mexican woman, was operating a bison farm in the area with Matthew Kinkead, an Anglo-American with whom she cohabitated until she married another Anglo man, Alexander Barclay, in 1844. In 1842 the American traders George Simpson and Robert Fisher established <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/el-pueblo"><strong>El Pueblo</strong></a>, a small trading camp dealing mostly in buffalo hides, at the present site of the city of Pueblo. The post got a boost that year when trader Charles Autobees introduced “Taos Lightning,” a popular kind of illegal liquor.</p> <p>Like other small settlements on the Arkansas at the time, El Pueblo was a preview of modern Pueblo’s cultural and ethnic diversity. Many of its approximately four dozen original residents were American men married to Mexican women, but it also attracted Utes, Arapaho, and other Native Americans. Men constantly came and went, journeying to Taos or Bent’s Fort for supplies, trading, or to repair weapons and equipment. Several large ranches, some owned by Mexicans and others by Americans, developed around the small trading nexus, and a cornfield was planted.</p> <p>American explorer <a href="/article/john-c-frémont"><strong>John C. Frémont</strong></a> stopped at El Pueblo to resupply on expeditions to the Rocky Mountains in 1843 and 1845. He returned to the Pueblo County area on another expedition in 1848, purchasing supplies farther up the Arkansas at Hardscrabble before continuing on to the Wet Mountains and Sangre de Cristos.</p> <p>South of El Pueblo, the Greenhorn settlement began in 1845 when El Pueblo co-founder John Brown set up a store near Greenhorn Creek. By January 1847 the settlement consisted of little more than a few Indian lodges and an adobe building. The 1849 California Gold Rush drew most of Greenhorn’s earliest inhabitants to the West Coast. Greenhorn was not resettled until 1870, after the establishment of the Colorado Territory and the removal of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Ute.</p> <h2>American Era</h2> <p>In 1848 the United States acquired the Pueblo County area via the Mexican Cession at the end of the Mexican-American War. By that time the fur trade had all but ceased and the settlements in the Pueblo County area fell silent; only a few residents remained at Pueblo by the summer of 1849, the year <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/william-bent"><strong>William Bent</strong></a> set fire to his fort farther down the Arkansas. After a brief period of resettlement in 1853, a Ute-Apache attack in 1854 killed most of the population at El Pueblo. After wiping out the inhabitants of the fort in December 1854 and making off with the settlement’s cattle and corn, a Ute party under the Muache leader Blanco was ambushed by Arapaho, reflecting the contested nature of the area.</p> <p>In response to the killings at Pueblo, the United States launched a military campaign against the Utes and their Apache allies in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. The campaign pressured the Utes into peace negotiations, and in 1855 they agreed to a treaty. Congress, however, did not ratify the agreement, and hostilities between the United States and Native Americans in the Pueblo area continued.</p> <p>Three years later, the <a href="/article/colorado-gold-rush"><strong>Colorado Gold Rush</strong></a> brought thousands of white fortune-seekers across the plains to the Rockies. The confluence of Fountain Creek and the Arkansas River was once again an important crossroads—this time its important connection was not south to Taos but north, via Fountain Creek, to gold diggings at <strong>Cherry Creek</strong>. A travelers’ camp called Independence sprang up on the east side of Fountain Creek, and members of the Josiah Smith prospecting party renamed it “Fountain City” when they arrived in September 1858.</p> <p>Pueblo County was established in 1861 as one of the original seventeen counties of the Colorado Territory. East of present-day Pueblo, Boone was first settled in the early 1860s, named for Colonel Albert G. Boone, owner of a local ranch and the caretaker of William Bent’s children at West Point. Boone was also known for negotiating treaties with various Indian tribes. It was also during the early 1860s that the Beulah Valley was settled by Anglo-American ranchers and farmers; at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the valley was used as a secret gathering place for Confederate Army recruits from Colorado.</p> <p>After a period of violent encounters with whites during the gold rush and its aftermath, the Cheyenne and Arapaho were removed to Oklahoma via the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/medicine-lodge-treaties"><strong>Medicine Lodge Treaty</strong></a> of 1867, and the Ute were removed to Colorado’s <a href="/article/western-slope"><strong>Western Slope</strong></a> via the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ute-treaty-1868"><strong>Treaty of 1868</strong></a>.</p> <p>In the wake of the destruction of the buffalo and removal of Native Americans, great cattle herds came to the Colorado plains during the 1870s. In 1869 rancher <strong>Charles Goodnight</strong>, who helped pioneer the Goodnight–Loving Trail from Texas, began grazing cattle in Pueblo County. He soon acquired a large piece of the Nolan Grant and established his ranch headquarters in Rock Canyon, west of present-day Pueblo.</p> <h2>Industrial Growth and County Development</h2> <p>The modern city of Pueblo took shape between 1872 and 1894 through the gradual merger of four separate towns: Pueblo, South Pueblo, Central Pueblo, and Bessemer. The town of Pueblo, at the site of the old trading post, was formally established in 1870. In 1872 visionary railroad builder <a href="/article/william-jackson-palmer"><strong>William Jackson Palmer</strong></a> established the town of South Pueblo along his <strong>Denver &amp; Rio Grande Railroad </strong>(D&amp;RG).</p> <p>Nearly every economic, cultural, and political development in Pueblo County after 1900 can be traced to one company—<a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-fuel-iron"><strong>Colorado Fuel &amp; Iron</strong></a> (CF&amp;I). To provide a steady supply of rails for the D&amp;RG, Palmer’s Colorado Coal &amp; Iron Company (CC&amp;I) built the nation’s first steel mill west of the Mississippi River in South Pueblo in 1881. Branch lines of the D&amp;RG soon sprawled west from Pueblo into the mountains, reaching all the way up the Arkansas Valley to mineral-rich <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/leadville"><strong>Leadville</strong></a>. Pueblo’s proximity to coal fields to the south, the markets of Colorado Springs and Denver to the north, and mines to the west quickly made it into a transportation hub. The Pueblo Smelting and Refining Company built the city’s first smelter in 1882, and by 1889 Pueblo had three smelters processing 400 railroad cars’ worth of gold, silver, and carbonate ore per day. By the turn of the century the city was the smelting capital of the world.</p> <p>In 1892 CC&amp;I merged with <strong>John C. Osgood</strong>’s Colorado Fuel Company to form Colorado Fuel &amp; Iron. By the time the Rockefeller family took the reins of CF&amp;I in 1904, Pueblo was well on its way to becoming the “Pittsburgh of the West.” While smoke-belching smelters converted ore from Colorado mines into thousands of ounces of gold and silver and thousands of tons of lead, the steel mill took in coal, iron ore, and limestone, pumping out rails, structural beams, nails, railroad spikes, iron castings, and other products. By 1909 CF&amp;I’s property in Pueblo was valued at a remarkable $40 million, and the company employed some 5,000 workers.</p> <p>CF&amp;I operated as a regional monopoly, exercising extraordinary power over its workforce. As a result, labor strife, whether in the city or across the state and nation, frequently disrupted its Pueblo operations. For instance, in 1903–4 Pueblo’s smelter workers joined others in Denver, <strong>Durango</strong>, and Colorado City in a statewide strike, demanding shorter work days, safer working conditions, and better pay; strikes among CF&amp;I’s coal miners elsewhere in Colorado interrupted operations again in 1913–14 and 1927.</p> <p>Beyond labor strife, Pueblo endured its share of ups and downs in the twentieth century. The city’s industrial output increased in 1917–18 to meet <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-world-war-i"><strong>World War I </strong></a>metal demands, and some 16,000 local men went off to fight. In 1921 a <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/1921-pueblo-flood"><strong>devastating</strong> </a><strong><a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/1921-pueblo-flood">flood</a> </strong>put some sections of Pueblo a dozen feet underwater, inundated a smelter, wrecked 600 homes, and killed hundreds of people and scores of livestock. Some 3,000 refugees had to live in tent colonies in the aftermath, but three years later the city had recovered. The Depression of the 1930s brought a lull in industrial production, but demand for metals quickly skyrocketed at the onset of World War II. With most of the city’s male population in the military, women took over many positions in the steelworks, from clerical work to manufacturing, and helped push the complex to 104 percent operating capacity. In 1942 the US government built an ordnance facility in Pueblo to receive, store, and distribute ammunition. Overall, Pueblo County’s industrial production increased from $41 million worth of materials in 1940 to more than $72 million in 1954.</p> <p>The steelworks remained busy throughout the rest of the twentieth century, although its status as the region’s most important economic engine declined with the rise of the retail trade and the collapse of the national steel industry in 1979. In 1983 the plant laid off 60 percent of its workforce, and CF&amp;I went bankrupt in 1990. Today the scaled-down steelworks are operated by Evraz Corporation as the Rocky Mountain Steel Mills.</p> <h2>Cultural Diversity</h2> <p>Pueblo’s industrial prowess in the twentieth century relied on the labor of immigrants from Canada, China, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Scandinavia, and Slovenia, as well as New Mexican and black workers from the United States. Among those who came from Eastern Europe were Jews fleeing the Russian pogroms of the 1880s and early twentieth century.</p> <p>With so many countries and religions represented in the same city, Pueblo became a rich cultural mosaic in the early decades of the twentieth century. But relations between and even among Pueblo’s diverse communities were not always amicable. Pueblo’s Jewish population endured a schism in the 1890s, and the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ku-klux-klan-colorado"><strong>Ku Klux Klan</strong></a> organized against the city’s many Catholic residents during the 1920s. By 1923 the Klan counted nearly 1,000 local members, including Pueblo County Sheriff Samuel Thomas, who took fellow Klansmen with him on liquor raids.</p> <h2>Agriculture</h2> <p>In addition to providing water for residential and industrial developments, the Arkansas River also allowed Pueblo County to develop a strong agricultural economy, bolstered by demand from Pueblo, Denver, and other cities. Agricultural production exploded between 1910 and 1920, with crop acreage expanding from 630,114 acres to 993,226 acres and livestock value rising from $1.5 million to over $4.5 million. But such huge gains in production saturated the market with agricultural products, so the value of crops fell from $4.1 million in 1920 to $2.6 million by 1930. The value of agricultural products again dropped sharply during the Great Depression.</p> <p>By 1950 ranching had surpassed farming in the county, with livestock valued at $5.2 million compared to just over $3 million for crops. In 1975 Pueblo County agriculture—as well as industry and municipal development—received a boost with the completion of the <a href="/article/bureau-reclamation-colorado"><strong>Bureau of Reclamation</strong></a>’s Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, which dammed the Fryingpan River north of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/aspen"><strong>Aspen</strong></a> and sent its water over the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/continental-divide"><strong>Continental<span style="color:#3366cc;"> <span style="background-color:#FFFFFF;">Divide</span></span></strong></a><span style="background-color:#FFFFFF;"> </span>to Pueblo County via the Arkansas River.</p> <h2>Today</h2> <p>Agriculture remains an important part of the Pueblo County economy today. The county ranks in the top third of Colorado’s sixty-four counties in the value of its farm products; leading crops include the famous Pueblo <strong>chili&nbsp;peppers</strong>, dry edible beans, melons, potatoes, and other vegetables. About 33,000 cattle and several thousand horses, goats, and sheep are raised on county ranches. In 2015 Pueblo County officials and chile farmers began a marketing campaign to brand and promote the local peppers. The campaign met with immediate success when Colorado Whole Foods Markets announced that the company’s Colorado locations would be replacing New Mexico Hatch chiles with 125,000 Pueblo green chiles in August 2015. <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/cannabis-marijuana"><strong>Cannabis</strong></a> has also become an important crop in Pueblo County, which allows the cultivation of both drug cannabis (marijuana) and hemp on agricultural and industrial properties. The county also leases water rights to cannabis producers.</p> <p>While the county’s agrarian legacy is strong among ranchers and farmers on the Arkansas, cultural diversity remains a hallmark of the city of Pueblo. About 49 percent of the city’s current residents are Latino, 2.5 percent are African American, 2.2 percent are American Indian, and another 4.1 percent are of two or more races. Between 41 and 45 percent of the population identifies as non-Hispanic whites.</p> <p>The city also continues to grapple with its industrial legacy. The defunct smelter, for instance, deposited waste rock (called slag) in a ravine between Santa Fe Avenue and the D&amp;RG tracks. These slag piles, which contain heavy concentrations of lead, remain today and pose a threat to public and environmental health. As a result, in 2014 the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared the smelter waste area as part of a Superfund Site and began investigations to determine the contamination of the site and begin cleaning up the slag.</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/pueblo-county" hreflang="en">pueblo county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/pueblo-history" hreflang="en">pueblo history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/city-pueblo" hreflang="en">city of pueblo</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/pueblo" hreflang="en">pueblo</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/pueblo-steelworks" hreflang="en">pueblo steelworks</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/pueblo-steel-mill" hreflang="en">pueblo steel mill</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/steelworks-center-west" hreflang="en">Steelworks Center of the West</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/beulah-valley" hreflang="en">beulah valley</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/arkansas-river" hreflang="en">Arkansas River</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/1921-pueblo-flood" hreflang="en">1921 pueblo flood</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/arkansas-river-flood-1921" hreflang="en">arkansas river flood 1921</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/el-pueblo" hreflang="en">el pueblo</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/bojon-town" hreflang="en">bojon town</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/avondale" hreflang="en">avondale</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/boone" hreflang="en">boone</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 Leonard, and David McComb, <em>Colorado: A History of the Centennial State</em>, 3rd ed. (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 1994).</p> <p>Thomas G. Andrews, <em>Killing For Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War </em>(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008).</p> <p>Beulah Historical Society, <em>From Mace’s Hole, the Way it Was, to Beulah, the Way it Is: A Comprehensive History of Beulah, Colorado </em>(Colorado Springs, CO: Century One Press, 1979).</p> <p>Wade Broadhead, “<a href="https://county.pueblo.org/">History of Pueblo</a>,” Pueblo County, n.d.</p> <p>James Brooke, “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/29/us/pittsburgh-of-the-west-is-made-of-more-than-steel.html">Pittsburgh of the West Is Made of More Than Steel</a>,” <em>New York Times</em>, December 29, 1997.</p> <p>City of Pueblo, “<a href="http://www.pueblo.us/DocumentCenter/View/3218">Ethnicity Map</a>,” 2010.</p> <p>Joanne W. Dodds and Edwin L. Dodds, <em>They All Came to Pueblo: A Social History </em>(Virginia Beach, VA: Donning Co., 1994).</p> <p>Pekka Hämäläinen, <em>The Comanche Empire </em>(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008).</p> <p>Cheryl Johnson Huban, “<a href="https://www.greenhornvalleyview.com/index.asp?linkID=63&amp;amp;itemID=9320">Before Colorado City</a>,” Greenhorn Valley View, July 28, 2014.</p> <p>Cheryl Johnson Huban, “<a href="https://www.greenhornvalleyview.com/index.asp?linkID=63&amp;amp;itemID=7212">George Sears and the Greenhorn Settlement</a>,” Greenhorn Valley View, January 23, 2012.</p> <p>Janet Lecompte, <em>Pueblo, Hardscrabble, Greenhorn </em>(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1978).</p> <p>Anthony A. Mestas, “<a href="https://www.chieftain.com/special/marijuana/4613593-120/pueblo-county-marijuana-measure/">Petition seeks ballot measure to ban retail pot in Pueblo County</a>,” <em>Pueblo Chieftain</em>, April 1 2016.</p> <p>Colleen O’Connor, “<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2015/08/13/colorados-chile-farmers-promote-pueblo-green-chiles/">Colorado’s chile farmers promote Pueblo green chiles</a>,” <em>The Denver Post</em>, August 14, 2015.</p> <p>Barry Pritzker, <em>A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples </em>(New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).</p> <p>Pueblo County, “<a href="https://pueblochile.org/">The Pueblo Chile</a>,” n.d.</p> <p>Ed Quillen, “<a href="https://www.csindy.com/coloradosprings/welcome-to-kolorado-klan-kountry/content/?oid=1119033">Welcome to Kolorado, Klan Kountry</a>,” <em>Colorado Springs Independent</em>, May 22, 2003.</p> <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> <p>David A. Sandoval, <em>Spanish/Mexican Legacy of Latinos in Pueblo County </em>(Pueblo, CO: Pueblo City-Council Library District, 2012).</p> <p>Jared Orsi, <em>Citizen Explorer: The Life of Zebulon Pike </em>(New York: Oxford University Press, 2014).</p> <p>Phillip Merle Sarver, “Historical Influences on the Economy of Pueblo, Colorado” (PhD Dissertation, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1973).</p> <p>Pueblo County, “<a href="https://county.pueblo.org/government/county/department/city-county-health-department/colorado-smelter">Lead Program</a>,” n.d.</p> <p>Virginia McConnell Simmons, <em>The Ute Indians of Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico</em> (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2000).</p> <p>Steve Segin and Jennifer Cordova, “<a href="https://www.historycolorado.org/sites/default/files/files/OAHP/NRSR/5PE5346.pdf">Squirrel Creek Recreational Unit</a>,” US Department of the Interior, National Park Service Form 10-900 (Denver: History Colorado, 2004).</p> <p>Kelly Sommariva, “<a href="https://www.9news.com/article/story/news/2014/06/02/june-3-1921-pueblo-flood/9873227/">This week in 1921: The flood that nearly sank Pueblo</a>,” 9News, June 2, 2014.</p> <p>Steelworks Center of the West, “<a href="https://scalar.usc.edu/works/the-colorado-fuel-and-iron-company/cfi-timeline">CF&amp;I Timeline</a>,” updated March 16, 2016.</p> <p>Steelworks Center of the West, “<a href="https://scalar.usc.edu/works/immigrant-employees-of-the-cfi/chapter-1">The Mines of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company</a>,” updated July 1, 2015.</p> <p>Steelworks Center of the West, “<a href="https://scalar.usc.edu/works/the-colorado-fuel-and-iron-company/index-1">Women of WWII</a>,” updated April 25, 2016.</p> <p>Jim Trotter, “<a href="https://aeronauticsonline.com/">Destruction of Mustard gas Weapons in Pueblo is Said to Be Underway</a>,” <em>Rocky Mountain PBS</em>, March 23, 2015.</p> <p>US Bureau of Reclamation, “<a href="http://www.usbr.gov/projects/Project.jsp?proj_Name=Fryingpan-Arkansas+Project#Group468530">Fryingpan-Arkansas Project</a>,” updated April 4, 2013.</p> <p>US Census, “<a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/RHI725214/0862000,08101">Quickfacts: Pueblo city</a>,” n.d.</p> <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: Pueblo County Colorado</a>,” National Agricultural Statistics Service.</p> <p>US Environmental Protection Agency, “<a href="https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0802700">EPA Superfund Program: Colorado Smelter, Pueblo, CO</a>,” updated April 20, 2016.</p> <p>Joel Warner, “<a href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/47.14/the-silicon-valley-of-marijuana">The Silicon Valley of Marijuana</a>,” <em>High Country News</em>, August 17, 2015.</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><a href="http://www.pueblo.us/">City of Pueblo</a></p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="http://riversofsteel.com/education/csu-pueblo-student-projects/">CSU Pueblo and Steelworks Center of the West Digital Humanities Projects</a></p>&#13; &#13; <p>Jeffrey DeHerrera and Charlene Garcia-Sims, “<a href="https://www.pueblolibrary.org/EastsideHistoryWall">Pueblo’s East Side History</a>,” Pueblo City-County Library, 2014.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Jeffrey DeHerrera and Adam Thomas, “<a href="https://www.historycolorado.org/sites/default/files/files/OAHP/Programs/CLG_Survey_PuebloEastSide2009.pdf">A Place Set Apart: The History and Architecture of Pueblo’s East Side Neighborhood</a>,” Historitecture, 2009.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Jordan Everhart, Gary Dixon, Stephanie Armijo, and Thomas Sloan, “<a href="https://scalar.usc.edu/works/1921-the-great-flood/home">1921: The Great Pueblo Flood</a>,” Steelworks Center of the West, n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="https://county.pueblo.org/">Pueblo County</a></p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="https://riversofsteel.com/">Steelworks Center of the West</a></p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Tue, 15 Nov 2016 17:03:28 +0000 yongli 2055 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 Colorado Fuel & Iron http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-fuel-iron <!-- 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">Colorado Fuel &amp; Iron</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="2016-09-29T16:45:11-06:00" title="Thursday, September 29, 2016 - 16:45" class="datetime">Thu, 09/29/2016 - 16:45</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/colorado-fuel-iron" data-a2a-title="Colorado Fuel &amp; Iron"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fcolorado-fuel-iron&amp;title=Colorado%20Fuel%20%26%20Iron"></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 Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&amp;I) was a coal and steel company based in <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> and <strong><a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/pueblo-0">Pueblo</a>.</strong> Most of its <strong>coal</strong> mines were located in southern Colorado. Its only <strong>steel mill</strong> was located in Pueblo. The firm came into existence as a result of a merger between the Colorado Coal and Iron Company and the Colorado Fuel Company in 1892. By 1910 it employed approximately 15,000 people, or about one-tenth of the entire Colorado workforce. During the 1920s it was the largest industrial corporation in the state.</p> <p>CF&amp;I also pioneered welfare capitalism—a strategy in which a company provides support in all aspects of employees’ lives in order to improve morale and loyalty. In 1901 it created a “Sociological Department,” an umbrella administrative organization for many management-sponsored programs such as schools and beautification efforts for mining towns, clubhouses for workers, a company hospital, and new housing. A glossy magazine, <em>Camp &amp; Plant</em>, was sent all around the country to highlight these activities. This publication contributed to the spread of welfare capitalism to other industries and regions. Management ramped down the Sociological Department’s programs during the 1908 recession, thinking them unnecessary. This led to the most important labor dispute in the company’s history.</p> <p>CF&amp;I was the main opponent of the <strong><a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/united-mine-workers-america">United Mine Workers of America</a> </strong>(UMWA) during the union’s efforts to organize the Colorado coalfields in the early twentieth century. As the largest mining firm in the state, CF&amp;I led the entire western coal industry during two major strikes in 1903–4 and 1913–14. Its staunch opposition in both disputes originated from the company’s primary stockholders and owners, the Rockefeller family of Standard Oil fame. During the bloody 1913–14 strike, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who ran the family’s interests for his retired father, publicly agreed with the notion that keeping unions out of CF&amp;I was worth it even “if it costs all your property and kills all your employees.” This attitude directly resulted in the infamous <a href="/article/ludlow-massacre"><strong>Ludlow Massacre</strong></a> in which at least nineteen people, including women and children, were killed.</p> <p>In response to bad publicity from the Ludlow Massacre, Rockefeller began to backpedal from his staunch opposition to worker organization, creating what came to be known as the Rockefeller Plan. The Rockefeller Plan was an employee representation plan designed to give CF&amp;I miners and steelworkers enough say over the terms and conditions of their employment so that they would not join a union or strike to gain union recognition. The results of the plan were mixed. Many workers, especially skilled ones, appreciated the plan both for the opportunity it gave them to voice their complaints and as a vehicle for the delivery of the company’s renewed efforts at welfare capitalism. However, less-skilled workers, particularly the Mexican and Mexican American workers who joined the company’s ranks, especially after World War I, did not have enough of a stake in the company to participate in the plan. As a result, CF&amp;I still faced major strikes in 1919, 1927, and 1933, when the UMWA finally organized the firm’s miners. The plan continued on in the steel mill until 1942, when it was invalidated by the National War Labor Board under the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 as an illegal “company union.”</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/rees-jonathan-h" hreflang="und">Rees, Jonathan H.</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/colorado-fuel-iron" hreflang="en">colorado fuel &amp; iron</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/cfi" hreflang="en">cf&amp;i</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-fuel-iron-history" hreflang="en">colorado fuel &amp; iron history</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/john-rockefeller-jr" hreflang="en">john rockefeller jr.</a></div> <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/coal" hreflang="en">coal</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/pueblo-steel-mill" hreflang="en">pueblo steel mill</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>Darrell F. 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> <p>Jonathan H. Rees, <em>Representation and Rebellion: The Rockefeller Plan at the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 1914–1942</em> (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2010).</p> <p>H. Lee Scamehorn, <em>Mill &amp; Mine: The CF&amp;I in the Twentieth Century</em> (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992).</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, 2008).</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-4th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-4th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-4th-grade.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-field-4th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-4th-grade"><p><span style="font-family:times new roman,serif; font-size:12.0pt">In 1892 Colorado Fuel &amp; Iron Company (CF&amp;I) was formed. It was based in <strong>Denver</strong> and <strong>Pueblo</strong>. Its <strong>coal</strong> mines were mostly found in southern Colorado. Its only <strong>steel mill</strong> was built in Pueblo. In 1910 about one-tenth of Colorado workers were working for CF&amp;I. By 1920 CF&amp;I was the largest industrial corporation in the state.&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:times new roman,serif; font-size:12.0pt">There was a reason why CF&amp;I grew to be so large. A new idea called “welfare capitalism” began at CF&amp;I in 1901.This idea was very new in Colorado at that time. It meant that a company gave workers what they needed to live day-to-day. New housing was built for the workers. CF&amp;I also built a hospital, schools, and clubhouses. It was important to make the mining towns look beautiful. A magazine, <em>Camp &amp; Plant</em>, had pictures and articles to show the good things happening at CF&amp;I. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:times new roman,serif; font-size:12.0pt">Then the recession of 1908 came. The company cut back on some of these basic supports. The workers were not happy with the new changes. CF&amp;I workers were not allowed to belong to an organized labor union. At that time the <strong>United Mine Workers of America</strong> (UMWA) was a well-known labor union. By 1913–14, the workers grew very frustrated and went on strike. The Colorado National Guard was sent to stop it. There was a fight between the two groups. Members of the National Guard killed striking miners and set a camp on fire. The event was called the <strong>Ludlow Massacre</strong>.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:times new roman,serif; font-size:12.0pt">The owners of CF&amp;I lived in New York and not in Colorado. They heard about the Ludlow Massacre and knew a different plan was needed. Not all workers liked the new plan. There were more strikes in 1919, 1927, and 1933. This was when the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) finally organized the Company’s miners.&nbsp;</span></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-8th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-8th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-8th-grade.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-field-8th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-8th-grade"><p>In 1892 the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&amp;I) was a coal and steel company based in <strong>Denver </strong>and <strong>Pueblo.</strong> Most of its <strong>coal</strong> mines were located in southern Colorado. Its only <strong>steel mill</strong> was located in Pueblo. By 1910 it employed about one-tenth of the entire Colorado workforce.</p> <p>CF&amp;I also pioneered “welfare capitalism,” a strategy in which a company supports all aspects of employees’ lives to improve morale and loyalty. During the 1908 recession, CF&amp;I management halted many of these activities, thinking them unnecessary. This led to the most important labor dispute in the company’s history in 1913–14.</p> <p>CF&amp;I was the main opponent of the <strong>United Mine Workers of America </strong>(UMWA), a union that lobbied for better pay and working conditions for mine workers. The Rockefeller family, of Standard Oil fame, owned CF&amp;I during the bloody strikes of 1913–14. Owner John D. Rockefeller, Jr. stated publicly that unions should be kept out of CF&amp;I. This attitude led to the <strong>Ludlow Massacre</strong><strong>, a battle between striking coal miners and the Colorado National Guard. </strong><strong>At</strong> least nineteen people, including more than a dozen women and children, died in the massacre.</p> <p>Because of bad publicity from the Ludlow Massacre, Rockefeller created what came to be known as the Rockefeller Plan. It was designed to give CF&amp;I miners and steelworkers enough control over their employment so that they would not join a union. CF&amp;I still faced major strikes in 1919, 1927, and 1933. At that time the UMWA finally organized the firm’s miners. The Rockefeller plan continued at the steel mill until 1942, when it was overturned by the National War Labor Board as an illegal “company union.”</p> <p>CF&amp;I declared bankruptcy in 1990. Its steel mill still stands in Pueblo today.</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-10th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-10th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-10th-grade.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-field-10th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-10th-grade"><p>Formed in 1892, the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&amp;I) was a coal and steel company based in <strong>Denver</strong> and <strong>Pueblo.</strong> Most of its <strong>coal</strong> mines were located in southern Colorado. Its only <strong>steel mill</strong> was located in Pueblo. By 1910 it employed approximately 15,000 people, or about one-tenth of the entire Colorado workforce. During the 1920s, it was the largest industrial corporation in the state.</p> <p>CF&amp;I also pioneered welfare capitalism, a strategy in which a company provides support in all aspects of employees’ lives in order to improve morale and loyalty. A glossy magazine, <em>Camp &amp; Plant</em>, was sent all around the country to highlight CF&amp;I activities. This publication contributed to the spread of welfare capitalism to other industries and regions. During the 1908 recession, CF&amp;I management halted many of these activities, thinking them unnecessary. This led to the most important labor dispute in the company’s history.</p> <p>CF&amp;I was the main opponent of the <strong>United Mine Workers of America </strong>(UMWA). CF&amp;I led the entire western coal industry against the union during two major strikes in 1903–4 and 1913–14. Its opposition in both strikes came from the company’s owners, the Rockefeller family of Standard Oil fame. During the bloody strike of 1913–14, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., publicly agreed with the idea that keeping unions out of CF&amp;I was worth it, even “if it costs all your property and kills all your employees.” This attitude led to the <strong>Ludlow Massacre</strong><strong>, in which Colorado National Guardsmen fired on striking coal miners in southern Colorado. </strong>Nineteen people, including more than a dozen women and children, were killed.</p> <p>Because of bad publicity from the Ludlow Massacre, Rockefeller began to retreat from his opposition to worker organization. He created what came to be known as the Rockefeller Plan, which was designed to give CF&amp;I miners and steelworkers enough control over their employment so that they would not join a union. The results of the plan were mixed. CF&amp;I still faced major strikes in 1919, 1927, and 1933. At that time the UMWA finally organized the firm’s miners. The Rockefeller plan continued at the steel mill until 1942. It was overturned by the National War Labor Board as an illegal “company union.”</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Thu, 29 Sep 2016 22:45:11 +0000 yongli 1899 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Ludlow Massacre http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ludlow-massacre <!-- 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">Ludlow Massacre</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--2514--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--2514.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/ludlow-strikers-1914"> <!-- 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/Ludlow-Massacre-Media-1_0.jpg?itok=Mp5N7wJf" width="1000" height="687" 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/ludlow-strikers-1914" 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">Ludlow Strikers, 1914</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>Striking coal miners and their families gather at the Ludlow tent colony during the United Mine Workers' strike of 1914. Governor Elias Ammons deployed the National Guard to quell the strike, and a pitched battle between strikers and guardsmen broke out on April 20. Guardsmen burned the tent colony, and nineteen people, including more than a dozen women and children, were killed before day's end.</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--2515--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--2515.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/ruins-ludlow-tent-colony"> <!-- 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/Ludlow-Massacre-Media-2_1.jpg?itok=cm-7SsnY" width="1000" height="734" 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/ruins-ludlow-tent-colony" 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">Ruins of Ludlow Tent Colony</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>Smoldering frames and debris were all that remained of the Ludlow tent colony after National Guardsmen burned it down during the Ludlow Massacre on April 20, 1914. The colony had housed coal miners and their families, and more than a dozen women and children suffocated during the conflagration.</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--2516--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--2516.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/memorial-service-ludlow-victims"> <!-- 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/Ludlow-Massacre-Media-3_0.jpg?itok=y9TnHerg" width="1000" height="701" 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/memorial-service-ludlow-victims" 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">Memorial Service for Ludlow Victims</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>Coffins carrying the victims of the Ludlow Massacre are brought to the Catholic Church in Trinidad as hundreds of mourners look on. At least nineteen people, including thirteen women and children, were killed in the massacre.</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--2517--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--2517.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/national-guardsmen-ludlow-colony"> <!-- 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/Ludlow-Massacre-Media-4_0.jpg?itok=RgS_xV3b" width="1000" height="559" 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/national-guardsmen-ludlow-colony" 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">National Guardsmen at Ludlow Colony</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>Two National Guardsmen pose with rifles in the burned tent colony of Ludlow shortly after the massacre in 1914. The guardsmen, who were sent in by Governor Elias Ammons to keep peace during a strike between the United Mine Workers and Colorado Fuel &amp; Iron, instead helped instigate the massacre on April 20 and burned the colony. Thirteen women and children died in the blaze.</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="2016-09-29T16:39:03-06:00" title="Thursday, September 29, 2016 - 16:39" class="datetime">Thu, 09/29/2016 - 16:39</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/ludlow-massacre" data-a2a-title="Ludlow Massacre"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fludlow-massacre&amp;title=Ludlow%20Massacre"></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 Ludlow Massacre began on the morning of April 20, 1914, when a battle broke out between the <strong>Colorado National Guard</strong> and striking <strong>coal</strong> miners at their tent colony outside of <strong>Ludlow </strong>in <a href="/article/las-animas-county"><strong>Las Animas County</strong></a>. Nobody knows who fired the first shot, but the incident is remembered as a massacre because the miners and their families bore the brunt of the casualties. At least nineteen people died, including one guardsman, five miners, and thirteen women and children who suffocated as they hid from the gunfire in a pit. More died in violence throughout southern Colorado over the next few days. No matter how the casualties are counted, the Ludlow Massacre is one of the bloodiest events in American labor history.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The massacre was the culminating event of the 1913–14 Colorado coal miners’ strike. The strike had two main goals: getting coal operators to follow state of Colorado mining law and gaining representation by the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/united-mine-workers-america"><strong>United Mine Workers of America</strong></a> (UMWA) for Colorado’s coal miners. The dispute was bloody from the outset, with deaths on both sides. The state’s largest private employer, the <a href="/article/colorado-fuel-iron"><strong>Colorado Fuel and Iron Company</strong></a> (CF&amp;I), employed most of the striking miners. Since it had more resources than the miners, its efforts to intimidate union members into ending the dispute resonated most in the public mind. For example, on October 17, 1913, an armor-plated car (quickly dubbed the “Death Special”) shot up the miners’ tent colony at Forbes, killing one and scaring many. As a result of such tactics, every miners’ tent colony was heavily armed. In response to that, Colorado Governor <strong>Elias M. Ammons</strong> deployed the National Guard to keep the miners under control.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Guard was supposed to maintain the peace, but since mine owners had already worked out a deal with the state to pay for the cost of the deployment, the troops actually caused more trouble. The battalion also included many veterans of the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection who were conditioned to think of the multi-ethnic miners as their inferiors.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>No matter which side fired first on April 20, the battle began as a result of mutual distrust and fear. With a history of violence on both sides, any minor incident could have blown up to be a major conflict. Once that conflict started, most of the residents of the Ludlow colony evacuated. Thinking the colony had been abandoned, Guardsmen burned the tents to the ground. Nobody knew about those thirteen women and children and the pit until their bodies were found the next morning, suffocated by the fumes rather than shot down in cold blood, as the miners alleged. However, an accurate indicator of the Guard’s unbridled hostility toward the miners was the cold-blooded execution of three leaders under a flag of truce. <strong>Louis Tikas</strong>, a Greek-American leader of the striking miners, was shot three times in the back.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Ramifications from the Massacre began instantly. When other miners heard of the events at Ludlow, they went on a killing spree across the region. Mine supervisors and guards were shot. Mine property was destroyed. Innocent people were killed on both sides. It is impossible to determine how many people died in the days after the Massacre, although it was certainly more than the number of the people who died in the initial tragedy. Rumors of a slaughter by the National Guard ran rampant, fueled by the outside world’s inability to confirm what happened. On April 28, President Woodrow Wilson dispatched the US Army to Colorado, thereby ending the violence and restoring order to the region.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The 1913–14 Colorado coal strike ended in December 1914 with the union achieving none of its stated objectives. Nevertheless, the deaths of the women and children in the “death pit” captured the public imagination. In an era that can still be described as “Victorian” in outlook, killing unarmed women and children (even if done by accident) was completely unacceptable to the American public. Therefore, despite the hostile press that striking miners had received before the Massacre, media outlets attacked the mine owners with gusto afterwards. It was Denver’s <strong><em>Rocky Mountain News</em>,</strong> rather than the miners, that coined the term “Ludlow Massacre” shortly after the event. A clever media campaign by the UMWA that included a nationwide speaking tour by female survivors of the massacre won further support for the union cause. An investigation of the strike and subsequent massacre by the US Commission on Industrial Relations under Chairman Frank Walsh kept the tragedy in the news for years after it happened. The primary object of union and public hostility after the Ludlow Massacre was John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the oil baron’s son and primary stockholder of CF&amp;I. Shortly after the tragedy, the writer Upton Sinclair and others protested outside Rockefeller’s New York City office.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Sinclair was also part of a mock trial of Rockefeller for murder near the industrialist’s hometown in upstate New York. As a result, Rockefeller hired the future Prime Minister of Canada (then a former Labor Minister), W. L. Mackenzie King, to design the so-called Rockefeller Plan, an employer representation plan (or “company union” to critics) that was designed to give miners just enough rights and privileges in order to avoid future tragedies. In 1918 the UMWA erected a statue commemorating the Ludlow Massacre on the site of the tent colony. The union continues to commemorate the event each year to this day.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 2009 the US Department of the Interior declared the site a National Historic Landmark, one of only two such sites in the country related to American labor history. April 20, 2014, marked the hundredth anniversary of the massacre. Governor <a href="/article/john-hickenlooper"><strong>John Hickenlooper</strong></a> convened a Ludlow Centennial Commemoration Commission to plan commemoration events across the state. Commemorative activities included a speakers’ series, symposia, a play, museum exhibits, and a Sunday church service at the Ludlow site.</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/rees-jonathan-h" hreflang="und">Rees, Jonathan H.</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/ludlow-massacre" hreflang="en">Ludlow Massacre</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/ludlow-tent-colony" hreflang="en">ludlow tent colony</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/coalfield-wars" hreflang="en">coalfield wars</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/coalfield-strikes" hreflang="en">coalfield strikes</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-coal" hreflang="en">colorado coal</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/united-mine-workers-america" hreflang="en">united mine workers 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/colorado-fuel-iron" hreflang="en">colorado fuel &amp; iron</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/elias-ammons" hreflang="en">Elias Ammons</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/national-guard" hreflang="en">national guard</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>Thomas G. Andrews, <em>Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War</em> (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Scott Martelle, <em>Blood Passion: The Ludlow Massacre and Class War in the American West</em> (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2007).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>George S. McGovern and Leonard F. Guttridge, <em>The Great Coalfield War</em> (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 1996).</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><a href="https://www.du.edu/ludlow/cfphoto.html">Colorado Coal Field Project</a>, University of Denver.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Anthony DeStefanis, “<a href="https://www.chieftain.com/opinion/2494511-120/ludlow-massacre-colorado-miners/">100th Anniversary Observance: Ludlow Was a Massacre</a>,” <em>Pueblo Chieftain</em>, April 27, 2014.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="https://ludlow100.wordpress.com/">Ludlow Centennial Commemoration</a></p>&#13; &#13; <p>Ben Mauk, “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-ludlow-massacre-still-matters">The Ludlow Massacre Still Matters</a>,” <em>The New Yorker</em>, April 18, 2014.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Alan Prendergast, “<a href="http://features.westword.com/ludlow-massacre-anniversary/">Bloody Ludlow</a>,” <em>Westword</em>, April 17, 2014.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Rocky Mountain PBS, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qIHN68YNXw">The Ludlow Massacre</a>,” <em>Colorado Experience</em>, 2013.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>George P. West, “<a href="https://ia600300.us.archive.org/33/items/reportoncolorado00unit/reportoncolorado00unit.pdf">Report on the Colorado Strike</a>,” US Commissions on Industrial Relations (Chicago: Barnard &amp; Miller, 1915).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Thu, 29 Sep 2016 22:39:03 +0000 yongli 1898 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Minnequa Steelworks Office http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/minnequa-steelworks-office <!-- 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">Minnequa Steelworks Office</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--1294--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--1294.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/minnequa-office-building"> <!-- 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/CF%26I_Main_Office_Building_0.jpg?itok=EllF-SxY" width="1090" height="818" 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/minnequa-office-building" 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">Minnequa Office Building</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>As Colorado Fuel &amp; Iron's (CF&amp;I) Pueblo operations expanded in the early twentieth century, management had Denver architect Frederick J. Sterner design new office and medical dispensary buildings. Today the buildings, sporting the distinct Mission Style, house a museum run by the Steelworks Center of the West.</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/nick-johnson" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">Nick Johnson</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="2016-04-20T10:48:23-06:00" title="Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - 10:48" class="datetime">Wed, 04/20/2016 - 10:48</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/minnequa-steelworks-office" data-a2a-title="Minnequa Steelworks Office"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fminnequa-steelworks-office&amp;title=Minnequa%20Steelworks%20Office"></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>Built by the <a href="/article/colorado-fuel-iron"><strong>Colorado Fuel and Iron Company</strong></a> (CF&amp;I) in 1901–2, the Minnequa Steelworks office building and medical dispensary in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/pueblo-0"><strong>Pueblo</strong></a> are among the best examples of Mission-style architecture in Colorado. The dispensary helped provide healthcare to CF&amp;I’s thousands of workers, and the office building was where the company’s landmark Employee Representation Plan was adopted and implemented after the 1914 <a href="/article/ludlow-massacre"><strong>Ludlow Massacre</strong></a>. Today the Steelworks Center of the West operates a museum and archives in the dispensary and is renovating the office building for use as a multi-use space. In 2021 it was named a National Historic Landmark.</p> <h2>A Growing Steel Plant</h2> <p>In 1880 <a href="/article/william-jackson-palmer"><strong>William Jackson Palmer</strong></a> established Colorado Coal and Iron in Pueblo. His goal was to make Pueblo into the “Pittsburgh of the West” in order to provide coal, iron, and steel for his <strong>Denver &amp; Rio Grande Railroad</strong>. The company built its first blast furnace in 1881 and produced the first steel west of the Missouri River in 1882. After Palmer left the company in 1884, it survived but did not thrive. Meanwhile, <strong>John C. Osgood</strong>’s Colorado Fuel Company, founded in 1884, became the largest coal producer in the Rocky Mountains. In 1892 Colorado Fuel merged with Colorado Coal and Iron to form Colorado Fuel and Iron.</p> <p>A major economic depression that started in 1893 slowed CF&amp;I’s growth, but once the depression passed, the combined company expanded rapidly. From 1899 to 1903 CF&amp;I acquired new mines across the West and poured $24 million into its Pueblo steel plant. The company’s coal output tripled, and its Minnequa Steelworks in south Pueblo became the largest steel and iron plant in Colorado and one of the largest in the United States.</p> <p>By the early 1900s CF&amp;I was the largest employer in Pueblo, with more than 4,000 employees. Its personnel department and medical dispensary were torn down to make space for a new blast furnace, so the company planned a new office, dispensary, and laboratory complex at the corner of Canal Street and East Abriendo Avenue, just west of the Minnequa Steelworks gate. CF&amp;I chose Denver architect <strong>Frederick J. Sterner</strong> to design the buildings in the Mission style, with stucco walls and red tile roofs, which was commonly used for civic and domestic buildings at the time but rarely for industrial structures. The style was apparently chosen with the goal of enhancing property values in the company’s nearby Minnequa Heights development, which it started to build in 1900 to house workers.</p> <p>The main office building, two and a half stories tall with a four-story tower, was finished in 1901. The laboratory was also completed in 1901 but is no longer standing. The dispensary, a one-story building with six rooms, was completed in 1902. Given the company’s large workforce and the demanding nature of steelmaking, the dispensary was one of the most important and active CF&amp;I buildings in Pueblo. In 1902, for example, the company had 5,000 workers and the dispensary treated 23,000 cases of injury or illness, or about seventy-five per day. In addition, all prospective employees had to undergo a physical at the dispensary before they could begin work.</p> <h2>Employee Representation Plan</h2> <p>The Minnequa office building is especially significant as the site where CF&amp;I’s Employee Representation Plan was adopted and implemented in the late 1910s. An early and much-imitated example of welfare capitalism, the plan was essentially a “company union” established in response to a decade of labor disputes culminating in the Ludlow Massacre on April 20, 1914.</p> <p>The road to the Employee Representation Plan can be traced to 1903, when George Jay Gould and John David Rockefeller acquired CF&amp;I, helping it escape a financial crisis and continue its growth with an injection of capital. By 1910 the company had more than 15,000 workers, including about 10 percent of Colorado’s workforce. It owned fourteen company towns and operated mines and quarries in Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming.</p> <p>Disputes over mine safety and company control of workers’ lives eventually led to a major strike in 1913–14 and ultimately to the Ludlow Massacre in April 1914, in which <strong>Colorado National Guard</strong> troops opened fire on a tent colony of miners north of <strong>Trinidad</strong>. Public reaction against the company’s owner, John D. Rockefeller Jr., was swift and harsh. Rockefeller Jr. quickly hired public-relations specialist Ivy Lee and labor expert William Lyon Mackenzie King, a former Canadian labor minister, to quell the trouble.</p> <p>King recommended that Rockefeller Jr. implement an Employee Representation Plan to mediate grievances and give workers a voice on company committees. Quarterly and annual conferences between workers and employers would be held at the Minnequa office building. The plan essentially took the place of the defeated <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/united-mine-workers-america"><strong>United Mine Workers</strong></a> union, but without the right to collective bargaining and under the control of the company. Adopted by coal miners in 1915, it soon spread to all CF&amp;I employees and then to other Rockefeller-owned businesses. It served as a model for welfare capitalism programs established across the country in the late 1910s and 1920s.</p> <p>Company owners were pleased with the plan, but workers grumbled that it gave them little real power. When the National Industrial Recovery Act gave workers the right to organize in 1933, the United Mine Workers quickly recruited most miners in Colorado. The Employee Representation Plan officially ended in 1935, when the National Labor Relations Act rendered such company-controlled plans illegal.</p> <h2>Additions and Changes</h2> <p>Between the world wars CF&amp;I made significant additions to its Minnequa office and dispensary complex. In 1921 a two-story office annex, designed with Mission-style elements by Pueblo architect William Stickney, was completed north of the main office. Two additions in 1931 and 1945 expanded the annex.</p> <p>As CF&amp;I grew and added new processes for screening and hiring employees, its employment office could no longer fit in the main office building. In 1926 the company hired Pueblo architect <strong>Walter DeMordaunt</strong>, a former employee of Stickney’s, to design an addition at the west end of the dispensary to house the employment office. It continued the theme of Mission-style buildings at the complex.</p> <p>In 1944 Charles Allen &amp; Associates acquired CF&amp;I. The office and dispensary complex in Pueblo saw several changes over the next two decades. In the late 1950s the Pueblo Freeway (later <strong>Interstate 25</strong>) was built between the office and dispensary complex and the steel mill. The tunnel between the two had to be extended, and a new main gate house with Mission details was completed in 1955. In 1960, a year after the freeway was finished, the company erected a large corporate sign beside the highway.</p> <p>In 1969 Allen sold CF&amp;I to Crane Company, a New York–based conglomerate. The company streamlined CF&amp;I’s operations. In 1971 it built a large steel-frame sales office on the north side of the office annex. CF&amp;I ultimately went bankrupt when the American steel market collapsed in the early 1980s, but in the 1990s the mill and the office complex were acquired by a London-based multinational called Evraz and reopened on a smaller scale as Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel.</p> <h2>Steelworks Center</h2> <p>In 2002 the office and dispensary complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel continues to manufacture steel rails, rods, bars, and pipes at the historic Minnequa Steelworks. Its sales offices are located in the former CF&amp;I sales office, but other parts of the office and dispensary complex are operated by the <strong>Steelworks Center of the West</strong> as a nonprofit educational facility. The former medical dispensary houses the Steelworks Museum and the Steelworks Archives, which include CF&amp;I’s company archives. In 2014 the organization began to build a new park, the Steelworks Park, north of the museum, and is spending $12 million to renovate the former main office building into a multi-use space called the Steelworks Center.</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/minnequa-steelworks" hreflang="en">minnequa steelworks</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/pueblo-steel-mill" hreflang="en">pueblo steel mill</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/city-pueblo" hreflang="en">city of pueblo</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/cfi" hreflang="en">cf&amp;i</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/colorado-steel" hreflang="en">colorado steel</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>Corinne Koehler, “Minnequa Steel Works, Office Building and Dispensary, Colorado Fuel and Iron Company,” National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet (May 20, 2008).</p> <p>James F. Munch, “Minnequa Steel Works Office Building and Dispensary, Colorado Fuel and Iron Company,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (May 18, 2001).</p> <p>Mary Jean Porter, “<a href="https://www.chieftain.com/life/2854062-120/steelworks-pueblo-center-hawkins/">New Name Designed to Honor Pueblo’s Enduring Steelmaking Heritage</a>,” <em>Pueblo Chieftain</em>, September 4, 2014.</p> <p>H. Lee Scamehorn, <em>Mill and Mine: The CF&amp;I in the Twentieth Century</em> (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992).</p> <p>H. Lee Scamehorn, <em>Pioneer Steelmaker in the West: The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 1872–1903</em> (Boulder, CO: Pruett Publishing, 1976).</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, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008).</p> <p>Joanne West Dodds, <em>They All Came to Pueblo: A Social History</em> (Virginia Beach, VA: Donning Company Publishers, 1994).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Wed, 20 Apr 2016 16:48:23 +0000 Nick Johnson 1293 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org