Mining
What do these photos tell you about how 20th century mining was like?
Child Coal Miners (1920)
The young boys in this photo worked in a coal mine. The photo was taken about 1920.
Photo: Colorado Historical Society
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Coal mining was an important industry in Colorado from the 1880s until the 1940s. Boys as young as 10 to 12-years-old worked in coalmines in Colorado. Some helped shovel coal into carts deep in the mines. Others picked rocks out of the coal after it was brought to the surface. The work, while not always dangerous, was unhealthy.
Their Own Words
"When the Vulcan boom came, we moved there…. My son, Johnnie, died there. He was working in the mine and contracted pneumonia and didn't last but a few days. He was a good boy; I miss him."
Source: Mary Nichols Williams, (1934), CWA Interviews, Document 350/68, Colorado Historical Society.
Two Miners In A Coal Mine (1925)
The two miners in this photo are working at a seam of coal deep underground. The photo was taken about 1925.
Photo: Denver Public Library, Western History Collection
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Miners found coal in thick, black layers or seams underground. They removed it with air-powered drills and hand tools. The miner on the left in this photo is holding a small power drill. The man on the right is using a pick. The men are wearing carbide lamps on their hats. The lamps contained carbide and water. Carbide is a carbon compound that produces a gas when it comes into contact with water. When lit with a match, the gas creates a bright light.
Their Own Words
"Everything centered around the mine and the company that owned it. The miners weren’t paid in regular money, but in script [scrip]. Script was sort of a coupon. You would buy what you needed at the Company Store and pay for it with the script…. Anyway, the Company Store carried everything from soup to nuts. It was just generally understood that you traded at the Company Store. You could be blackballed and might even lose your job if you didn’t do your business there."
Source: Tillie Mayer interview, quoted from Carl Ubbelohde, Maxine Benson, and Duane A. Smith, eds., A Colorado Reader (Second Edition, Boulder, 1982), p. 100.
Two Coal Miners
These men are coal miners dressed for work.
Photo: Colorado Historical Society
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This photo shows the basic equipment of a coal miner. The men have lamps on their hats. They are carrying picks and lunch buckets. The man on the let has a water canteen on his belt.
Their Own Words
"I left Europe because my folks wanted me to become a priest, and I run away from there. It took me 38 days on a boat [and train] until we get to Trinidad and Engleville [Colorado]. I started work [in a coal mine]. I was a little over 18. Believe it or not, I cry many, many times, why did I come? My hands was full of blisters."
Source: Ed Tomsic interview, quoted from Rick J. Clyne, Coal People: Life in Southern Colorado’s Company Towns, 1890-1930 (Denver: Colorado Historical Society, 1999), p. 47.
"Buy Coal From Josephine" (1930)
This woman is Josephine Roche, the president of the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company. The photo was taken about 1930.
Photo: Colorado Historical Society
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The Rocky Mountain Fuel Company was the second largest coal mining company in Colorado. Its president was Josephine Roche. Unlike most mine owners, Ms. Roche paid her workers good wages. Their slogan was "Buy Coal from Josephine!"
Their Own Words
“Josephine Roche signed a Union contract, which was unheard of at that time. There was no Sunday work. When they needed coal, Josephine used to come out and crawl up on the rock pile—she always wore knickers and boots—and she’d say, ‘Now men, we need the coal. Will you work Sunday? We would like to have enough [men] to work. If you don’t work, there will be no discrimination.’ And almost to a man, they agreed to work. She lived in Denver. She never asked some stooge to come out and ask us to work, she always come out herself. . . . In the fall of 1927 . . . she said she would sign a contract that had . . . to do with the American Federation of Labor. So we all joined the union, and I worked there quite a while. . . . By 1933 they all joined the union.”
Source: Lawrence Amicarella quoted in Maria M. Rogers, ed., In Other Words: Oral Histories of the Colorado Frontier (Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 1996): 39.
Working A Coal Seam (1930's)
This photo was taken in the late 1930s in the Columbine mine near the town of Erie.
Photo: Denver Public Library, Western History Collection
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The towns of Erie and Louisville were at the center of Colorado's northern coalfield or region. Two other important coalfields were those near Canon City and in the Walsenburg-Trinidad area.
Their Own Words
“It was none of it safe. . . . I done that up till [1940]. You didn’t do nothin’ but load coal; that’s all you did. . . . All you did was shovel. That’s all you had to do from the time you started in the morning till night; that’s all you did. You’d be bent over all day, but it was high enough to where you could stand up, you know, if you wanted to rest. Why, it was about ten feet high.”
Source: Jack Davies quoted in Maria M. Rogers, ed., In Other Words: Oral Histories of the Colorado Frontier (Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 1996): 33.
Strip Mining Near Antonito
This photo shows mining at an open pit or strip mine near Antonito.
Photo: Denver Public Library, Western History Collection
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By the 1950s, coal seams close to the surface were mined by power shovels like the one in this photo. This was called "strip mining." Miners still went underground to mine the deeper seams. But after World War II, other sources of fuel undermined coal mining to some degree.
Their Own Words
“The coal miners had been important economically . . . and of course, with the freight trains being more numerous than ever the coal miners were all exempted from [World War Two military] service and the coal miners were doing very well. Shortly after the war, within twelve months of the surrender, the [use of diesel fuel for] the motor power on the railroads was almost complete and that, of course, had a very adverse effect on the coal mines. There were eighteen of them running [in Boulder County] and by [1948] I don’t think any of them were operating.”
Source: Clyde Boyle quoted in Maria M. Rogers, ed., In Other Words: Oral Histories of the Colorado Frontier (Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 1996): 40.
