Coal resources of Colorado amount to about 60 billion tons. Only one per
cent of this has been mined. Thousands of tons are now being produced
daily from large mines in central, southern, and northwestern parts of
the state.
Colorado’s coal deposits were formed during late Cretaceous and early
Tertiary time, when seas were receding from this region and the land was
rising. They represent accumulations of leaves and other plant material
in swamps and flood plains similar to those now found in the delta of
the Mississippi River and in the swamps of southeastern United States.
Almost all Colorado coal is bituminous or soft coal.
Coal was recognized early in Colorado history by settlers along the
mountain front, and was mined west and north of Denver in the 1860s.
Several large underground mines still operate in this district,
supplying local power plants, but production does not compare with that
of the Walsenburg-Trinidad area in southern Colorado or the Hayden area
in northwest Colorado.
The Walsenburg-Trinidad region, part of the Raton coal field, has
produced coal since the building of the Santa Fe Railroad in the early
1870s. For many years coal from these mines moved the Santa Fe trains
and many of the numerous smaller railroads that served Colorado’s cities
and mining camps. The location of the mines helped to determine the
location of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company smelter in Pueblo. Now,
most southern Colorado coal is used to produce electric power. Many
small mines, miles away from the power plant west of Trinidad, are
deserted.
A large coal-burning power plant has recently been built between Hayden
and Steamboat Springs, just west of the Yampa River. Here, some of the
extensive coal deposits can be seen in road cuts along U. S. highway 40.
Until conversion to diesel fuel became almost universal in North
American railroads, mines of this district produced coal for
locomotives.
In the heyday of the gold and silver mines, coal was also mined near
Coalmont, in North Park, and Como, in South Park. Coal from these areas
was used for fuel in nearby mining towns and ranches, and for the
narrow-gauge railroads that penetrated the mountains here.
At Anthracite, near Crested Butte, high-grade anthracite coal was mined
for a time. Identical in origin with other Colorado coal, the anthracite
of this region was hardened by heat and pressures from Tertiary igneous
intrusions forcing their way into local sedimentary rocks during
post-Cretaceous mountain building.
A multitude of other coal camps are scattered about Colorado: Cokedale,
Delcarbon, Coaldale, Roncarbo, Carbondale, and Cardiff stand out because
of their suggestive names. These early small camps are, like their
metal-mine cousins, largely deserted today.