Cragmor, Colorado
| Cragmor | |
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Former main Cragmor Sanatorium building, now the Main Hall of University of Colorado Colorado Springs
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| Etymology: Cragmor Sanitorium | |
| Coordinates: 38°53′16.19″N 104°48′7.95″W / 38.8878306°N 104.8022083°WCoordinates: 38°53′16.19″N 104°48′7.95″W / 38.8878306°N 104.8022083°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Colorado |
| Municipality | Colorado Springs |
| Time zone | MST (UTC−7) |
| • Summer (DST) | MDT (UTC−6) |
| Zip code | 80907 (south), 80918 (north) |
| Area code(s) | 719 |
| Website | Cragmor Neighborhood Association |
 Inactive Coal Mine Data and Subsidence Information for El Paso County (map)
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Colorado Springs Central / Cragmor mines (map)
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An original cottage, Cragmor, Pikes Peak Library District |
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Aerial view of Cragmor Sanatorium campus (with Palmer Park and the plains of what is now greater Colorado Springs in the background), Pikes Peak Library District |
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Aerial view of Cragmor Sanatorium campus (with Palmer Park in the background, following more development), Pikes Peak Library District |
Cragmor, first known as Cragmoor, is an area in northeastern Colorado Springs, Colorado, between Templeton Gap and Austin Bluffs. The site of coal mines in the 19th century, after the turn of the century it became known as the Cragmor area for the Cragmor Sanitorium. By the 1950s, the mines were abandoned and the land was developed for housing. Cragmor was annexed to the City of Colorado Springs in the early 1960s. The Cragmor Sanatorium became the main hall for the University of Colorado Colorado Springs campus.
Before the area was named Cragmore, beginning about 1859, the area was mined for coal. There were 50 coal mines in Colorado Springs. The Cragmor mines were the City Mine, the Altitude, Williamsville Mine, Curtis Mine, Patterson Mine, the Climax mines, the Conley, Busy Bee, and the Danville. Coal was mined using the "room and pillar" method, in which areas of unmined coal acted as pillars while coal was removed from the shafts, creating rooms. Sometimes, rather than leaving the pillar for support, the supporting coal was removed. Coal was mined from fields from one to fourteen feet deep.
Of the city's 50 abandoned mines, 22 have become hazardous because they were "very shallow mines"—some no more than 30 feet (9.1 m) below the surface—that are now subject to sinking under developed land. For instance, the ground gives way after wood that held up the roof of the rooms deteriorates, generally 10 to 20 years after the mines closed. There are also hazards due to mine openings, drainage of metals or other pollutants from the mines, or fires within mines or the outside waste banks. Many of the hazardous, abandoned mines are near Cragmor, such as Cragmor Country Club Estates that had about 3,000 residents in the late 1980s. There were more than 2,400 crack and sinkholes in the Cragmor Country Club Estates area, while there were only a total of seven in other areas of Colorado Springs during a 1985 study supervised by the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Division.
The area was named by Dr. Edwin Solly, who began plans to build the 100 acre Cragmor Sanatorium in 1902, when William Jackson Palmer donated funds to build a sanatorium. The Cragmor Sanatorium opened in 1905. Located between the bluffs of Palmer Park and Austin Bluffs, he named it for the moors and craigs of Great Britain, which described "where high bluffs join the low plains". Cragmor is located about 300 feet (91 m) in elevation above and 3 miles (4.8 km) northeast of downtown Colorado Springs. Located on a bluff of prairie grass, pines, and ground oaks, the sanatorium's westward view included Pikes Peak and Rampart Range.
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Wikipedia