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. [1] The community was the third (Spanish: tercio) coal mining community established by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, hence the name. [2]
Tercio consists of an abandoned coal mine and the meager remains of a company town near the headwaters of the South Fork of the Purgatoire River about 5 km (3.1 mi) from the border with New Mexico. The mine and settlement are in the foothills of the Culebra Range of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains at an elevation of 2,358 m (7,736 ft). Tercio is in the Raton Basin and was one of many coal-mining communities created in the Basin during the late 19th and early 20th century. An author said, "Of all the coal mining camps scattered throughout southern Colorado, Tercio probably had the most picturesque location. On three sides the site is cradled by low lying, thickly-wooded hills...[To the west] the Sangre de Cristos push skyward in misty rows of cracked escarpments." [3] [4] [5]
Prior to the arrival of the coal miners, the valley of the South Fork of the Purgatoire River was sparsely inhabited by Hispanics in settlements known as Torres and Rincon. The Colorado Fuel and Iron company established Tercio in 1901 and in 1902 the Tercio mine produced its first coal. The Colorado Supply Company Store opened on 3 December 1901. The Colorado and Wyoming Railway company extended its line to Tercio in 1902. Coal mined near Tercio was used mostly to produce coke which was transported by rail to Pueblo, Colorado to be used in the Colorado Fuel and Iron steel mill. [6]
By August 1902 Tercio was a company town with 100 houses for employees and expanding rapidly. By 1910 the Tercio coal industry employed 1,000 men and the town itself had a population of 300 families. In 1913, however, the coking operation began to decline. The mine closed in 1915, but coking continued until 1918. The company store continued in operation until 1949. The large building housing the store is the only major structure in Tercio still existing in the 21st century. [6]
Two additional coal mines were located near Tercio: Cuatro (Spanish "four"), 3 km (1.9 mi) west and Cornell, 3 km (1.9 mi) northwest. Cuatro operated from 1902 to 1907. Cornell operated from 1908 to 1911. The production of the three mines during their lifetimes was: Tercio, 1,533,463 tons; Cuatro, 273,855 tons; and Cornell, 509 tons. [6] [7] [8]
Mining disasters. On 28 October 1904, 19 men were killed by an explosion of coal dust in the Tercio mine. [9] Press reports said that only two of the 19 killed were Anglo Americans and the others were "Slavs and Mexicans." The workers at Tercio and other mines in southern Colorado were mostly foreign-born, especially from southern and eastern Europe, and lumped together as "Slavs." [10] On 22 April 1906 a gas explosion at the Cuatro Mine also killed 19 workers. [7]
Conservation. In 2013, businessman Louis Bacon announced the establishment of a perpetual conservation easement of 21,000 acres (85 km2) of land on the Tercio and Red River ranches owned by Bacon. [11]
The City of Lafayette is a home rule municipality located in southeastern Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 30,411 at the 2020 United States Census.
Trinidad is the home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Las Animas County, Colorado, United States. The population was 8,329 as of the 2020 census. Trinidad lies 21 mi (34 km) north of Raton, New Mexico, and 195 mi (314 km) south of Denver. It is on the historic Santa Fe Trail.
Ludlow is a ghost town in Las Animas County, Colorado, United States. It was the site of the Ludlow Massacre–part of the Colorado Coalfield War–in 1914. The town site is located at the entrance to a canyon in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. It is located along the western side of Interstate 25 approximately 12 miles (19 km) north of the town of Trinidad. Nearby points of interest include the Ludlow Monument, a monument to the coal miners and their families who were killed in the 1914 massacre, the Hastings coke ovens, and the Victor American Hastings Mine Disaster Monument.
Dawson is a ghost town in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States. Dawson was the site of two separate coal mining disasters in 1913 and 1923. Dawson is located approximately 17 miles northeast of Cimarron.
The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) was a large steel conglomerate founded by the merger of previous business interests in 1892. By 1903 it was mainly owned and controlled by John D. Rockefeller and Jay Gould's financial heirs. 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. 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.
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 8 active coal mines, all in western Colorado.
Coal mining regions are significant resource extraction industries in many parts of the world. They provide a large amount of the fossil fuel energy in the world economy.
Segundo is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Las Animas County, Colorado, United States. The population of the Segundo CDP was 100 at the United States Census 2020. The Trinidad post office serves the area.
The Purgatoire River, also known as the Purgatory and Picketwire River, is in southeastern Colorado, United States. The river originates in the high mountains of the Culebra Range. Several tributaries merge near Weston in Las Animas County and the river flows east-northeastward 196 miles (315 km) to a confluence with the Arkansas River near Las Animas in Bent County, Colorado. The Purgatoire River drains an area of 3,449 square miles (8,930 km2), mostly in Colorado but a small percentage of the watershed is in New Mexico. The Purgatoire River watershed is lightly populated. Population has been declining since 1920 as former coal mining and agricultural communities have become ghost towns.
The Rocky Mountain Fuel Company was a coal mining company located in Colorado, operating mines in Louisville, Lafayette, and other locations northwest of Denver. The company also operated mines in Las Animas, Routt, Garfield and Gunnison counties. During the 1930s, the company was the second-largest producer of coal by volume in the state of Colorado. However, the company was severely impacted by the Great Depression, declining productivity of local coal deposits, and the increased popularity of natural gas, and went bankrupt in 1944.
The Dunlap coke ovens are the remnants of a coke production facility near Dunlap, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Built in the early 1900s, the facility consists of five batteries of 268 beehive ovens, which operated under various companies until the early 1920s. The ovens are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and are maintained by the Sequatchie Valley Historical Society as part of Dunlap Coke Ovens Park.
Colorado Coal and Iron Company was formed in 1880 when three Denver and Rio Grande subsidiaries controlled by William J. Palmer merged. These were the Colorado Coal and Steel Works Company, the Central Colorado Improvement Company, and the Southern Colorado Coal and Town Company. In 1888, Edward J. Berwind was president. In 1890 the company appointed Henry S. Grove to serve as president. Grove, a recognized "Captain of Industry" would eventually merge the company with the Colorado Fuel Company to form the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, which for many years was Colorado's largest employer and dominated industry around the state for decades.
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.
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.
Morley was a town in Las Animas County, Colorado, that existed between 1878 and 1956. The town was located near the summit of Raton Pass and was originally a railroad stop, before being developed into a coal mining town by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I). Morley was a CF&I company town for fifty years until 1956 when the mine was closed and the town demolished.
El Moro is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Las Animas County, Colorado, United States. The population of the El Moro CDP was 216 at the United States Census 2020. The Trinidad post office serves the area.
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.
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.
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.
Municipalities and communities of Las Animas County, Colorado, United States | ||
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