Cooked in Cokedale, Co 5/22/14

I never expected that I would travelogue blog, but it seems I now have this thing called shrinking memory going on. Like I know I went to the titled spot only a month ago and yet, it is like a fading screen at the end of a movie. How could that be? It wasn't that long ago. Glad I made my little collages with my nifty technology! So I can plop them here and re-remember. So here it goes:

Oh, and before I forget, I have to reintroduce why we came to this place. To quote myself,
    "We were looking for The Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary in the Raton Basin Area of Colorado.               More specifically, we were going to try to follow some Geologists field notes from 1990 to                    Cokedale, Co to find and dig into and haul back...YUP, haul back rocks from the K-T boundary
   that allegedly circles the earth, but is only visible (and digable and haulable) from a few rare spots."

And I bet you are wondering what happened next, right?

suspense is mounting! or does it build? well anyway, here comes the next collage!

But, and yet...Where is it? Oh where oh where could that K-T be?

It was rather spectacular and not over and not under- whelming, and I even climbed up to take a look see (and of course my own little piece of rock vs. Peter's stuffed to the max backpack). I of course all the while had my eye on visiting that "National Historic District" that was on the first sign.

Top left is the remains of the ovens that cooked the coke, right= the sign that may have been indicating the size of the Historic district, and the speed limit surely bespoke additional information about the place (in fact, one of the 228 residents yelled at us for driving 16 in their 15 mile zone). The fire hydrant, well that was purely for my own edification/collecting of fire hydrant types and locales. This here Waterous hydrant, claiming to be around since 1886, was not a Spfld. MA Chapman Valve job. In March of 1991, the management of American Cast Iron Pipe Company made the decision to merge its two valve- and hydrant-producing subsidiaries, American-Darling Valve and Waterous, into one division. This new division became American Flow Control. Thus was born one of the largest and most diverse valve and hydrant producers in the world. This merger produced a division with over 200 years combined experience in the design and production of waterworks and fire-protection products. Production facilities are located in Beaumont, Texas, and South St. Paul, Minnesota. 

This small little town was once a mining camp, then company town founded in 1906. At it's peak (1909) it had a pop. of 1500, There really was only 2 main horizontal roads with only another couple of vertical shorter roads, but these little alleyways were interesting. It makes the term "gossiping over the back fence" seem apropos. Before the motorcar travel back and fro from Trinidad was by Trolley, cost $.25 + took 1.5 hrs.!

This area was like a place time forgot on the edge of...of...like far out thereness. There was a former rugged wild west and now just barely tamed feel to the whole place. Like the lower right side picture is, YES- an outhouse. Hopefully there as decorative amusement, but we didn't know. I think the top right was the former doctor's house, which as you can see by comparison to the house on the lower left was quite the house! It had steam heat and indoor plumbing.

It looks like these coal miners were proud people. And hard workers with hardscrabble lives. By 1909 the town was cooking! Each day it's #1 mine produced 1,500 tons of coal a day and its 350 coke ovens produced 800 tons of coke. Mining operations at Cokedale continued for 40 years and produced over a million tons of coal. 

Unlike other mining communities in the state, which were abandoned when area mines closed, the residents of Cokedale had the opportunity to buy their homes and with the same community spirit incorporated their community in 1947. The miners and their families were offered the homes for $100 per room and $50 per lot.  Here are some of the homes as they look today.

Some homes have been refurbished, some not. These would be the nots.

The famous and historic Gottlieb Mercantile Company building once sold goods to miners, now houses the mining museum, the post office and town hall! And we can't forget about the huge park that runs along the side of the building.

More historic buildings. Top left is front of Mercantile Co., top right was the 22 room boarding house (bachelors pads). We are unsure of the fancy house bottom left, but may also have been the doctor's house, middle picture next to wood sign is the mining office, and the bottom right was the schoolhouse and in the far distance of that photo was the church.

It was one of the coolest things to stumble upon this piece of Americana. To actually be able to see, read, and learn about the coal mining history of the area was an invaluable tourist treat for this traveler. Another awesome journey into the heartland (or wee corner, or tall town at 6332 feet) of my country.