A History of Coal Mining 2
In Las Animas County, Colorado

Principle competition for the Southern Colorado Town and Coal Company was AT&SF's Trinidad Coal and Coke subsidiary. In 1878 this company opened its Starkville mine to supply coal for the AT&SF locomotives. The AT&SF builders had reached the base of Raton Pass one day before the D&RG crew, and worked out a deal with Uncle Dick Wootton (owner of the Raton Pass Toll Road), thus winning the pass for AT&SF. The later Morley mine, located near the northern base of the pass by the Colorado Fuel and Iron company, was named for the head of this AT&SF crew.

On December 13, 1879, the Southern Town and Coal Company, the Central Colorado Improvement Company, and the Colorado Coal and Steel Company merged to become the Colorado Coal and Iron Company, under General Palmer's control. This corporation established the first long term steel industry in Colorado. Its first blast furnace, dubbed “Betsy”, was blown in on September 5th, 1881, at the Pueblo-based Bessemer works. Production from El Moro was further stepped up to help meet the increased demand, and the number of ovens was raised to 250.

The financial roller coaster of the mid-1880's drastically influenced the rail industry, which in turn was a major source of steel demand. In the midst of the resultant lull in demand for coke were three events of note: First, on February 24, 1883, the Colorado Assembly passed the first law regulating the activities of coal mines, essentially assuring miners "full right of access to inspection" of scales used to weigh their individual tonnages. Second, General Palmer yielded control of the CC&I to Henry Sprague in April of 1884, thus ending his direct involvement with the southern Colorado coalfields. Then, in the winter of 1884-85, the CC&I mines struck in response to company attempts to lower costs by lowering wages. In a controversial move, CC&I imported a trainload of 300 Tennessee Negroes to work the mines in Walsenburg and Engleville. Normal operations resumed in the spring of '85, the strike-breakers having been sent back home.

Perhaps more important, another actor had emerged in the Southern Colorado coal business: John Osgood. Having extensive out-of-state coal mining and railroad experience, Osgood decided to form the Colorado Fuel Company in 1883. His companions in this venture were to become known as the Iowa Group. For several years, this group bought and resold coal to the Burlington and Missouri railroad. With the formation of yet another Osgood enterprise, the Denver Fuel Company, actual acquisition of southern Colorado coal-mining lands commenced. In 1887 they bought a 2000 acre tract from Eldridge Sopris, and opened the Sopris mine. A set of ovens was constructed nearby. Most of the coal went to Osgood's contracts at the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad, though some was converted to coke to be sold to the Leadville smelters. The superintendent was named Kebler, one of Osgood's cronies from the Whitebreast Coal and Mining Company in Iowa (and for whom the Kebler mine in Huerfano County was named).

With the resurgence of the railroads in the late 80's, the production from CC&I's Bessemer works increased dramatically, leading to the increased need for coal and coke from the southern mines. Fear that the reserves at the EI Moro mine were nearing exhaustion prompted CC&I to lease the mines at Gray Creek, five miles distant, as a replacement. These workings were abandoned within a year as the coal was found not to possess coking qualities up to EI Moro #2, later named the Berwind mine for the third president of the company, the successor to Sprague. Edward J. Berwind was formerly a prominent Pennsylvania coal operator. By this time, the second furnace had been blown in at the Bessemer Works, this one called "Mary".

Another competitor for the county's coal resources, the Victor Coal and Coke Company, in 1888 opened a mine in the Canon del Agua, just north of Road Canyon. Called the Hastings Mine, it was to have one of the most explosive histories in Colorado. Ancillary to the mine was a string of coke ovens occupying the bottomland in the broad valley.