Colorado Fuel and Iron
Company type | Private |
---|---|
Founded | 1892 |
Defunct | 2007 |
Fate | Acquired |
Successor | Evraz |
The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) was a large
Through the process of
The Mcnally, Cameron, Robinson and Walsen Mines located in the area of Walsenburg, Colorado, were just a few of the mines owned by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company.
The Colorado Supply company store was also owned and operated by CF&I. They also came to control many furnaces throughout the country, including E. G. Brooke in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania.
Founding and early history
The first, and only until World War II, integrated iron and steel mill west of St. Louis was built in 1881 in Pueblo on the south side of the
The original steel works were one of the projects of the Central Colorado Improvement Company, founded by General
The market for steel was slow[
In the early 1890s, demand for fuel fell, and the company faced stiff competition from the Colorado Fuel Company, which was closely associated with and provided coal to the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q).[9] John C. Osgood, who with other investors from Iowa and Colorado, the Iowa Group, had founded Colorado Fuel Company in 1883, which acquired substantial coal reserves in Las Animas and Garfield Counties by purchasing existing facilities.[12][13] Other properties were acquired in Garfield, Huerfano, Las Animas, and Pitkin counties. On Osgood's initiative these two companies merged in 1892 to form Colorado Fuel and Iron with members of the Iowa Group in control.[1]
Often idle during the decades of the 1880s and 1890s due to stiff competition and the effects of the panic of 1893, the steel mill at Pueblo was small and obsolete. Due to economic conditions it was not possible to modernize it until 1899 when substantial improvements were made.[1] including a rolling mill, additional blast furnaces, a modern Bessemer converter, open hearth furnaces, a wire mill, and supporting facilities.[14] The mill was renamed the Minnequa Works in 1901.[15]
Iron ore
Early sources of iron ore were
Production, which began in 1899 at the Sunrise Mine in Wyoming, was initially by open-pit mining at a cost of 15 cents a ton. By 1900, daily production was 2,000 tons. Purchase of the property was completed in 1904. Shortages of ore continued to plague operations at the refurbished Minnequa Works in Pueblo and some ore was obtained from the 86, Jim Fair, and Union mines near Fierro and Hanover in Grant County, New Mexico. Substantial reserves were purchased near Cedar City in Iron County, Utah but remained unmined.[15]
Limestone
Limestone was initially obtained from a quarry a few miles south of Pueblo at Lime near the St. Charles River and later from a high-grade low-phosphorus deposit of limestone and dolomite near Howard.[19]
Coal and coke
In 1903 CF&I was the largest producer of
Education
In 1901, in an effort to deal with its mostly immigrant workforce, CF&I formed the Sociological Department. Their main focus was to better the lives of the workers and their families and to shape their political and economic views. The Sociological Department began educating the miners through night school to teach them English. The Sociological Department began to set standards for education by regulating the curriculum and getting miners' children involved.
Richard Corwin came up with the idea that Kindergarten would be the best way to help the immigrant children become better citizens. Through the Kindergarten program, children were taught English and the importance of industrial labor in hopes of making them good future employees. [22]
Also part of the multi-pronged efforts to promote support for the Company in the latter-half of 1914, several schools were constructed, including one in Primero.[23][24]
Land
In 1900, anticipating high demand for coal, the extensive and coal rich lands of the Colorado portion of the Maxwell Land Grant near Trinidad in Las Animas County were purchased through its subsidiary, the Rocky Mountain Coal and Iron Company.[19] Following this purchase mines and coking plants and railway connections were constructed by the Colorado and Wyoming Railway Company in 1901 and 1902 west of Trinidad, and facilities built for workers under the direction of Dr. Richard W. Corwin chief surgeon of CF&I.[19]
20th century
The facility operated a number of blast furnaces until 1982. The main blast furnace structures were torn down in 1989, but due to asbestos content many of the adjacent stoves and support buildings still remain. The stoves and foundations for some of the furnaces can be easily seen from Interstate 25, which runs parallel to the plant's west boundary.
Gould and Rockefeller era
In 1902, facing cash flow problems, Osgood turned to
An experienced manager, Frank J. Hearne, retired president of National Tube Company, one of the predecessors of U.S. Steel was brought in September, 1903 to manage the enterprise.[29] In 1904 the assets of the firm and its subsidiaries were consolidated as Colorado Industrial Company whose stock was wholly owned by the shareholders of CF&I, mainly Gould and Rockefeller. This put all properties of the firm under a single management. Gross sales were substantially increased but increasing profit proved elusive due to competition from eastern produces. Income in 1907 was $1.07 million on sales of $23.8 million in 1907.[30]
In November, 1903 the
Following the strike substantial investments were made to the mill including purchase of water rights in the Arkansas River and a reservoir at the site of Sugar Loaf Dam west of Leadville. Previously the mill had relied on the scant and variable flow of the St. Charles River, storing water in Lake Minnequa.[31]
Gates, Rockefeller's financial advisor, had little confidence in Jesse Floyd Welborn who had been elected by Gould and his allies to succeed Hearne as manager in 1907. Welborn had risen within the company from a clerk, knew the operation well, and had the confidence of the company's staff. When Gould suffered severe financial losses due to the Panic of 1907 his need for funds resulted in transfer of his interests to Rockefeller. Gates preferred Lamont M. Bowers, his aunt's husband, with extensive management experience. Welborn was advised to take guidance from Bowers, who was hired as Welborn's subordinate. Welborn had little choice but to defer to Bowers which resulted in Welborn, the president of the company, being only a figurehead and sometimes resulted in him having to make decisions he would not have made on his own motion.[32]
Effectively in charge from 1908 to early 1915, Bowers applied his managerial skills to making the company profitable, reducing employment rolls, closing marginal operations, and reducing improvements and the companies sociological and medical programs. His efforts were successful; profits increased and dividends were paid. The steel mill operated at full capacity and was slightly expanded.[33] Greater profits proved elusive, however, due to eastern competition and limited transportation facilities such as a perennial shortage of railway cars to ship coal.[34]
There was a series of disastrous explosions from 1904 to 1910 at the coal mines near Trinidad which resulted in substantial casualties. Attempts to prevent such disasters resulted in substantial improvements in mine safety techniques by the company and by the coal mining industry generally such as increased mine ventilation, sprinkler systems to keep coal dust wet, and liberal spreading of rockdust to dilute explosive coal dust. Concern over mine safety resulted in creation of the United States Bureau of Mines in 1907 and enactment of improved mine safety regulations in Colorado.[35]
Labor
CF&I's early
The labor force of CF&I was made up in large part of immigrants, many from eastern and southern Europe. Although experienced miners from Cornwall were encouraged to immigrate and were taken on particularly at the Sunrise Mine, much of the workforce was inexperienced and not fluent in English. This complicated communication of mine and industrial safety information. Due to their lack of sophistication it was possible to influence how the workers voted. Fraudulent voting of this nature was employed extensively by company operatives to accomplish various personal and company goals.[37]
Lamont M. Bowers, effectively the chief executive officer of CF&I, in addition to his paternalistic concern regarding vices such as drinking, gambling, and prostitution which might affect the health of CF&I workers, and also company profits, and his efforts to clean up the mining towns and support enactment of prohibition in Colorado, was strongly anti-union and refused to recognize or negotiate with the United Mine Workers during the period leading up to the major strike of 1913-14. The effects of that prolonged and violent strike ended his career with the firm.[38][39]
Strike of 1913–14
The strike, called in September, 1913, by the United Mine Workers over the issue of
Striking miners were forced to abandon their homes in company towns and lived in tent cities erected by the union such as the tent city at Ludlow, a railway stop north of Trinidad.[39]
Under the protection of the National Guard, some miners returned to work and some strikebreakers imported from the eastern coalfields joined them as Guard troops protected their movements. In February, 1914 a substantial portion of the troops were withdrawn, but a sizable contingent remained at Ludlow. On April 20, 1914 a general fire-fight occurred between strikers and troops. The camp burned, and 15 women and children in the camp were burned to death.[39]
In the aftermath of the battle, bands of miners attacked coal company facilities in the area.
Attempts at negotiating a settlement in November, 1913 had been unsuccessful due to the coal operators refusal to talk to union representatives or to consider recognition of the union. After the violence in the Spring of 1914,
Costs to both mine operators and the union were high. Due to reduced demand for coal resulting from an economic downturn many of CF&I's coal mines never reopened and many men were thrown out of work. The union was forced to discontinue strike benefits in February, 1915. There was destitution in the coal fields. With the help of funds from the Rockefeller Foundation relief programs were organized by the Colorado Committee on Unemployment and Relief, a state agency created by Governor Carlson, offering work to unemployed miners building roads and doing other useful projects.[39]
The casualties suffered at Ludlow were successfully labeled a massacre and mobilized public opinion against the Rockefellers and the coal industry. The United States Commission on Industrial Relations conducted extensive hearings singling out John D. Rockefeller Jr. and the Rockefellers' relationship with Bowers for special attention. Bower was relieved of duty and Welborn restored to control in 1915 and industrial relations improved.[39]
Colorado Industrial Plan
In October, 1915 John D. Rockefeller Jr. with the assistance of William Lyon Mackenzie King, director of the Rockefeller Foundation and head of its Department of Industrial Research, introduced the Colorado Industrial Plan, an internal system of worker representation which included guarantees of basic decency in working conditions and in company towns.[41][42]
Segundo, Colorado, was an example of a company town where CF&I offered adequate housing for its workers and promoted upward mobility through its sponsorship of a YMCA Center, elementary school, and some small businesses, as well as a company store. However air pollution was a constant health threat and the houses lacked indoor plumbing. As demand for metallurgical coke declined, the mine laid off workers and Segundo's population declined. After a major fire in 1929, CF&I left and Segundo became practically a ghost town.[43]
1927–1928 Colorado Coal Strike
The CF&I held pervasive spying on workers in the years following up to and during the General Colorado coal strike of 1927, which remains one of the few historically persevered record of company spying on labor organizing, given the secretive nature and risk of bad publicity it brings.[44]
Bankruptcy 1990
On November 7, 1990 CF&I filed for protection under Chapter 11.[45]
Strike of 1997–2004
In 1997, the steelworkers union in Pueblo voted to strike over alleged unfair labor practices. The old CF&I facility, under new ownership, hired permanent replacement workers, leading to further tension between the new employer and the union.[46]
However, in September 2004, local unions 2102 and 3267 won both the strike and the unfair labor practice charges. All of the striking steel workers were returned to their jobs, and the company was forced to repay a record amount of back pay to all of the striking steel workers for the seven years of the strike.[47]
Modern production
In addition to the blast furnace/open hearth steelmaking process, CF&I also used the
Several of the administration buildings, including the main office building, dispensary, and tunnel gatehouse have been purchased by the Steelworks Center of the West to house their Steelworks Museum and the Steelworks Archives.
Out of the many production and fabrication mills which once existed on the site, only the steel production (electric furnaces, used for scrap recycling), rail, rod & bar, and seamless tube mills are still in operation. The wire mill was sold in the late 1990s to Davis Wire, which produced products such as fence and nails under the CF&I brand name until 2014 when it was closed. The mill was able to produce rail lengths of up to 480 feet (up from the current 80 feet), lengths currently possible only in a few European plants.[48]
See also
References
- ^ a b c Scamehorn, Chapter 1, "The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 1892-1903" page 10
- ^ "Colorado Fuel and Iron Corp. - Lehman Brothers Collection". www.library.hbs.edu.
- ^ EVRAZ Rocky Mountain Steel Archived 2016-03-15 at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 0936206160).
- ^ Frey, David: "Redstone coke ovens preserved" Archived 2013-05-11 at the Wayback Machine Aspen Daily News, February 7, 2004
- ^ Scamehorn, Chapter 1, "The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 1892-1903" page 7
- ^ William Wyckoff, Creating Colorado: the making of a western American landscape, 1860-1940, 1999, page 147.
- ^ Colorado Sun. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
- ^ a b c Scamehorn, Chapter 1, "The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 1892-1903" page 8
- ^ Industrial Utopia: The History and Architecture of South Pueblo, 152 pages, 2011.
- ^ South Pueblo Historic Context, 2011.
- ^ Scamehorn, Chapter 1, "The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 1892-1903" page 9
- ^ James Whiteside, Regulating danger: the struggle for mine safety in the Rocky Mountain coal Industry, U of Nebraska Press, 1990, page 8.
- ^ a b Scamehorn, Chapter 1, "The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 1892-1903" page 11
- ^ a b Scamehorn, Chapter 1, "The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 1892-1903" page 13
- ^ Scamehorn, Chapter 1, "The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 1892-1903" page 12
- ^ Scamehorn 28
- ^ Scamehorn 134 to 135
- ^ a b c d Scamehorn, Chapter 1, "The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 1892-1903" page 14
- ^ Scamehorn, Chapter 1, "The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 1892-1903" page 15
- ^ Scamehorn, Chapter 2, "The Gould-Rockefeller Era, 1903-1913" page 27
- ^ Marten, J. (2014) Children and Youth During the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. New York University Press.
- ^ Seligman, Edwin R. A. (November 5, 1914). "Colorado's Civil War and Its Lessons". Frank Leslie's Weekly. Accessible Archives. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
- ^ Hatton, Blake; Specht, Abbie. "PRIMERO- COLORADO FUEL AND IRON'S MODEL TOWN". Retrieved February 20, 2020.
- ^ Scamehorn, Chapter 1, "The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 1892-1903" page 17
- ^ Scamehorn, Chapter 1, "The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 1892-1903" page 18
- ^ Scamehorn, Chapter 1, "The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 1892-1903" page 19
- ^ Scamehorn, Chapter 1, "The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 1892-1903" page 20
- ^ Scamehorn, Chapter 2 "The Gould-Rockefeller Era, 1903-1913" page 24
- ^ Scamehorn, Chapter 2 "The Gould-Rockefeller Era, 1903-1913" page 25
- ^ a b Scamehorn, Chapter 2 "The Gould-Rockefeller Era, 1903-1913" page 26
- ^ Scamehorn, Chapter 2 "The Gould-Rockefeller Era, 1903-1913" pages 28 to 31
- ^ Scamehorn, Chapter 2 "The Gould-Rockefeller Era, 1903-1913" pages 31-32
- ^ Scamehorn, Chapter 2 "The Gould-Rockefeller Era, 1903-1913" pages 32
- ^ Scamehorn, Chapter 2 "The Gould-Rockefeller Era, 1903-1913" pages 32-35
- ^ James Whiteside, Regulating danger: the struggle for mine safety in the Rocky Mountain coal industry, U of Nebraska Press, 1990 (preface)
- ^ Scamehorn, Chapter 2 "The Gould-Rockefeller Era, 1903-1913" page 35-36
- ^ Scamehorn, Chapter 2 "The Gould-Rockefeller Era, 1903-1913" pages 36-37
- ^ a b c d e f g h Scamehorn, Chapter 3 "The Coal Miners' Strike of 1913-1914" page 38-55
- ^ Seligman, Edwin R. A. (November 5, 1914). "Colorado's Civil War and Its Lessons". Frank Leslie's Weekly. Accessible Archives. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
- Rockefeller, John D. (1916). The Colorado Industrial Plan. privately printed. Retrieved October 17, 2012.
- ^ Chapter 4 "The Rockefeller Industrial Representation Plan" Scamehorn 56-81
- ^ Glen D. Weaver, and Ryan C. Graham, "Segundo, Colorado," New Mexico Historical Review (2008) 83#3 pp 323-351
- ^ ""X," "XX," and "X-3": Spy Reports from the Colorado Fuel & Iron Compan". www.historycolorado.org. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
- ^ FTC: New steel rails from Japan, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom
- Portland Business Journal. October 7, 1997.
- ^ Blevins, Jason (May 20, 2000). "Ruling favors Pueblo steel strikers". The Denver Post.
- ^ EVRAZ: Rail Mill Archived 2016-03-15 at the Wayback Machine
- Scamehorn, H. Lee, Mill and Mine: The CF&I in the Twentieth Century, University of Nebraska Press, (April 1, 1992), hardcover, 271 pages, ISBN 978-0803242142
External links and further reading
- Bessemer Historical Society
- Steelworks Museum of Industry and Culture
- CF&I Archives
- https://web.archive.org/web/20080513082329/http://www.osm.com/LocationsFacilities/RockyMountainSteelMills/tabid/71/Default.aspx
- West, George P.; United States Commission on Industrial Relations; Report on the Colorado strike (1915)