Public History Field School in Southern Colorado


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Public History Field School Operations
Cokedale, Colorado
Department of History
Abilene Christian University

Dr. Vernon L. Williams, Director

Each year Abilene Christian University's (ACU) Department of History sends a Public History Field School team into southern Colorado to engage in preservation work relating to early 20th century coal mining history. Each team includes undergraduate and graduate students and is led year by Dr. Vernon L. Williams. The ACU Field School work in four general areas of historical preservation projects:

Archaeology

During each field work season ACU students work on an excavation recovering artifacts and data from the early mining camps along the southern Colorado front range. On site activities include excavation, field lab conservation, documentation photography, surveying, mapping, drawing, and cataloging. The students then move to the Cokedale Mining Museum where excavation materials are processed, studied, and incorporated into museum exhibits and educational programs. For more extensive work, collection materials are transferred to Abilene where students working on internships during the academic year, paper presentations at conferences or masters theses can incorporate the historical evidence into their work.

Oral History

Oral history is the cornerstone of the work at Cokedale. Interviews include people who worked and lived in the coal mining camps miners, wives, clerks, doctors, teachers, and children of the miners. Interview teams also collect collateral materials during the interview process. Using photographic copying equipment to duplicate scrapbooks, photograph albums, and memorabilia, these materials become important historical tools that augment the oral history interview and provide new knowledge about life on Colorado's southern front range..

Museum Work

Set in an abandoned company store, the Cokedale Mining Museum is home to the ACU Public History Field School and the place where students apply their skills in exhibit design, fabrication, implementation, and archival practice. Using photography, videography, computer applications, and historic research as tools, ACU students tell the story of mining along the Colorado frontier. Students also serve as museum assistants and interns, participate in computer layout and design operations, develop archival skills, and gain valuable experience in community-based educational programs.

Historic Preservation

Students participate in the preservation and restoration of historic structures in Cokedale and the surrounding region by helping stabilize deteriorating structural components of early company town sites, documenting deterioration and decay, and developing these historic resources for future generations.

ACU Public History Field school Teams, 1991-1998

Visit the Boarding House and the Bullocks

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    Cokedale Coal Mining Museum Project, Cokedale, Colorado

    Cokedale was built in 1907 by the American Smelting & Refining Co. (ASARCO). The town was named for its 350 coke ovens, which were used to process the coal before it was shipped by rail to El Paso to fuel ASARCO's industrial operations. At its peak, Cokedale enjoyed a population of 1500 and produced 1500 tons of coal and 800 tons of coke per day. It was well known as the "model mining camp," and because of the good relations maintained between management and labor, was largely untouched by the trials and violence that characterized the unionization of other camps. The town operated until 1947 when ASARCO was no longer able to operate its mines in the area at a profit. However, Cokedale was not abandoned. Many residents wanted to stay and were able to purchase the property from the Florence Machinery Company of Denver, who bought the town from ASARCO in 1947. The town was incorporated in 1948 and remains today a thriving community and the best preserved true company town in Southern Colorado.

    ACU Field School Teams have been involved in historic preservation activities at Cokedale since 1991. Field School operations are based in the old company store, which now houses the Cokedale Coal Mining Museum. Students have rebuilt and restored the front porch stonework at the mercantile, designed and constructed three period rooms, a photo exhibit, and two artifact exhibits for the museum. More projects are planned for future Field School teams.

    Primero, Colorado Project

    Primero was a mining camp operated by CF&I from 1901 to 1928. At its peak, Primero's mines produced 3,000 tons of coal a week and employed an average of 600 men at a time, 60% of whom were foreign born.

    In 1996, an ACU Public History Field School team began archaeological work at the ruins of Old Primero, located in Smith Canyon one mile north of Segundo, Colorado. Succeeding teams have continued work at the site, recording historical data and retrieving and preserving thousands of artifacts which reveal the social, economic, and architectural history of this company town. Students have produced a number of significant projects from the materials at Primero, including a walking tour on site, a full excavation of the remains of the company store, and photo and artifact exhibits on Primero for the Cokedale Coal Mining Museum. More projects are planned for future field school teams, including the restoration of the store and further excavation of surrounding structures.

    Documents--The Primero, Colorado Project

    Historical Photographs Other Mining Towns in Southern Colorado

    Teaching Units

    Read More About It

    Web Page Administrator

    For corrections and contributions regarding this World Wide Web page, contact Dr. Vernon L. Williams, ACU Box 28130, Department of History, Abilene Christian University, Abilene, Texas 79699.
    E-mail vwilliams@nicanor.acu.edu
    FAX 915-674-2369
    Telephone 915-674-2150.