The Steelworks Center of the West, is a non-profit organization focused on preserving the history of the coal and steel industry in the Western United States. Based in
Pueblo, Colorado
Pueblo () is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 111,876 at the 2020 United States Census, making Pueblo the ninth most populo ...
and formerly known as the Bessemer Historical Society, which took its name from the community of
Bessemer, site of the
Colorado Coal and Iron Bessemer Works which was named after the
Bessemer process
The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace. The key principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation ...
for making steel invented by
Henry Bessemer
Sir Henry Bessemer (19 January 1813 – 15 March 1898) was an English inventor, whose steel-making process would become the most important technique for making steel in the nineteenth century for almost one hundred years from 1856 to 1950. H ...
.
Colorado Coal and Iron Company merged with the Colorado Fuel Company to form
Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) in 1892.
The Steelworks Center of the West owns and operates the
Steelworks Museum, the Steelworks Archives (formerly the CF&I Archives), and the Steelworks Park that is currently under construction in Pueblo. They provide continuing education of the steel industry's impact on the region through the preservation of historic archives, artifacts, and buildings of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, and through related activities leading to the industrialization of the Western US. They collect, preserve, and exhibit documents and artifacts from the steel and mining industry, Pueblo’s Bessemer neighborhood, and from the employees and families of employees who have worked either at the steel mill or in the coal and iron mines of Southern Colorado.
References
External links
Steelworks Center of the West / Steelworks Museum
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Buildings and structures in Pueblo, Colorado
Railroad museums in Colorado
Museums established in 2007
Museums in Pueblo County, Colorado
History museums in Colorado
Industry museums in Colorado
Mining museums in Colorado
2007 establishments in Colorado