Colorado Fuel and Iron Company Archives: Western Coal and Iron Mines Project

FAIN: PW-50404-09

Bessemer Historical Society, Inc. (Pueblo, CO 81004-3409)
Beverly Allen (Project Director: August 2008 to March 2009)
Victoria Miller (Project Director: March 2009 to June 2009)
Timothy Howard Hawkins (Project Director: June 2009 to December 2011)

The arrangement and description of 800 feet of company records pertaining to mining operations, along with the preservation of 5,000 maps and the selected digitization of significant collection items.

Bessemer Historical Society requests $269,790 in funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a two year project to expand upon an existing Encoded Archival Description finding aid through the description of 800 bubic feet of coal and iron mining records and 5,000 maps from coal and iron properties through the West. These records illuminate the life cycle of coal and iron mining in the American West from exploration to exploitation to reclamation. These records detail the creation of company towns, the massive flood of immigrants to Western coal and iron fields, the incredibly dangerous nature of the work, the profound environmental impact of mining, the complex labor relations between miners and management and the steady decline of the mining industry in the West in the late 20th century.