History and Archaeology of the Ludlow Massacre
A tour of the history of the Colorado Coalfield War of 1913-14 and the Ludlow Massacre (Locations are approximate).
Attempting to improve living and working conditions in Colorado’s Southern Coalfields, miners and their families answered the United Mine Workers’ (UMW) call to strike on September 30, 1913. The harsh working conditions in the mines and the feudal-like living conditions of the coal camps took its toll on the miners and their families. In an attempt to improve these conditions, miners and their families answered the UMW strike call on September 23, 1913.
The Union issued 7 demands:
1) Recognition of the United Mine Workers of America union
2) A 10% wage increase
3) Enforcement of the 8 hour day
4) Payment for dead work
5) Right to elect checkweighmen
6) The right to trade in any store, board anywhere, and use any doctor
7) Enforcement of Colorado mining laws and abolishment of armed mine guards
The coal companies responded to the strike with violence and harassment. They evicted the miners and their families from company housing and used hired guns to intimidate strikers. The Colorado National Guard's entrance in November of 1913 promised a move towards peace, but added to the tension and violence of the strike. This violence culminated in the Ludlow Massacre on April 20, 1914 when members of the Colorado National Guard attacked the Ludlow strikers' colony and burned the tents killing 19 colonists.
This site presents an interactive history of the events of the Colorado Coalfield War and the Ludlow Massacre. It also provides an overview of the archaeology conducted at the site of the Ludlow Strikers' Colony.
History of the Ludlow Massacre
Berwind Camp
At its height Colorado Fuel & Iron (CF&I) employed 10% of Colorado's workforce. Its coal camps, such as Berwind, supplied the coal and coke for steel production in CF&I's Pueblo steel plants. CF&I directed the lives and activities of miners and their families by building housing, hospitals, schools, churches, and clubhouses and by directing the personnel, such as teachers and doctors, who managed these places.
Coal Mining
The harsh working conditions in the mines and the feudal-like living conditions of the coal camps took its toll on the miners and their families. In an attempt to improve these conditions, miners and their families answered the United Mine Workers' (UMW) strike call on September 23, 1913.
Establishing the Colony
Following the call for the strike, the coal companies evicted the miners and their families from company housing. The UMW provided the striking families with canvas tents and rented land to establish a series of 8 strikers' tent colonies. The Ludlow Strikers' Colony was the main colony.
Ludlow Strikers' Colony
The Ludlow Strikers' Tent Colony provided not only shelter, but social services. The colony had a community tent, a paymasters tent that provided strike benefits, a doctor, and recreational and social areas. The union and the strikers were trying to show the public that they could establish a strong and vibrant community without the coal companies' control.
Striking Families
The strike engaged whole families, not just coal miners. Strikers, their wives, and children all lived in the tent colony. Together, they marched in protests, prepared meals, played sports, saw movies, sang ethnic and union songs, and developed a strong community. (Note the "No. 3" on the tent)
Colony Recreation
By taking part in sports and games, such as gymnastics and boccie ball, strikers kept busy during the strike but also came together as a community.
Baseball
Baseball had a large presence in the Ludlow Strikers' Colony. The Union and the strikers marked holidays by playing baseball and also held regular games. The union's support of the sport offered a way for strikers and their families to come together and develop a sense of community. By sharing similar activities and experiences, the strikers developed common interests and a shared identity. Strikers built a field complete with bleachers south of the Ludlow Strikers' Colony.
Death Special
The coal companies used hired guns to harass and intimidate the strikers. They flashed spotlights into the colony at night and drove a specially built armored car called the "Death Special" along the road adjacent to the Ludlow colony strafing the colony. Strikers and their families traveling outside of the colony were subject to repeated verbal and physical abuse.
Tent Cellars
As a way to protect their families from the gunfire, intimidation, and repeated searches, some strikers constructed cellars beneath their tents. The cellars ranged in depth from a couple feet to 8 feet. The strikers and their families saw these cellars as so safe that children slept in them and hid in them during attacks. Pregnant mothers also gave birth in the cellars.
Ludlow Depot
The Ludlow depot provided transportation access to the Cities of Trinindad and Walsenburg. It was also the arrival point for strikebreakers into the strike zone. Strikers watched the depot to see the arrival of strikebreakers and company guards. Company guards also used the depot to intimidate strikers and their families.
Company K
On October 28, 1913, Gov. Ammons ordered the Colorado National Guard to help maintain peace in the strike zone. The National Guard performed searches of the strikers' colonies confiscating prohibited items from the strikers. Company K observed the Ludlow Strikers' Colony from its encampment next to the colony. Company K consisted mainly of college students from the Boulder area and Denver professionals. They had a cordial relationship with the strikers. Their relationship may explain their removal from the strike zone on March 28, 1914, while the more hostile A and B companies remained.
Company B
The National Guard's Company B was stationed in Berwind Canyon. The company consisted of company guards who took an aggressive stance against the strikers. Its commander, Lt. Karl Linderfelt, was a veteran of America's occupation of the Philippines. He saw the strikers as an attack on American capitalist ideals and saw his role as a defender of such ideals.
Women's March
In January of 1914, the National Guard removed union organizer Mother Jones from a train entering the strike zone and confined her without charges in the county hospital in Walsenburg. On January 22, 1914, hundreds of the striker's wives and children marched along Main Street in Trinindad to protest Mother Jones's imprisonment. To disperse the women's march, General John Chase ordered the National Guard to charge the women and children. Although no one was killed, the physical attack on the strikers' families increased tension between the strikers and the National Guard.
The Massacre
On the morning of April 20, 1914, guardsmen asked for the return of a missing man. Union leaders met with guardsmen to explain that he was not in the colony. During the meeting guardsmen positioned machine guns on water tank hill and troops south of the colony in preparation for a fight. Strikers left the colony as a way to distract the guardsmen from attacking the colony and their families. A gun fight erupted and lasted throughout the day. Most of the fire was directed at the colony. Strikers and their families hid in their tents, a well, or ran to the arroyo north of the colony or retreated to the Black Hills east of the colony. That night, the guard set fire to the colony. In the end 19 strikers and their family members (mostly women and children) were killed. A passing hitchhiker hit by a stray bullet and a guardsman shot in a gunfight south of the colony also died during the massacre.
Company A
During the attack on the colony, members of Company A set up a machine gun next to the water tank west of the colony. They strafed the colony with gun fire throughout the day. There was a pause in the gunfire when a train engineer used his train to block the gunfire. He ultimately moved the train after the guardsmen threatened him.
The Death Pit
The sense of safety the tent cellars provided added to the tragedy of the Ludlow Massacre when 4 women and 11 children sought shelter from the National Guard's gunfire in a cellar. The tent above the cellar caught fire, which led to the suffocation of all but two of the women hiding in the cellar. The survivors of the massacre memorialized this cellar by calling it the "Death Pit". The guard claimed not to have knowledge of tent cellars before the strike.
10 Day War
The strikers, union officials, and their supporters retaliated by taking up arms against the National Guard and took control of Trinidad in what became known as the 10-Day War. They also invaded many of the coal camps, burning down structures and attacking the National Guard. The conflict ended when President Woodrow Wilson ordered Federal Troops into the region to establish order.
Red Cross
After the massacre, a group from Trinidad representing a local Red Cross Society entered the Ludlow Strikers' Colony ruins. They removed the bodies of victims and recorded, along with photographer Lewis Dold, the damage and ruins from the National Guard's attack.
Aftermath
With the Ludlow Strikers' Colony destroyed, the strikers and their families were left homeless and their possessions lost in the fire. The survivors of the massacre returned to the colony. They placed the burned remains of the colony into the tent cellars and rebuilt the colony continuing the strike until December 10, 1914. With a lack of resources, the UMW had to end the strike in defeat.
Archaeology
From 1998 until 2002, archaeologists from the University of Denver, Binghamton University, and Fort Lewis College conducted excavations at the site of the Ludlow colony as part of the Colorado Coalfield War Archaeological Project. Field crews tried various ways to find the remains of the Ludlow colony's tents. Excavations uncovered the trench lines that surrounded the tents and the remains of the cellars that strikers excavated beneath the tents to protect their families. Archaeologists also uncovered dishes, bottles, cans, toys, and other items that helped archaeologists interpret how the strikers and their families established a home and community in the Ludlow Strikers' Colony.
Photographic Overlay
Archaeologists used a technique to overlay historic photographs onto the modern landscape. This method allowed the archaeologists to determine where tents, streets, and other features were located within the colony. The video shows a transition between the historic landscape to the modern landscape.
Ludlow Overlay
Map of Ludlow Strikers' Colony with photograph locations
With the locations where photographers took their photos, researchers were able to make a map of the Ludlow colony. The tracking of these photographs showed that the colony had a series of streets. Besides the streets, the UMW also numbered the tents to allow for organization of the striking community. As a result, we can see that the UMW did not haphazardly layout the colony; instead the UMW planned a centralized community.
This map provides a comparison to the one produced by the National Guard.
National Guard map of Ludlow Strikers' Colony
Viewshed Analysis of Ludlow Strikers' Colony
Archaeologists used spatial analysis to see what the strike participants could and could not see across the landscape. The UMW placed the Ludlow Strikers' Colony in a great location for observation. As this viewshed map shows, the colony's location on the plains allowed strikers to watch strikebreakers and company guards move in and out of the canyons where the coal camps were located. The company guards had a difficult time watching the movements within the Ludlow Strikers' Colony from the canyons.
These recovered artifacts represent daily life in the Ludlow Strikers' Colony. The colonists used the cups, bowls, bottles, and jars to prepare and store meals. The harmonica reeds and mouth harp provide a material presence for the music that filled the Ludlow Strikers' Colony. Strikers and their families stated that music was a popular activity in the colony with people joining together in song. Strikers played union songs and traditional ethnic music. From basic needs, to recreation, and community activities, the strikers and their families not only protected themselves, the developed a thriving community.
