Delagua is an
extinct town
A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...
in
Las Animas County,
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
,
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. The town site is about 5 miles (8 km) south of
Aguilar. It served as a
company-owned coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal i ...
-
mining town
A mining community, also known as a mining town or a mining camp, is a community that houses miners. Mining communities are usually created around a mine or a quarry.
Historical mining communities Australia
* Ballarat, Victoria
* Bendig ...
for the
Victor-American Fuel Company
Victor-American Fuel Company, also styled as the Victor Fuel Company, was a coal mining company, primarily focused on operations in the US states of Colorado and New Mexico during the first half of the 20th century. Prior to a 1909 reorganization ...
.
[ The Delagua post office operated from April 30, 1903, until May 31, 1954.]
Delagua Mine
Delagua developed around the Delagua bituminous coal mine, opened in 1903 and operated by the Victor American Fuel Company.[ It was located in Canon Del Agua, situated approximately three miles west of the Hastings Mine, the site of a mine explosion in 1917, and west of the site of the ]Ludlow Massacre
The Ludlow Massacre was a mass killing perpetrated by anti-striker militia during the Colorado Coalfield War. Soldiers from the Colorado National Guard and private guards employed by Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) attacked a tent colon ...
, which occurred in 1914. As of 1922, it was the largest mine in Colorado, and at its peak employed at least 900 men.[
]
Delagua Social Club
In October 1917, the Delagua Mine was considered one of the "largest and finest 'mining camps' in the state".[
]
Mine explosion
At the Delagua Mine on November 8, 1910, an explosion (loud enough to be heard three miles away in Hastings) killed 76 miners. Safety inspectors later determined that the blast was an explosion of gas and dust, caused by the open flame of a head lamp.[ One month earlier, a similar explosion at the Starkville Mine claimed 57, which combined with the lives lost in the Delagua disaster resulted in 136 deaths in Las Animas County, in just one month.][
A smaller disaster on May 27, 1927, killed six.
Delagua was also the site of armed conflict between strikers and strike-breakers during the ]Colorado Coalfield War
The Colorado Coalfield War was a major Labor dispute, labor uprising in the southern and central Colorado Front Range between September 1913 and December 1914. Striking began in late summer 1913, organized by the United Mine Workers of Ameri ...
in 1914. A Colorado House of Representatives subcommittee heard testimony that strikebreaking workers were lured to the Delagua mine, under false pretenses, and held there by force.[
]
See also
*Bibliography of Colorado
This is a bibliography of the U.S. State of Colorado.
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General history
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*Sibley, George. ''Water Wranglers - The 75-Year History of the Colorado River District: A Story About the Embattled Co ...
*Geography of Colorado
The geography of the U.S. State of Colorado is diverse, encompassing rugged mountainous terrain, vast plains, desert lands, desert canyons, and mesas. Colorado is a landlocked U.S. state. In 1861, the United States Congress defined the boun ...
*History of Colorado
The region that is today the U.S. state of Colorado has been inhabited by Native Americans and their Paleoamerican ancestors for at least 13,500 years and possibly more than 37,000 years. The eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains was a major mi ...
*Index of Colorado-related articles
This is an alphabetical list of articles related to the U.S. State of Colorado.
0–9
* .co.us – Internet second-level domain for the State of Colorado
* 4 Corners
** 4 Corners Monument
* 6th Principal Meridian
* 10-mile Range
* 10 ...
*List of Colorado-related lists
The following two master lists include links to lists related to the United States, U.S. Colorado, State of Colorado.
#Colorado-related lists by topic
#Alphabetical list of Colorado-related lists
Colorado-related lists by topic General lists
*Bib ...
**List of ghost towns in Colorado
This is a list of some notable ghost towns in the U.S. State of Colorado. A ghost town is a former community that now has no year-round residents or less than 1% of its peak population. Colorado has over 1,500 ghost towns, although visible remai ...
**List of post offices in Colorado
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
*Outline of Colorado
The following Outline (list), outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the U.S. state of Colorado:
Colorado – List of U.S. states and territories by population#State and territory rankings, 22nd most populous, the Lis ...
References
External links
State of Colorado
History Colorado
{{authority control
1903 establishments in Colorado
Company towns in Colorado
Former populated places in Las Animas County, Colorado
Geography of Las Animas County, Colorado
Ghost towns in Colorado
History of Colorado
Mining communities in Colorado
Populated places established in 1903