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New Elk Mine Bridge Repair and Replacement Project <br />arcadis.com <br />New Elk Mine Cultural Report_TB_Rev030722 NOT FOR PUBLIC DISCLOSURE 12 <br />The CF&I was the first vertically integrated steel mill located west of the Mississippi River, which means <br />that the CF&I controlled all the necessary natural resources to produce steel, including coal, iron ore, <br />limestone, dolomite, and water reserves. At one time, CF&I was the largest private landowner in <br />Colorado, and the company owned more than 60 mines and quarries in Colorado (Howell n.d.), Utah, <br />Oklahoma, Wyoming, and New Mexico. The CF&I was also Colorado’s largest private employer for <br />several years, employing thousands of people, many of whom were immigrants who with their families <br />lived in the company’s coal camps and company towns. <br />In 1899, the CF&I established the C&W to transport resources from distant mines to the steel works. The <br />C&W consisted of three noncontiguous segments: the northern division, which operated 17.89 miles of <br />track in Laramie County, Wyoming, extending from the Colorado and Southern Railway at Hartville <br />Junction to Sunrise, as well as connecting with the Burlington & Missouri River Railway at Guernsey; the <br />middle division, which operated 94.64 miles of track in and around the Minnequa Steel Works at Pueblo, <br />Colorado; and the southern division, which, at the time it was completed in 1902, operated 58.2 miles of <br />track in Las Animas County, Colorado, extending from Jansen to Cuatro (Tercio) and connecting with the <br />Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway at Jansen and the Colorado and Southern Railway and the <br />Denver and Rio Grande Railroad at Sopris (American Iron and Steel Institute 1908:229). <br />Construction of the southern division of the C&W began in 1900, beginning at a connection with the <br />Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway at Jansen past the CF&I mines and coke ovens at Sopris and <br />continuing nearly 12 miles west to the coke ovens at Segundo by May 1901. From Segundo, a branch <br />line was constructed northward along Smith Canyon to the Primero mine by June 1901, while the main <br />line continued west to Weston by October 1901. The original C&W corridor then turned southward toward <br />the CF&I’s new mine and coke ovens at Tercio, which it reached in March 1902. The mine at Tercio was <br />short-lived, reaching maximum production in 1907 and shutting down by 1908 (McKenzie 1982). In 1907, <br />the Frederick Mine was opened at Valdez just east of Segundo and reached peak production by 1913. <br />The Frederick Mine was one of CF&I’s leading mines and soon became the primary supplier of coal to the <br />nearby Segundo coke ovens (McKenzie 1982:46). <br />The southern division of the C&W was plagued by flooding along the Purgatoire River, even before <br />construction was complete. In the summer of 1901, a series of floods severely damaged the newly built <br />C&W southern division, with a mile of track between Jansen and Sopris being washout out completely <br />and other bridges and sections of track undergoing repeated damage (McKenzie 1982:156). As <br />engineers worked to patch the damaged railroad together, they quickly realized that they had constructed <br />the C&W too closely to the stream bed and that most of the railroad between Jansen and Segundo would <br />need to be rebuilt. Of the 75 bridges that were originally constructed in 1900 and 1901 along the southern <br />division of the C&W between Jansen and Weston, 38 were rebuilt in 1902 (McKenzie 1982:156). Most of <br />the original bridges were timber trestle bridges supported by wood piles crossing small streams and <br />drainages, which were replaced with concrete box culverts or timber trestle bridges supported by <br />concrete piers. Six of the timber trestle bridges crossing the Purgatoire River, however, were replaced <br />with steel single- and double-span Pratt through-truss bridges (CF&I 1904). <br />The Frederick Mine’s production began to decline in the 1940s, and following its closure in 1960, all of the <br />CF&I buildings, including the company housing, were razed, and Valdez and Segundo became relative <br />ghost towns (McKenzie 1982:115).