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The Coal Mining Heritage of Lafayette From the late I 880s until the I 930s, Lafayette was a major coal town. Read the history of the coal mining era, examine the location of coal mines within the Lafayette area, and enjoy historic photos of the Waneka Lake Power Plant and the Simpson Mine with the attached Coal Mines of the Lafaveti’e Area brochure. This brochure was created by the Lafayette Historic Preservation board, and it highlights the fascinating Coal Mining Heritage of Lafayette. • Coal Mines oft/ic Lafayette Area — page 1 • Coal Mines of the Lafayette Area - page 2 • Coal Mines f the Lfa)’ette Area — map ---PAGE BREAK--- Historic Preservation Board, City of Lafayette, Colorado The social legacy. The social legacy of mining is equally important to contemporary Lafayette The mines required far more labor than was available locally and quickly attracted experienced miners and laborers from Europe and other parts of the U.S. The result was a community comprised of many ethnic groups, including Welsh, English. Scottish, Irish, central European, Hispanic, Italian, and Swedish workers and their families. Local farmers and ranchers also shared in the coal boom and worked as miners in the winter when coal production was high and agricultural work slow. A sense of this ethnic diversity can be gained by walking through the Lafayette cemetery at Baseline and 111th Street. The variety of family names gives a sense of the many nationalities that have contributed to Lafayette’s history. Although the mining life was hard, families were fun-loving and many social activities centered around schools and churches. This legacy continues today as Lafayette remains one of the most diverse and interesting communities along the Front Range. Further Reading Carroll, C.J. and M.A. Bauer. 2002. Historic coal mines of Colorado. Denver: Colorado Geological Survey, Division of Minerals and Geology, Department of Natural Resources, Information Series 64. Colton, R and R.L. Lowrie. 1973 Map showing mined areas of the Boulder-Weld coalfield Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF—513. Conarroe, C. 2001 Coal mining in Colorado’s northern field. Lafayette, CO: Conarroe Companies. Hutchison, J D. 1994. Survey and settlement; Lafayette. Colorado. Lafayette, CO: Morrell Graphics. Lowrie, R.L. 1966. Analysis of the coal industry in the Boulder-Weld coal field. Colorado: U.S. Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations 6726. Myers.A.R J.B. Hansen, RA Lindvall J B. Ivey, andJ.L. Hynes. 1975. Coal mine subsidence and land use in the Boulder-Weld coalbeld, Boulder and Weld Counties, Colorado. Denver. Colorado Geological Survey, Environmental Geology Series EG—9. Roberts, S.B J.L. Hynes, and CL. Woodward. 2001. Maps showing the extent of mining, locations of mine shafts, adits. air shafts, and bedrock faults, and thickness of overburden above abandoned coal mines in the Boulder-Weld coal field, Boulder, Weld, and Adams counties, Colorado. Denver United States Geological Survey, Geologic Investigations Series 1-2735. Smith, P 1989 Once a coal miner; The story of Colorado’s northern coal field. Boulder. CO: Pruett Publishers. Credits and sources. This map was compiled from digital sources by Kenneth E. Foote and Anna Milan of the Department of Geography at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Text is by Kenneth E. Foote and Vicki Trumbo The mine locations are available from the Colorado Geological Survey (Carroll and Bauer 2002). The locations of mine extents and faults are available from the United States Geological Survey (Roberts, Hynes, and Woodward 2001) and the digital files are online at http.//energy.cr.usgs gov/ofher/frip/index.htm Digital maps of rivers. water bodies, railroads and major roads were downloaded from Boulder County Geographic Information Services at www.co.boulder.co.us/gis/ Local roads are from the 2002 update of the 2000 TIGER maps produced by the United States Bureau of Census at www.census.gov. The quality and completeness of each of these sources varies, so the position of features on this final map should be read as approximate rather than absolute. Photographs of Black Diamond Fuel crew; the Simpson Mine; East Cleveland Street from the Simpson mine, and Simpson camp courtesy of the Lafayette Miner’s Museum Photographs of the Waneka Lake power plant courtesy of Dean and Norma Ross All other photographs by Kenneth E Foote. Photographs used with permission all rights reserved. Thanks to Glenda and Phil Chermak, Stephanie Schmidt. Andy Patten, Dean and Norma Ross, Cathleen Norman. and Stephen Roberts for providing help with this project. Published by the Historic Preservation Board, City of Lafayette, Colorado with the assistance of the Department of Geography at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Copyright 2004. From the late 1880s until the 1930s, Lafayette was a major coal town. Mines in and around Lafayette, Louisville, Erie, Superior and Marshall were suppliers of fuel for heating and power along the Front Range. Some mines in this Boulder-Weld county coal field continued production for several more decades, but the industry passed its peak before the Second World War as natural gas for heating became widely used and as better grades of coal from more distant mines became economically competitive. Much of the evidence of coal mining has since disappeared from the landscape. The shafts were filled and the heavy equipment and buildings were sold. moved, or scrapped New development has covered other traces, as at the Black Diamond mine on the northwest corner of Baseline and U.S. Highway 287. A sign, pictured to the left, at the new Black Diamond Center and shaped like the winding gear tower over a mineshaft, provides a faint reminder of the mine. Other evidence still remains of Lafayette’s mining heritage in the town’s architecture and place names You can explore these features using this map and guide Coal in Boulder and Weld Counties Coal is one of Colorado’s greatest resources with beds underlying approximately 28 percent of the state’s land area. An inventory by the Colorado Geological Survey for the years 1864 to 2002 lists 1,736 mines in the state of which about 163 were in Boulder and Weld counties. The Denver coal basin of which the Boulder-Weld fields are part has the distinction of being one of the first deposits to be mined. Beginning in the 1860s and 1870s, settlers mined coal for local consumption by digging horizontal openings called adits into coal seams that were close to the surface. \Nith increased demand and better rail transportation in the 1880s and 1890s, companies dug shafts downward into the coal deposits and mined underground. The coal in the Boulder-Weld fields is mostly bedded in seven seams, although the number of seams varies somewhat from place to place. The coal seams are interlayered with sandstones, shales, and clays of the Laramie Formation, all being sedimentary deposits dating back about 80 million years. The seams vary in thickness and quality. Some are as thin as a foot and were never economical to mine; others are as thick as 14 feet and were the layers the miners targeted. The coal varied from sub-bituminous B to sub-bituminous C, meaning its heating capacity was greater than wood and low-grade lignite coal, but far less than the heating capacity of bituminous and anthracite coals. The best seams in Boulder and The Coal Mining Heritage of Lafayette ---PAGE BREAK--- Weld counties tended to be the middle layers. Depending on local topography and erosion, these varied in depth from 50 to over 400 feet below the surface. These coal beds offered a welcome source of energy along the Front Range, but had limitations. The seams were folded and faulted later when the Rockies Greeley rose to the west. Subsequent erosion and Loveland deposition have hidden most of these faults, but underground they interrupt the coal seams. Miners could follow some layers hundreds or even thousands of feet underground, but then encountered faults where the seams disappeared upward or downward. To Longmont retunnel and move equipment up and BOULDLR down was expensive, so many mines COUNTY stopped along fault lines. The coal under : The Legacies of Mining Lafayette also had the disadvantage of its rie : water content, when it dried, it flaked and powdered. Lump coal was the premier Boulder product during the period of peak mining, , Lafayette - - because solid pieces of coal could be fed into Louisvie,A’ furnaces and boilers Coal powder was not of much value, so Lafayette coal tended to be roomfielci C0UNY mined when needed—in the winter months—so that it would not dry out before it could be burned. The Coal Mines and Camps The Waneka Lake power plant supplied electricity to the Lafayette area between 1907 and the opening of the Va/mont station in Boulder in the 1930s. The generating station was on the south side of the lake nMere a park is now found. Mining extended diagonally across Boulder and Weld counties. Between the 1860s and 1970s. 163 mines produced coal here. The environmental legacy. The greatest environmental problem associated with the old mines is subsidence when tunnels and chambers collapse underground. This shifting below ground sometimes leads to large pond-like depressions on the surface. Even modest subsidence can crack and damage buildings, roads and other structures. Lafayette has been fortunate—most of the old town was undercut by mines, but relatively little subsidence has occurred. The mines were deep enough and the layers above stable enough to have little effect on the surface. Development was restricted for many decades in some areas of Lafayette over old mines, as near the Rothman Open Space, until it was clear that subsidence would not be a problem. The old mines have not resulted in the contamination of ground water as has been problem in hard rock mineral mines further west in the Rockies. The advent of large-scale mining in the 1880s and 1890s changed Lafayette both physically and socially. The coal boom brought industry to what had been until then a small ranching and farming community. Heavy equipment was needed at the pit heads as seen below at the Simpson Mine. Roads and railroads were also developed and expanded to meet the demand. So many miners moved to the area that some mines built camps to house workers and their families. ill The architectural legacy. Lafayette’s mining history is still reflected in its historic residential and commercial buildings, even if the mines and railroads are gone. Because Lafayette was home to the mine workers, not the mine owners, houses were small frame cottages for the most part. Many of these small mine company houses were moved in from other mine camps in the area. The typical house was a modest, front-gabled, side-gabled, or hipped-roof box style Although many of these small homes have been significantly altered or enlarged, some have been preserved and still exhibit significant architectural integrity. Other buildings from the mining period still exist—shops, churches, a boarding house, and a rail depot. A self-guided walking tour available at the Lafayette Miner’s Museum and Lafayette Historical Society will help you find these buildings in central Lafayette. This hipped-roof house (left) isa typical of those built for miners. Located at 311 E. Oak Street, this house was moved from the Canfield mine that was once near Erie. 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