The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) was a large steel conglomerate founded by the merger of previous business interests in 1892.[1] By 1903 it was mainly owned and controlled by John D. Rockefeller and Jay Gould's financial heirs.[2] While it came to control many plants throughout the country, its main plant was a steel mill on the south side of Pueblo, Colorado, and was the city's main industry for most of its history. From 1901 to 1912, Colorado Fuel and Iron was one of the Dow Jones Industrials. The steel-market crash of 1982 led to the decline of the company. After going through several bankruptcies, the company was acquired by Oregon Steel Mills in 1993, and changed its name to Rocky Mountain Steel Mills.[3] In January 2007, Rocky Mountain Steel Mills, along with the rest of Oregon Steel's holdings, were acquired by EVRAZ Group, a Russian steel corporation, for $2.3 billion.
The Mcnally, Cameron, Robinson and Walsen Mines located in the area of Walsenburg, Colorado, were just a few of the mines owned by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company.
The Colorado Supply company store was also owned and operated by CF&I. They also came to control many furnaces throughout the country, including E. G. Brooke in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania.
The first, and only until World War II, integrated iron and steel mill west of St. Louis was built in 1881 in Pueblo on the south side of the Arkansas River by the Colorado Coal and Iron Company (CC&L), an affiliate of the narrow-gaugeDenver and Rio Grande Railway Company (D&RG), controlled by General William Jackson Palmer and Dr. William Abraham Bell. Its purpose in part was to manufacture rails for the railway.[6][7] Local resources included water from the Arkansas River, coal from Trinidad, limestone from a few miles south of Pueblo, and iron ore from the San Luis Valley with rail transportation provided by the D&RG. Manufacturing using blast furnaces and the Bessemer process began April 12, 1881. Products included rails, pig iron, iron and steel bars and plates, and cut nails and spikes.[8][9]
The original steel works were one of the projects of the Central Colorado Improvement Company, founded by General William J. Palmer in 1872, with plans "to purchase lands, minerals springs, coal and iron and other mines and quarries in Colorado Territory, and the establishment and building up of colonies, towns, coal mining, iron making and manufacturing works, and to build canals and wagon roads."[8] The work on the mill began—under the original name for the steel producer: Colorado Coal and Steel Works[10]:16—with excavation of the foundation for the first blast furnace in February 1880, on a prairie south of what would later become South Pueblo.[8][11] A neighborhood of makeshift homes arose near the works, initially called Taylorville, then Steelworks, then, as more permanent dwellings were constructed, Bessemer in 1881. Initial capacity of the mill in 1881-82 was 80 short tons (73t) per year from the first blast furnace, while a second furnace was being built, and the mill employed 300-400. The first steel rails were produced in April 1882 for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad's Silverton Branch.[8]
The market for steel was slow[when?] due to intense competition from eastern mills, and the mill was often idle. The company turned to production of coke and coal opening additional mines near Trinidad and others near Canon City, Walsenburg, and Crested Butte. Coke ovens were built at El Moro north of Trinidad and at Crested Butte.[9]
In the early 1890s, demand for fuel fell, and the company faced stiff competition from the Colorado Fuel Company, which was closely associated with and provided coal to the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q).[9]John C. Osgood, who with other investors from Iowa and Colorado, the Iowa Group, had founded Colorado Fuel Company in 1883, which acquired substantial coal reserves in Las Animas and Garfield Counties by purchasing existing facilities.[12][13] Other properties were acquired in Garfield, Huerfano, Las Animas, and Pitkin counties. On Osgood's initiative these two companies merged in 1892 to form Colorado Fuel and Iron with members of the Iowa Group in control.[1]
Often idle during the decades of the 1880s and 1890s due to stiff competition and the effects of the panic of 1893, the steel mill at Pueblo was small and obsolete. Due to economic conditions it was not possible to modernize it until 1899 when substantial improvements were made.[1] including a rolling mill, additional blast furnaces, a modern Bessemer converter, open hearth furnaces, a wire mill, and supporting facilities.[14] The mill was renamed the Minnequa Works in 1901.[15]
Iron ore
Early sources of iron ore were hematite from the Calumet Mine north of Salida, Colorado, limonite from the Orient Mine on the west slope of the Sangre de Cristo Range east of Villa Grove and iron and magnesium rich ore which was a byproduct of silver mining at Leadville. Additional iron ore was obtained from New Mexico and Wyoming and reserves purchased in Utah. Company towns were built at isolated facilities such as Orient and Calumet.[14] Deeper ores from Calumet contained greater quantities of silicon, which interfered with the iron making process. Calumet was closed in 1899 and production shifted to the Sunrise Mine near Hartville, Wyoming about 100 miles north of Cheyenne which the company had leased in 1898. The Colorado and Wyoming Railway Company was organized as subsidiary to transport the ore.[16] Orient was abandoned in 1905 but some ore continued to be mined and sold to the company by contractors[17] until 1922 when it reopened, only to be permanently closed at the beginning of the Great Depression due to falling demand.[18]
Production, which began in 1899 at the Sunrise Mine in Wyoming, was initially by open-pit mining at a cost of 15 cents a ton. By 1900, daily production was 2,000 tons. Purchase of the property was completed in 1904. Shortages of ore continued to plague operations at the refurbished Minnequa Works in Pueblo and some ore was obtained from the 86, Jim Fair, and Union mines near Fierro and Hanover in Grant County, New Mexico. Substantial reserves were purchased near Cedar City in Iron County, Utah but remained unmined.[15]
Limestone
Limestone was initially obtained from a quarry a few miles south of Pueblo at Lime near the St. Charles River and later from a high-grade low-phosphorus deposit of limestone and dolomite near Howard.[19]
Coal and coke
Coal coking ovens at Cokedale, west of Trinidad, Colorado, supplied the steel mills of CF&I.
In 1901, in an effort to deal with its mostly immigrant workforce, CF&I formed the Sociological Department. Their main focus was to better the lives of the workers and their families and to shape their political and economic views. The Sociological Department began educating the miners through night school to teach them English. The Sociological Department began to set standards for education by regulating the curriculum and getting miners' children involved.
Richard Corwin came up with the idea that Kindergarten would be the best way to help the immigrant children become better citizens. Through the Kindergarten program, children were taught English and the importance of industrial labor in hopes of making them good future employees. [22]
Also part of the multi-pronged efforts to promote support for the Company in the latter-half of 1914, several schools were constructed, including one in Primero.[23][24]
Land
In 1900, anticipating high demand for coal, the extensive and coal rich lands of the Colorado portion of the Maxwell Land Grant near Trinidad in Las Animas County were purchased through its subsidiary, the Rocky Mountain Coal and Iron Company.[19] Following this purchase mines and coking plants and railway connections were constructed by the Colorado and Wyoming Railway Company in 1901 and 1902 west of Trinidad, and facilities built for workers under the direction of Dr. Richard W. Corwin chief surgeon of CF&I.[19]
20th century
The facility operated a number of blast furnaces until 1982. The main blast furnace structures were torn down in 1989, but due to asbestos content many of the adjacent stoves and support buildings still remain. The stoves and foundations for some of the furnaces can be easily seen from Interstate 25, which runs parallel to the plant's west boundary.
Gould and Rockefeller era
In 1902, facing cash flow problems, Osgood turned to George Jay Gould a principal stockholder of the Denver and Rio Grande for a loan.[25] Gould, via Frederick Taylor Gates, Rockefeller's financial adviser, brought John D. Rockefeller, creator of the Standard Oil monopoly, in to help finance the loan.[26] Analysis of the company's operations by John D. Rockefeller Jr. showed a need for substantially more funds which were provided in exchange for acquisition of CF&I's subsidiaries such as the Colorado and Wyoming Railway Company, the Crystal River Railroad Company, and possibly the Rocky Mountain Coal and Iron Company. Control was passed from the Iowa Group[27] to Gould and Rockefeller interests in 1903 with Gould in control and Rockefeller and Gates representing a minority interests. Osgood left the company in 1904 and devoted his efforts to operating competing coal and coke operations.[28]
An experienced manager, Frank J. Hearne, retired president of National Tube Company, one of the predecessors of U.S. Steel was brought in September, 1903 to manage the enterprise.[29] In 1904 the assets of the firm and its subsidiaries were consolidated as Colorado Industrial Company whose stock was wholly owned by the shareholders of CF&I, mainly Gould and Rockefeller. This put all properties of the firm under a single management. Gross sales were substantially increased but increasing profit proved elusive due to competition from eastern produces. Income in 1907 was $1.07 million on sales of $23.8 million in 1907.[30]
In November, 1903 the United Mine Workers struck the coal mines near Walsenburg and Trinidad. The strike, which lasted 11 months, produced no gains and demoralized the miners, was fought vigorously with strikebreakers and reduced steel production. The company was able to maintain coal inventory for sale to the company's customers, thus preventing state interference due to a shortage of coal.[31]
Following the strike substantial investments were made to the mill including purchase of water rights in the Arkansas River and a reservoir at the site of Sugar Loaf Dam west of Leadville. Previously the mill had relied on the scant and variable flow of the St. Charles River, storing water in Lake Minnequa.[31]
Gates, Rockefeller's financial advisor, had little confidence in Jesse Floyd Welborn who had been elected by Gould and his allies to succeed Hearne as manager in 1907. Welborn had risen within the company from a clerk, knew the operation well, and had the confidence of the company's staff. When Gould suffered severe financial losses due to the Panic of 1907 his need for funds resulted in transfer of his interests to Rockefeller. Gates preferred Lamont M. Bowers, his aunt's husband, with extensive management experience. Welborn was advised to take guidance from Bowers, who was hired as Welborn's subordinate. Welborn had little choice but to defer to Bowers which resulted in Welborn, the president of the company, being only a figurehead and sometimes resulted in him having to make decisions he would not have made on his own motion.[32]
Effectively in charge from 1908 to early 1915, Bowers applied his managerial skills to making the company profitable, reducing employment rolls, closing marginal operations, and reducing improvements and the companies sociological and medical programs. His efforts were successful; profits increased and dividends were paid. The steel mill operated at full capacity and was slightly expanded.[33] Greater profits proved elusive, however, due to eastern competition and limited transportation facilities such as a perennial shortage of railway cars to ship coal.[34]
There was a series of disastrous explosions from 1904 to 1910 at the coal mines near Trinidad which resulted in substantial casualties. Attempts to prevent such disasters resulted in substantial improvements in mine safety techniques by the company and by the coal mining industry generally such as increased mine ventilation, sprinkler systems to keep coal dust wet, and liberal spreading of rockdust to dilute explosive coal dust. Concern over mine safety resulted in creation of the United States Bureau of Mines in 1907 and enactment of improved mine safety regulations in Colorado.[35]
Labor
Jesse F. Welborn, president of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company.1904 caricature of Jesse F. Welborn executed by B.S. White of American Cartoonist Magazine.
The labor force of CF&I was made up in large part of immigrants, many from eastern and southern Europe. Although experienced miners from Cornwall were encouraged to immigrate and were taken on particularly at the Sunrise Mine, much of the workforce was inexperienced and not fluent in English. This complicated communication of mine and industrial safety information. Due to their lack of sophistication it was possible to influence how the workers voted. Fraudulent voting of this nature was employed extensively by company operatives to accomplish various personal and company goals.[37]
Lamont M. Bowers, effectively the chief executive officer of CF&I, in addition to his paternalistic concern regarding vices such as drinking, gambling, and prostitution which might affect the health of CF&I workers, and also company profits, and his efforts to clean up the mining towns and support enactment of prohibition in Colorado, was strongly anti-union and refused to recognize or negotiate with the United Mine Workers during the period leading up to the major strike of 1913-14. The effects of that prolonged and violent strike ended his career with the firm.[38][39]
The strike, called in September, 1913, by the United Mine Workers over the issue of union representation, was against coal mine operators in Huerfano and Las Animas counties in southern Colorado where the majority of CF&I's coal and coke production was located, and was fought by the coal mine operators association and its steering committee which included Welborn, president of CF&I, who was spokesman for the coal operators. Bowers, Rockefeller's man, remained in the background. Few of the miners actually belonged to the union or participated in the strike call, but the majority honored it. Scabs were threatened and sometimes attacked. Both sides purchased substantial arms and ammunition. Most dangerous on the union side were Greek immigrants who were experienced veterans of the Balkan Wars. On October 26, 1913, Elias M. Ammons, the democratic governor of Colorado, responded to the widespread violence by ordering out the Colorado National Guard.[39]
Striking miners were forced to abandon their homes in company towns and lived in tent cities erected by the union such as the tent city at Ludlow, a railway stop north of Trinidad.[39]
Under the protection of the National Guard, some miners returned to work and some strikebreakers imported from the eastern coalfields joined them as Guard troops protected their movements. In February, 1914 a substantial portion of the troops were withdrawn, but a sizable contingent remained at Ludlow. On April 20, 1914 a general fire-fight occurred between strikers and troops. The camp burned, and 15 women and children in the camp were burned to death.[39]
In the aftermath of the battle, bands of miners attacked coal company facilities in the area. Lieutenant Governor of ColoradoStephen R. Fitzgarrald again ordered National Guard troops into the coal fields, but guerrilla warfare by the striking miners continued, and the government troops were beaten back. The governor requested assistance from Woodrow Wilson and units of the United States Army were deployed to the coalfields. There was a substantial increase in coal production in succeeding months.[39]
Attempts at negotiating a settlement in November, 1913 had been unsuccessful due to the coal operators refusal to talk to union representatives or to consider recognition of the union. After the violence in the Spring of 1914, United States Secretary of LaborWilliam Bauchop Wilson attempted mediation. Further efforts by state and federal officials and experienced third parties who were brought in were also unsuccessful. Finally after George Alfred Carlson, a Republican, won the gubernatorial election of 1914, on December 10, 1914 the union called off the strike due to a depletion of strike funds.[39]
Costs to both mine operators and the union were high. Due to reduced demand for coal resulting from an economic downturn many of CF&I's coal mines never reopened and many men were thrown out of work. The union was forced to discontinue strike benefits in February, 1915. There was destitution in the coal fields. With the help of funds from the Rockefeller Foundation relief programs were organized by the Colorado Committee on Unemployment and Relief, a state agency created by Governor Carlson, offering work to unemployed miners building roads and doing other useful projects.[39]
The casualties suffered at Ludlow were successfully labeled a massacre and mobilized public opinion against the Rockefellers and the coal industry. The United States Commission on Industrial Relations conducted extensive hearings singling out John D. Rockefeller Jr. and the Rockefellers' relationship with Bowers for special attention. Bower was relieved of duty and Welborn restored to control in 1915 and industrial relations improved.[39]
Colorado Industrial Plan
Church built for miners in Sunrise, Wyoming by CF&I at cost of $3,400.
In October, 1915 John D. Rockefeller Jr. with the assistance of William Lyon Mackenzie King, director of the Rockefeller Foundation and head of its Department of Industrial Research, introduced the Colorado Industrial Plan, an internal system of worker representation which included guarantees of basic decency in working conditions and in company towns.[41][42]
Segundo, Colorado, was an example of a company town where CF&I offered adequate housing for its workers and promoted upward mobility through its sponsorship of a YMCA Center, elementary school, and some small businesses, as well as a company store. However air pollution was a constant health threat and the houses lacked indoor plumbing. As demand for metallurgical coke declined, the mine laid off workers and Segundo's population declined. After a major fire in 1929, CF&I left and Segundo became practically a ghost town.[43]
The CF&I held pervasive spying on workers in the years following up to and during the General Colorado coal strike of 1927, which remains one of the few historically persevered record of company spying on labor organizing, given the secretive nature and risk of bad publicity it brings.[44]
Bankruptcy 1990
On November 7, 1990 CF&I filed for protection under Chapter 11.[45]
Strike of 1997–2004
In 1997, the steelworkers union in Pueblo voted to strike over alleged unfair labor practices. The old CF&I facility, under new ownership, hired permanent replacement workers, leading to further tension between the new employer and the union.[46]
However, in September 2004, local unions 2102 and 3267 won both the strike and the unfair labor practice charges. All of the striking steel workers were returned to their jobs, and the company was forced to repay a record amount of back pay to all of the striking steel workers for the seven years of the strike.[47]
The site today
The foundation and stoves of "A"-Furnace in 2010
In addition to the blast furnace/open hearth steelmaking process, CF&I also used the basic oxygen furnace (BOF) process for a number of years. This process was later replaced by electric arc furnaces (EAF). Currently, one EAF is used at the facility to convert over a million tons of scrap per year into steel billets of various sizes. The billets are then distributed to the three steel finishing facilities (rail mill, rod & bar mill, seamless tube mill) for processing into the various finished products.
Several of the administration buildings, including the main office building, dispensary, and tunnel gatehouse have been purchased by the Steelworks Center of the West to house their Steelworks Museum and the Steelworks Archives.
Out of the many production and fabrication mills which once existed on the site, only the steel production (electric furnaces, used for scrap recycling), rail, rod & bar, and seamless tube mills are still in operation. The wire mill was sold in the late 1990s to Davis Wire, which produced products such as fence and nails under the CF&I brand name until 2014 when it was closed. The mill was able to produce rail lengths of up to 480 feet (up from the current 80 feet), lengths currently possible only in a few European plants.[48]
John Davison Rockefeller Sr. was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was born into a large family in Upstate New York who moved several times before eventually settling in Cleveland. He became an assistant bookkeeper at age 16 and went into several business partnerships beginning at age 20, concentrating his business on oil refining. Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870. He ran it until 1897 and remained its largest shareholder.
The Ludlow Massacre was a mass killing perpetrated by anti-striker militia during the Colorado Coalfield War. Soldiers from the Colorado National Guard and private guards employed by Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) attacked a tent colony of roughly 1,200 striking coal miners and their families in Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914. Approximately 21 people, including miners' wives and children, were killed. John D. Rockefeller Jr., a part-owner of CF&I who had recently appeared before a United States congressional hearing on the strikes, was widely blamed for having orchestrated the massacre.
Early coal mining in Colorado in the United States was spread across the state. Some early coal mining areas are currently inactive, including the Denver Basin and Raton Basin coal fields along the Front Range. There are currently 11 active coal mines, all in western Colorado.
The Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (1852–1952), also known as TCI and the Tennessee Company, was a major American steel manufacturer with interests in coal and iron ore mining and railroad operations. Originally based entirely within Tennessee, it relocated most of its business to Alabama in the late nineteenth century, following protests over its use of free convict labor. With a sizable real estate portfolio, the company owned several Birmingham satellite towns, including Ensley, Fairfield, Docena, Edgewater and Bayview. It also established a coal mining camp it sold to U.S. Steel which developed it into the Westfield, Alabama planned community.
South Pueblo, Colorado used to be a city in Colorado. It was one of three towns, in addition to Central Pueblo and Bessemer, that were later incorporated into Pueblo, Colorado.
The Redstone Coke Oven Historic District is located at the intersection of State Highway 133 and Chair Mountain Stables Road outside Redstone, Colorado, United States. It consists of the remaining coke ovens built at the end of the 19th century by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. In 1990, it was recognized as a historic district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Redstone Historic District is located in and near the unincorporated community of that name in western Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. It includes the original community of Redstone as built by Colorado Fuel and Iron (CFI) for the coal miners it employed. In 1989 it was recognized as a historic district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Redstone Inn is located on Redstone Boulevard in Redstone, Colorado, United States. It is a structure in the Tudor Revival architectural styles built at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1980 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also a contributing property to the Redstone Historic District listed on the register nine years later.
John Cleveland Osgood was a self-made man who founded the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company and Victor-American Fuel Company but has been referred to as a robber baron. He also created Redstone, Colorado.
The Osgood–Kuhnhausen House, also known as Carina's Cottage, is located on Redstone Boulevard in Redstone, Colorado, United States. It is a timber frame structure built at the beginning of the 20th century in the Tudor Revival architectural style. In 1983 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Osgood Gamekeeper's Lodge is located along State Highway 133 near Redstone, Colorado, United States. It is a timber frame structure built at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1989 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Colorado Coalfield War was a major labor uprising in the southern and central Colorado Front Range between September 1913 and December 1914. Striking began in late summer 1913, organized by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) against the Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF&I) after years of deadly working conditions and low pay. The strike was marred by targeted and indiscriminate attacks from both strikers and individuals hired by CF&I to defend its property. Fighting was focused in the southern coal-mining counties of Las Animas and Huerfano, where the Colorado and Southern railroad passed through Trinidad and Walsenburg. It followed the 1912 Northern Colorado Coalfield Strikes.
John Rankin Lawson was a Colorado union leader and businessman. He was the leader of District 15 of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) at the time of the Colorado Coalfield War and the Ludlow Massacre. He was convicted on May 3, 1915, of the murder of a deputy sheriff who died at Ludlow during the massacre at a trial held in Trinidad, Colorado and sentenced to life at hard labor, but freed on appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court in June 1917. He served as president of the Colorado Federation of Labor and on the International Executive Board of the United Mine Workers. He was a vice-president and director of the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company (CF&I).
Valdez is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Las Animas County, Colorado, United States. From 1907 to 1960, Valdez served as a company town for Colorado Fuel & Iron and its Frederick coal mine, the company's most productive and second largest. The population of the Valdez CDP was 46 at the United States Census 2020. The Trinidad post office serves the area.
The Steelworks Center of the West, is a non-profit organization focused on preserving the history of the coal and steel industry in the Western United States. Based in Pueblo, Colorado and formerly known as the Bessemer Historical Society, which took its name from the community of Bessemer, site of the Colorado Coal and Iron Bessemer Works which was named after the Bessemer process for making steel invented by Henry Bessemer.
The US iron and steel industry has paralleled the industry in other countries in technological developments. In the 1800s, the US switched from charcoal to coal in ore smelting, adopted the Bessemer process, and saw the rise of very large integrated steel mills. In the 20th century, the US industry successively adopted the open hearth furnace, then the basic oxygen steelmaking process. Since the American industry peaked in the 1940s and 1950s, the US industry has shifted to small mini-mills and specialty mills, using iron and steel scrap as feedstock, rather than iron ore.
Primero is a ghost town in Las Animas County, Colorado, United States. The community was a company coal mining town for the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company during the early 20th century.
Tercio is a ghost town and former coal mine in Las Animas County, in the U.S. state of Colorado. The GNIS classifies it as a populated place. A post office called Tercio was established in 1902, and remained in operation until 1949. The community was the third coal mining community established by the Colorado Fuel and Iron company, hence the name.
Victor-American Fuel Company, also styled as the Victor Fuel Company, was a coal mining company, primarily focused on operations in the US states of Colorado and New Mexico during the first half of the Twentieth Century. Prior to a 1909 reorganization, the business was known as the American Fuel Company.
Berwind is a ghost town in Las Animas County, Colorado, nestled in Berwind Canyon 3.1 miles (5.0 km) southwest of Ludlow and 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Trinidad. The settlement was founded in 1888 as a company town for the Colorado Coal & Iron Company and, from 1892, was operated by the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company. It was a battle site in October 1913 and April 1914 during the Colorado Coalfield War, housing a Colorado National Guard encampment during the latter stages of the conflict.
References
1 2 3 Scamehorn, Chapter 1, "The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 1892-1903" page 10
↑ For a discussion of the relationship between CF&I and the railway, see McKenzie, William H., "Mountain to Mill: The Colorado & Wyoming Railway" (1982, MAC Publishing)( ISBN0936206160).
Scamehorn, H. Lee, Mill and Mine: The CF&I in the Twentieth Century, University of Nebraska Press, (April 1, 1992), hardcover, 271 pages, ISBN080324214XISBN978-0803242142
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
