Ill-Fated Mines of the Southern Colorado Coalfields
Throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s, southern Colorado boasted most of the highest-producing coal mines west of the Mississippi River. Large-scale mining was inaugurated by railroad-owned subsidiaries in the 1870s. By 1910, trains were hauling coal to homes and businesses throughout the region. Railroads also served to bring workers to the mines from across North America and around the world. Most of southern Colorado’s coal mines tunneled into coal seams located beneath hills and mountains. The men who worked in Colorado coal mines lived in two kinds of communities: company towns like Primero and Delagua, which were completely owned and controlled by the coal companies, and so-called open camps like Starkville, where the mine operators’ power was less absolute. Trinidad, seat of Las Animas County, was the bustling hub in 1910 of the most important coal-mining region in the American West.