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crew. <br />On December 13, 1879, the Southern Town and Coal Company, the Central <br />Colorado Improvement Company, and the Colorado Coal and Steel Company <br />merged to become the Colorado Coal and Iron Company, under General Palmer's <br />control. This corporation established the first long term steel industry in Colorado. <br />Its first blastfurnace, dubbed "Betsy ", was blown in on September 5th, 1881, at the <br />Pueblo-based Bessemer works. Production from El Moro was further stepped up to <br />help meet the increased demand, and the number of ovens was raised to 250. <br />The financial roller coaster of the mid-1880's drastically influenced the rail industry, <br />which in turn was a major source of steel demand. In the midst of the resultant lull in <br />demand for coke were three events of note: First, on February 24, 1883, the <br />Colorado Assembly passed the first law regulating the activities of coal mines, <br />essentially assuring miners 'full right ofaccess to inspection " ofscales used to weigh <br />their individual tonnages. Second, General Palmer yielded control of the CC&[ to <br />Henry Sprague in April of 1884, thus ending his direct involvement with the southern <br />Colorado coalfields. Then, in the winter of 1884-85, the CC&[ mines struck in <br />response to company attempts to lower costs by lowering wages. In a controversial <br />move, CC&[ imported a trainload of 300 Tennessee African Americans to work the <br />mines in Walsenburg and Engleville. Normal operations resumed in the spring of '85, <br />the strike-breakers having been sent back home. <br />Perhaps more important, another actor had emerged in the Southern Colorado coal <br />business: John Osgood. Having extensive out-of-state coal mining and railroad <br />experience, Osgood decided to form the Colorado Fuel Company in 1883. His <br />companions in this venture were to become known as the Iowa Group. For several <br />years, this group bought and resold coal to the Burlington and Missouri railroad. <br />With the formation of yet another Osgood enterprise, the Denver Fuel Company, <br />actual acquisition ofsouthern Colorado coal-mining lands commenced. In 1887 they <br />bought a 2000 acre tractfrom Eldridge Sopris, and opened the Sopris mine. A set of <br />ovens was constructed nearby. Most of the coal went to Osgood's contracts at the <br />Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad, though some was converted to coke to be <br />sold to the Leadville smelters. The superintendent was named Kebler, one of <br />Osgood's cronies from the Whitebreast Coal and Mining Company in Iowa (and for <br />whom the Kebler mine in Huerfano County was named). <br />3