Altman was platted by Sam Altman in 1893 on the short saddle between
Bull Hill and Bull Cliff and soon had a population of fifteen
hundred (including Midway a hamlet to the northwest). Its altitude
was 10,620 feet. It claimed to be the highest incorporated town in
the world and probably was, in North America. Both upper and lower
shots were taken near the crest of Bull Hill with Pikes Peak looming
in the background. Bull Hill was the scene of one of the early
skirmishes of labor-capital battles and was notable as the first
significant victory for labor. Part of the maneuvering was comic
opera and part, raw violence.
[Illustration]
The mine owners were enraged at his demand. In February, 1894, twelve of
them banded together in an agreement that their mines would operate
solely on a nine-hour three-dollar day. One of the signers was Sam
Altman who sat back to see what the residents of his town would do next.
Under Calderwood’s bidding five hundred men walked out of the nine-hour
mines. Bull Hill, practically in Altman’s back yard, was one of the
areas most affected because a number of nine-hour mines were located
there.
Calderwood organized a central kitchen at Altman to feed the out-of-work
miners. He collected funds, trained pickets, assessed the working miners
and addressed daily meetings. By March the Bull Hill mine owners were no
longer scoffing. Winfield Scott Stratton, richest operator in the
district, sent for Calderwood and offered a compromise of $3.25 for a
nine-hour shift by day and the same wages for an eight-hour shift by
night.
Calderwood accepted the compromise and signed a contract. A contract
with a union leader was an unheard of thing in that day and stirred the
whole state into editorials and epithets. It made the mine owners of
Bull Hill bull-headed, and they attempted force to re-open their mines.
But Calderwood made a fortress out of Altman.
He kept order but he also kept anything in the way of a scab or a mine
owner out. The mine owners appealed to Governor Waite for militia which
arrived and was withdrawn, leaving Calderwood in possession of Altman
and Bull Hill. Unfortunately, Calderwood decided to tour the state on
behalf of the miners’ cause. Without his calm wise leadership the
criminal element drifted in and violence took over.
The final peace treaty was signed at Altman on June 10, 1894, after one
hundred and thirty days of the strike—the longest in American history up
to that time. The nine-hour mine owners gave in on the question of an
eight-hour day.
The Battle of Bull Hill was over, and Altman went back to the business
of mining. Later on it was the hang-out for the Jack Smith gang and saw
some shootings. But mostly the town just mined until the second Cripple
Creek strike occurred a decade after the first.
It maintained a steady population until that time. But after the ill
effects of the second strike, mines shut down and miners moved out. In
1910 its population had dropped to one hundred. After that it fell off
consistently until there was no one.
Altman is unique in our collection—and in the United States—as the scene
of the first major strike war and of the first workers’ victory—a truly
unique presage of the twentieth century.
[Illustration: D.K.P., 1960]