Valdez, Colorado | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 37°07′27″N104°41′12″W / 37.12417°N 104.68667°W [1] | |
Country | United States |
State | Colorado |
County | Las Animas County |
Government | |
• Type | unincorporated community |
Area | |
• Total | 1.609 sq mi (4.166 km2) |
• Land | 1.609 sq mi (4.166 km2) |
• Water | 0.000 sq mi (0.000 km2) |
Elevation | 6,500 ft (2,000 m) |
Population | |
• Total | 46 |
• Density | 29/sq mi (11/km2) |
Time zone | UTC−7 (MST) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC−6 (MDT) |
ZIP Code [3] | Trinidad 81082 |
Area code | 719 |
GNIS feature ID | 2583310 [1] |
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. [2] The Trinidad post office (ZIP Code 81082) serves the area. [3]
Valdez is in western Las Animas County, in the valley of the Purgatoire River. It is bordered to the west by Segundo. Colorado State Highway 12 runs along the northern edge of the community, leading east (downriver) 13 miles (21 km) to Trinidad, the county seat, and west (upriver) 20 miles (32 km) to Stonewall Gap.
The Valdez CDP has an area of 1,029 acres (4.166 km2), all land. [2]
Colorado Fuel & Iron, under the guidance of first John D. Rockefeller and then his son John D. Rockefeller Jr., greatly expanded in the southern Colorado coalfields in the decade following their 1903 investment in the company. Among these expansions was the construction of the Valdez mine in 1907. Soon after its creation, the mine was renamed to "Frederick" and rapidly expanded, producing bituminous coal sent to the coking ovens at Segundo. [4] [5] Frederick coal was also, from 1918 onwards, shipped towards the CF&I Minnequa steel mill along the Colorado and Wyoming Railway, part of the company's vertical integration strategy. During this early period, Apache Indians reportedly frequented the town and surrounding area. [6]
In 1913-14, CF&I–supported by the Colorado National Guard and Baldwin–Felts detectives–fought the Colorado Coalfield War against striking United Mine Workers of America miners. While Valdez had been one of company towns not to see significant participation in the strike, the violence of the Ludlow Massacre and the succeeding days forced Rockefeller, Jr. to improve CF&Is image. He hired public relations specialist Ivy Lee and future Canadian prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King for this task and would visit Valdez in September 1915 as part of a general tour of the coal mining region. [7] [8] Out of these efforts, the "Rockefeller Plan" of company town improvement and company-led unionization was born. [9]
By 1917, the mine was producing roughly 1,500 tons of coal a day with the work of 500 men and 28 mules. Trams replaced the mules in 1940 and total miners swelled to 750 men. The total production of the mine before its closure in 1960 was over 29.6 million tons. [4] [8]
The United States Census Bureau initially defined the Valdez CDP for the United States Census 2010.
Year | Pop. | ±% |
---|---|---|
2010 | 47 | — |
2020 | 46 | −2.1% |
Source: United States Census Bureau |
Walsenburg is the statutory city that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Huerfano County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 3,049 at the 2020 census, down from 3,068 in 2010.
Aguilar is a Statutory Town located in Las Animas County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 456 at the 2020 United States Census. Cattleman and prominent pioneer José Ramón Aguilar founded the town in 1894.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Jansen 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 Jansen CDP was 101 at the United States Census 2020. The Trinidad post office serves the Jansen postal addresses.
Frank J. Hayes was an American miner and president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) from 1917 to 1919. A Democrat, he also served as Lieutenant Governor of Colorado in 1937–39.
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.
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.
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 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).
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.
Brodhead is an extinct coal mining town located in Las Animas County, Colorado, United States. The townsite is located at 37.4108°N 104.6764°W at an elevation of 6,919 feet (2,109 m). The Brodhead post office operated from August 14, 1902, until April 29, 1939.
Delagua is an extinct town in Las Animas County, Colorado, United States. The town site is about 5 miles (8 km) south of Aguilar. It served as a company-owned coal-mining town for the Victor-American Fuel Company. The Delagua post office operated from April 30, 1903, until May 31, 1954.
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.
Calcite is an extinct town located in Fremont County, Colorado, United States. It served as a company coal mining town for Colorado Fuel & Iron. It is located along Howard Creek roughly six miles from the census-designated place of Howard.
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.