Colorado Coalfield War
| Southern Colorado Coalfield War | |||||
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| Part of the Coal Wars | |||||
 Colorado National Guard soldiers during the Ludlow Massacre in 1914. |
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| Belligerents | |||||
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Colorado National Guard Colorado Fuel and Iron |
Colorado Coal miners | ||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||
| 69 - 199 | |||||
The Colorado Coalfield War was a major labor uprising in Colorado between 1913 and 1914. Technically, this war is the Southern Colorado Coalfield War, as there were major Northern Colorado Coal strikes in 1912. It culminated in the Ludlow Strike, which ended as a massacre when the Colorado National Guard attacked a tent city occupied by about 1,200 striking coal miners and their families. In retaliation, the miners armed themselves and attacked dozens of mines over the next ten days, destroying property and engaging in several skirmishes with the National Guard along a forty-mile (64 km) front from Trinidad to Walsenburg. Between sixty-nine and one-hundred-ninety-nine people died during the strike. It was described as the "deadliest strike in the history of the United States".
The Coal Field Strikes of 1913-1914 began when the United Mine Workers of America organized the southern coal field workers. The workers put forward demands to Colorado Fuel and Iron, which were not met. These demands mainly asked for Colorado Fuel and Iron to simply follow the regulations on mining and for an eight-hour work day. The legal and political systems of the area were controlled by the mine owners, so using the established government was not an option for the miners. By September 23 the strike was in full swing and the ten thousand miners and their families had been evicted from company housing and moved into union supplied tents.
Colorado Fuel and Iron's treatment of its workers had degraded since its sale to John D. Rockefeller Jr. The company already had a history of buying political figures, but Lamont Montgomery Bowers, who was hired to “untangle the mess” caused additional issues. He cut the Sociological Department and embraced the idea of a hands off approach to employee management. This caused rampant dishonesty in middle management, to the detriment of the mine workers
Before the Colorado National Guard was called onto the scene in September 1913 there was violence between strikers and the Sheriffs of the area. Most Sheriffs and Deputy Sheriffs were affiliated with Colorado Fuel and Iron and acted as the initial force against the strikers. Their numbers were bolstered as the strike began with immediate recruiting of new sheriffs, including Karl Linderfelt.
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