BGuthrie Photos: CO -- Ludlow -- Ludlow Massacre Monument

CO -- Ludlow -- Ludlow Massacre Monument:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. LUDLOW_060527_020.JPG: On April 20, 1914, the state militia unleashed an unwarranted attack on striking coal miners and their families living in a tent colony at this site. Eleven children and two women suffocated in a cellar beneath a tent when flames engulfed the overhead shelter. Militia rifle and machine gun fire claimed the lives of at least 5 strikers, an 11 year old boy, and an 18 year old passerby. The unexpected attack was the fateful climax of miners attempting to achieve freedom from oppression at the hands of coal company officials. Miners were forced to live in company owned camps, buy from company owned stores, and educate their children in company dominated schools. Miners worked unduly long hours under hazardous conditions for meager pay. On Sept. 23, 1913, miners struck in protest of these conditions, calling for recognition of the United Mine Workers Union. Eventually, the alleged peace keeping militia became infiltrated with company gunmen, leading to this -- the Ludlow Massacre. UMWA I.U. 9856 Distr. 15.
2. LUDLOW_060527_029.JPG: Legacy: Miners lost the strike but paved the way for labor reform. The coalfield strike ended in December, 1914, when the UMWA was forced to abandon its organizing efforts due to insufficient funds. Although strikes in the southern Colorado coalfields continued into the 1920s, the miners' actions led to important changes in American labor relations. The deaths of women and children outraged the American public. Corporate policies subsequently turned from violent confrontation to negotiated settlements. The nation-wide response to the labor struggles in the Colorado coalfields encouraged companies to improve their public image, what we now think of as corporate public relation.
3. LUDLOW_060527_035.JPG: Rediscovering Ludlow: Between 1997 and 2002, archeologists studied the living conditions of miners in southern Colorado. Archeologists carried out excavations at the Berwind coal camp and the Ludlow tent colony -- two sites from the 1913-1914 Colorado coalfield strike. Many of the strikers at the Ludlow camp came from the nearby company-owned town of Berwind....
4. LUDLOW_060527_045.JPG: Tent Life: Approximately 1,200 people lived in 200 tends made of canvas and wood. Based on excavation's, tents averaged 10 x 14 feet in size and were reinforced with interior wooden panels and wooden floors. This provided a buffer from the weather. Cellars offered additional living and storage space and protection from occasional gunfire. ... With no electricity or running water, the camp offered few comforts. Colonists hauled water from a well near the railroad tracks, outhouses lined the outskirts of the colony, and people used chamber pots inside their tents. A small store, medical tent, and jungle gym were among the few amenities available. A large tent and platform in the center of the colony served as a location for meetings and community events.
5. LUDLOW_060527_051.JPG: Company Towns: The miners often lived in company-owned towns near the mines where they worked. Because of their isolated location, miners were forced to buy provisions at company stores, live in company houses, and send their children to company schools. Armed guards often patrolled the gated entrances in company towns. Company towns were found throughout the coal producing areas of southern Colorado. These towns were located up Berwind and Del Agua Canyons to the west of the Ludlow tent colony. When miners elected to strike against Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF&I), they were evicted from their homes. Many of the inhabitants of the Ludlow tent colony came from these company-owned towns. Despite changes made by the company after the strike, families continued to struggle in the company towns. After the strike, workers returned to their homes in company towns. While the company instituted some improvements, a typical paycheck was not sufficient for supporting a family. Archeological evidence from the post-strike era suggests that families supplemented provisions purchased from the company store with home canning and small game trapping. The issues raised in the 1913-1914 strike continued to fuel strikes into the 1920s.
6. LUDLOW_060527_054.JPG: Celebration & Sorrow: The state militia was on guard. Because tensions between the strikers and the company had been steadily escalating, the state militia was stationed on Water Tank Hill to observe the colony's activities. Just a day before the massacre, the colonists enjoyed an Easter celebration. April 19, 1914, was Greek Orthodox Easter. The entire colony, along with some militiamen, commemorated the holiday with a feast, followed by dancing, singing and a baseball game. Violence erupted the next morning. Most of the camp slept late after their big celebration. Around 9am, an explosion triggered an exchange of gunfire between the miners and the militia. The battle lasted throughout the day. Armed miners defended their positions, while women and children hid in the tends until they could evacuate the colony. In the afternoon, a train stopped on the tracks between the militia and the miners. This interrupted the exchange of gunfire long enough for most of the women and children to escape into the surrounding hills. At dusk, the militia entered the camp and set fire to the tents.
7. LUDLOW_060527_057.JPG: Timeline of Events: 1884-1912: Poor conditions. During these years in Colorado, deaths from explosions, cave-ins and work-related accidents were ten times higher than the national average. Combined with unfair company policies, workers became increasingly dissatisfied. 1903: UMWA arrives. Beginning with the unsuccessful 1903-1904 strike, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) began organizing efforts in the southern Colorado coalfields, although there was not a strong impact until 1913. September 23, 1913: Strike begins. Ninety percent of the workers in southern Colorado went on strike. The coal companies evicted the strikers and their families from company housing. The UMWA set up 8 tent colonies to shelter the striking families. October 28, 1913: Militia arrives. Governor Ammons deployed the Colorado State Militia to disarm the miners and keep peace between strikers and company mine guards. December 4, 1913: Blizzard. While the miners were living in tents, Colorado experienced its worst blizzard in thirty years adding to the harsh conditions of the strike. January 22, 1914: Women's march. The UMWA organized a rally in Trinidad with "Mother" Mary Harris Jones, the famous labor activist. She inspired a group of women to protest poor working and living conditions. April 19, 1914: Easter celebration. The day before the massacre was Greek Orthodox Easter. The Greeks at Ludlow roasted a lamb and prepared a feast for the entire colony. During the day, the colonists and the militia played friendly games of baseball. The celebration lasted long into the night. April 20, 1914: Ludlow massacre. At approximately 9am, a shot rang out, triggering an exchange of gunfire between the miners and the militia. [The tent colony is torched by the militia.] April 21, 1914: Death pit discovered. By morning, smoldering embers were all that remained of the tents. The bodies of 2 women and 11 children were discovered huddled together in a cellar. They had suffocated. April 20-30, 1914: 10-days war. The striking miners responded with rage. For 10 days following the massacre, they waged a battle along a 40 mile front from Trinidad to Walsenberg. Approximately 63 people died during the 10-day War. April 27, 1914: Funeral procession. Hundreds of mourners marched in a funeral procession for victims of the Ludlow Massacre down Commercial Street in Trinidad. April 30, 1914: Federal troops arrive. President Woodrow Wilson called out federal troops to end the hostilities. In the wake of the battle, the strikers built a new tent colony at the site of Ludlow. December 1914: Strike ended. Unfortunately, the UMWA ran out of funds and could no longer support the colonies. The strike officially ended on December 7, 1914. Fall 1915: Rockefeller Plan. Colorado, Fuel and Iron (CF&I) created the Rockefeller Plan, which instituted worker grievance procedures and made improvements in living conditions. 1916-1918: Monument erected. The UMWA purchased 40 acres of the Ludlow site in 1916. In 1918, they dedicated a monument to honor those who lost their lives in the struggle for labor rights. A memorial service is held every year to commemorate the massacre. 1997-2002: Archeology. The University of Denver, the State University of New York-Binghamton, and Fort Lewis College conducted archeological investigations in the tent camp site and at the company towns of Berwind.
8. LUDLOW_060527_060.JPG: The Story: Looking onto this prairie, you see one of several places where coal miners lived during the strike. Miners demanded better wages, an eight-hour work day, a safe workplace, less company control over their lives, and the right to organize. After the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) called the strike in September 1913, the coal companies evicted thousands of miners and their families from their homes in company towns. The UMWA leased the land, provided tents, and even issued a small allowance. Ludlow was the largest tent colony, with about 200 tents and 1,200 people. A culturally diverse group maintained solidarity during the strike. Local Hispanic people and European immigrants provided the majority of the labor force. People spoke at least twenty-four distinct languages. These different groups pulled together to form a community with a common goal. Violence on both sides plagued the strike. Governor Elias Ammons called out the Colorado National Guard to help keep the peace. By April 1914, membership in the local militia units consisted mostly of company employees, who sided against the miners. On April 20, 1914, hostilities came to a head, which resulted in the Ludlow Massacre. Throughout the day, the militia and miners exchanged gunfire. Lives were lost on both sides. Under suspicious circumstances, the tent colony burned. Two women and eleven children suffocated in a cellar dug beneath their tent, known as the Death Pit. The Death Pit and the monument serve as a memorial to those who lost their lives in the battle. While accounts differ, around 21 people died. The nation is shocked. The events of the Ludlow Massacre outraged the nation and embarrassed John D. Rockefeller Jr., the majority owner of the Colorado Fuel and Iron company, the largest coal company operating in the area. The event initiated man of the labor reforms that workers now take for granted. As appeasement, Rockefeller introduced a plan that established a company sponsored union, instituted procedures to air grievances and improved the living conditions in the company towns. The Colorado Coalfield War Archeological Project investigated and interpreted the Ludlow Massacre site. Historic archeologists used both excavation and archival research to interpret the events, materials, and lifeways of the Ludlow Tent Colony. This data informs the research and conclusions presented in this interpretive trail.
9. LUDLOW_060527_066.JPG: On September 23, 1913, coal miners in the Colorado counties of Las Animas and Huerfano struck the mines over unsafe working conditions, long hours and low pay. The majority of the miners were immigrants from Europe and Mexico who believed they were coming to a land of milk and honey, where the streets were paved with gold. What they found were company-owned towns where they were paid in company money called "scrip," where they worked 12 to 14 hours a day for pennies per hour in mines where the fatality rates were ten times the national average. When the miners struck, the companies evicted them from their homes and did not allow the families to take their possessions with them. The United Mine Workers of America came to their aid by erecting tend colonies to shelter the miners and their families through one of the worst winners in Colorado history. Even though their immediate struggle for justice was denied by the coal operators and the state government, the brave stance they took eventually led to better working conditions and entrance to the middle class for miners and workers throughout America. This monument was erected May 30, 1918 by the United Mine Workers of America to pay tribute to these brave miners and their families.
10. LUDLOW_060527_078.JPG: Archaeology: Archeologists are investigating the sites from the 1913-1914 Colorado Coalfield Strike, including mining towns and tent colonies, in order to recreate the living conditions of the miners and their families. Archaeology is more than just excavations. Lab work--cleaning, identifying, and analyzing artifacts -- is a vital part of the project. This work is ongoing. By combining information about artifacts and their location, archaeologists can draw conclusions about daily life in the Ludlow colony. In 1997, the first year of the project, the goal was to determine the size and layout of the colony and whether anything remained of it beneath the ground surface. Archaeologists accomplished this by mapping artifacts on the surface and using Ground Penetrating Radar to identify features such as deep pits. Using this information, they excavated a short trench in an area that looked promising. This work showed that surface artifacts reflected the street plan of the colony and that there were subsurface remains of tents and other structures. In 1998, archaeologists expanded their work. Removing topsoil, mapping soil stains, and recording locations of the artifacts, they were able to find and excavate one of the tent locations. The tent is marked by draining ditches, burned wood, and lines of nails. Another interesting feature they found was a deep pit that may be one of the original cellars the strikers dug beneath their tents.
11. LUDLOW_060527_118.JPG: In the distance is Water Tank Hill, where the militia set p their machine guns.
Wikipedia Description: Ludlow massacre
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Ludlow massacre pertains to the violent deaths of 45 people (32 of them women and children), during an attack by the Colorado National Guard on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado in the U.S. on April 20, 1914. These deaths occurred after a day-long fight between strikers and the Guard. Two women, twelve children, six miners and union officials and one National Guardsman were killed. In response, the miners armed themselves and attacked dozens of mines, destroying property and engaging in several skirmishes with the Colorado National Guard.

This was the bloodiest event in the 14-month 1913-1914 southern Colorado Coal Strike. The strike was organized by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) against coal mining companies in Colorado. The three biggest mining companies were the Rockefeller family-owned Colorado Fuel & Iron Company (CF&I), the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company (RMF), and the Victor-American Fuel Company (VAF). Ludlow, located 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Trinidad, Colorado, is now a ghost town. The massacre site is owned by the UMWA, which erected a granite monument, in memory of the striking miners and their families who died that day.

Background:

Mining firms had long been able to attract low-skill labor, in spite of modest wages and stiff cost-cutting policies designed to maintain profits in a competitive industry. This made conditions in the mines difficult and often dangerous for the workers, and the sector became a ripe target for union organizers. Colorado miners had attempted to periodically unionize since the state's first strike in 1883.

The Western Federation of Miners organized primarily hard rock miners in the gold and silver camps during the 1890s. Beginning in 1900, the UMWA began organizing coal miners in the western states, including southern Colorado. The UMWA decided to focus on the CF&I because of the company's harsh management tactics under the conservative and distant Rockefellers and other investors. As part of their campaign to break or prevent strikes, the coal companies had lured immigrants, mainly from southern and Eastern Europe and Mexico. CF&I's management purposely mixed immigrants of different nationalities in the mines to discourage communication that might lead to organization.

As was typical in the industry of that day, miners were paid by tons of coal mined and not reimbursed for "dead work," such as laying rails, timbering, and shoring the mines to make them operable. Given the intense pressure to produce, mine safety was often given short shrift. More than 1,700 miners died in Colorado from 1884 to 1912, a rate that was between 2 and 3.5 times the national average during those years. Furthermore, the miners felt they were being short-changed on the weight of the coal they mined, arguing that the scales used for paying them were different from those used for coal customers. Miners challenging the weights risked being dismissed.

Most miners also lived in "company towns," where homes, schools, doctors, clergy, and law enforcement were provided by the company, as well as stores offering a full range of goods that could be paid for in company currency, scrip. However, this became an oppressive environment in which law focused on enforcement of increasing prohibitions on speech or assembly by the miners to discourage union-building activity. Also, under pressure to maintain profitability, the mining companies steadily reduced their investment in the town and its amenities while increasing prices at the company store so that miners and their families experienced worsening conditions and higher costs. Colorado's legislature had passed laws to improve the condition of the mines and towns, including the outlawing of the use of scrip, but these laws were poorly enforced.

The mine strike:

Despite attempts to suppress union activity, secret organizing continued by the UMWA in the years leading up to 1913. Once everything had been laid out according to their plan, the UMWA presented, on behalf of coal miners, a list of seven demands:

1. Recognition of the union as bargaining agent
2. An increase in tonnage rates (equivalent to a 10% wage increase)
3. Enforcement of the eight-hour work day law
4. Payment for "dead work" (laying track, timbering, handling impurities, etc.)
5. Weight-checkmen elected by the workers (to keep company weightmen honest)
6. The right to use any store, and choose their boarding houses and doctors
7. Strict enforcement of Colorado's laws (such as mine safety rules, abolition of scrip), and an end to the dreaded company guard system

The major coal companies rejected the demands and in September 1913, the UMWA called a strike. Those who went on strike were promptly evicted from their company homes, and they moved to tent villages prepared by the UMWA, with tents built on wood platforms and furnished with cast iron stoves on land leased by the union in preparation for a strike.

In leasing the tent village sites, the union had strategically selected locations near the mouths of the canyons, which led to the coal camps for the purpose of monitoring traffic and harassing replacement workers. Confrontations between striking miners and replacement workers, referred to as "scabs" by the union, often got out of control, resulting in deaths. The company hired the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency to help break the strike by protecting the replacement workers and otherwise making life difficult for the strikers.

Baldwin-Felts had a reputation for aggressive strike breaking. Agents shone searchlights on the tent villages at night and randomly fired into the tents, occasionally killing and maiming people. They used an improvised armored car, mounted with a M1895 Colt-Browning machine gun that the union called the "Death Special," to patrol the camp's perimeters. The steel-covered car was built in the CF&I plant in Pueblo from the chassis of a large touring sedan. Because of frequent sniping on the tent colonies, miners dug protective pits beneath the tents where they and their families could seek shelter.

On October 28, as strike-related violence mounted, Colorado governor Elias M. Ammons, called in the Colorado National Guard. At first, the guard's appearance calmed the situation. But the sympathies of the militia leaders were quickly seen by the strikers to lie with company management. Guard Adjutant General John Chase had served during the violent Cripple Creek strike 10 years earlier, and imposed a harsh regime in Ludlow. On March 10, 1914, the body of a replacement worker was found on the railroad tracks near Forbes. The National Guard believed that the man had been murdered by the strikers. Chase ordered the Forbes tent colony destroyed in retaliation. The attack was carried out while the Forbes colony inhabitants were attending a funeral of infants who had died a few days earlier. The attack was witnessed by a young photographer, Lou Dold, whose images of the destruction appear often in accounts of the strike.

The strikers persevered until the spring of 1914. By then, the state had run out of money to maintain the guard, and was forced to recall them. The governor and the mining companies, fearing a breakdown in order, left two guard units in southern Colorado and allowed the coal companies to finance a residual militia, which consisted largely of CF&I camp guards in National Guard uniforms.

The massacre:

On the morning of April 20, the day after Easter was celebrated by the many Greek immigrants at Ludlow, three Guardsmen appeared at the camp ordering the release of a man they claimed was being held against his will. This request prompted the camp leader, Louis Tikas, to meet with a local militia commander at the train station in Ludlow village, a half mile (0.8 km) from the colony. While this meeting was progressing, two companies of militia installed a machine gun on a ridge near the camp and took a position along a rail route about half a mile south of Ludlow. Anticipating trouble, Tikas ran back to the camp. The miners, fearing for the safety of their families, set out to flank the militia positions. A firefight soon broke out.

The fighting raged for the entire day. The militia was reinforced by non-uniformed mine guards later in the afternoon. At dusk, a passing freight train stopped on the tracks in front of the Guards' machine gun placements, allowing many of the miners and their families to escape to an outcrop of hills to the east called the "Black Hills." By 7:00 p.m., the camp was in flames, and the militia descended on it and began to search and loot the camp. Louis Tikas (born in Crete as ???a? ??astas??? Spa?t?d????, Elias Anastasiou Spantidakis), the Ludlow camp's main organizer, had remained in the camp the entire day and was still there when the fire started. Tikas and two other men were captured by the militia. Tikas and Lt. Karl Linderfelt, commander of one of two Guard companies, had confronted each other several times in the previous months. While two militiamen held Tikas, Linderfelt broke a rifle butt over his head. Tikas and the other two captured miners were later found shot dead. Their bodies lay along the Colorado and Southern tracks for three days in full view of passing trains. The militia officers refused to allow them to be moved until a local of a railway union demanded the bodies be taken away for burial.

During the battle, four women and eleven children had been hiding in a pit beneath one tent, where they were trapped when the tent above them was set on fire. Two of the women and all of the children suffocated. These deaths became a rallying cry for the UMWA, who called the incident the "Ludlow Massacre."

In addition to the fire victims, Louis Tikas and the other men who were shot to death, three company guards and one militiaman were also killed in that day's fighting.

Aftermath:

In response to the Ludlow massacre, the leaders of organized labor in Colorado issued a call to arms, urging union members to acquire "all the arms and ammunition legally available," and a large-scale guerrilla war ensued, lasting ten days. In Trinidad, Colorado, UMW officials openly distributed arms and ammunition to strikers at union headquarters. Believing their women and children to have been "wantonly slaughtered" by the militia, 700 to 1,000 inflamed strikers "attacked mine after mine, driving off or killing the guards and setting fire to the buildings." At least fifty people, including those at Ludlow, were killed in ten days of fighting against mine guards and hundreds of militia reinforcements rushed back into the strike zone. The fighting ended only when U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sent in federal troops.

This conflict, called the Colorado Coalfield War, was the most violent labor conflict in U.S. history; the reported death toll ranged from 69 in the Colorado government report, to 199 in the investigation ordered by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Governor Ammons sent a plea to President Wilson, who dispatched federal troops to restore order. They disarmed both sides (displacing, and often arresting, the militia in the process) and reported directly to Washington.

The UMWA finally ran out of money, and called off the strike on December 10, 1914.

In the end, the strikers failed to obtain their demands, the union did not obtain recognition, and many striking workers were replaced by new workers. Over 400 strikers were arrested, 332 of whom were indicted for murder. Only one man, John Lawson, leader of the strike, was convicted of murder, and that verdict was eventually overturned by the Colorado Supreme Court. Twenty-two National Guardsmen, including 10 officers, were court-martialed. All were acquitted, except Lt. Linderfelt, who was found guilty of assault for his attack on Louis Tikas. However, he was given only a light reprimand.

Rev. Cook pastored the local church in Trinadad, Colorado. He was one of the few Pastors in Trinidad that tried to provide Christian burials to the deceased victims of the Ludlow Massacre. Rev. Cook died in 1938.

Legacy:

Although the UMWA failed to win recognition by the company, the strike had a lasting impact both on conditions at the Colorado mines and on labor relations nationally. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. engaged labor relations experts, and future Canadian Prime Minister, W. L. Mackenzie King to help him develop reforms for the mines and towns, which included paved roads and recreational facilities, as well as worker representation on committees dealing with working conditions, safety, health, and recreation. There was to be no discrimination of workers who had belonged to unions, and the establishment of a company union. The Rockefeller plan was accepted by the miners in a vote.

A United States Commission on Industrial Relations (CIR), headed by labor lawyer and Democratic activist Frank Walsh, conducted hearings in Washington, collecting information and taking testimony from all the principals, including Rockefeller. The commission's 1,200 page report suggested many reforms sought by the unions, and provided support for bills establishing a national eight-hour work day and a ban on child labor.

The UMWA eventually bought the site of the Ludlow tent colony in 1916. Two years later, they erected the Ludlow Monument to commemorate those who had died during the strike. The monument was damaged in May 2003 by unknown vandals. The repaired monument was unveiled on June 5, 2005 with slightly altered faces on the statues.

Popular American folk singer Woody Guthrie wrote the song "Ludlow Massacre" about the events. The incident is also mentioned by name in the song "Bread and Roses" by folk singer Jon Sirkis, from his album, Songs for Kelly.

The last survivor of the Ludlow Massacre, Mary Benich-McCleary, died of a stroke at the age of 94 on June 28, 2007. She was 18 months old when the massacre occurred. McCleary's parents and her two brothers narrowly escaped death when the conductor of the train that brought the militia to the tent colony stopped the train to shield the family and others trying to flee. But Mary had been left behind. A 16-year-old boy heard Mary Benich's screams and gathered her up into his coat and then ran into the woods. Mary and the boy were found several days later, still hiding. McCleary's daughter said family members didn't speak of the massacre.

Victims of the massacre:

The following individuals died in the massacre and are listed on the Ludlow Monument:

* John Bartolotti. Age: 45 Yrs.
* Charlie Costa. Age: 31 Yrs.
* Fedelina Costa. Age: 27 Yrs.
* Lucy Costa. Age: 4 Yrs.
* Onafrio Costa. Age: 6 Yrs.
* James Fyler. Age: 43 Yrs.
* Cloriva Pedregone. Age: 4 Yrs.
* Rodgerlo Pedregone. Age: 6 Yrs.
* Frank Petrucci. Age: 4 Mo.
* Joe Petrucci. Age: 4� Yrs.
* Lucy Petrucci. Age: 2� Yrs.
* Frank Rubino. Age: 23 Yrs.
* William Snyder Jr.. Age: 11 Yrs.
* Louis Tikas. Age: 30 Yrs.
* Eulala Valdez. Age: 8 Yrs.
* Elvira Valdez. Age: 3 Mo.
* Mary Valdez. Age: 7 Yrs.
* Patria Valdez. Age: 37 Yrs.
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