runs the tunnels

In April, I took a road trip to Denver with my daughter to see The Arcade Fire in concert. Now I know that's a loooong ways away to go to a concert but it made for a mini vacation, as well. I previously posted photos of the Garden of the Gods park but we also stopped in Ludlow, to find a letterbox.

Ludlow is a ghost town in Colorado, just north of the New Mexico - Colorado border. Nestled in the Sangre de Christo mountains, there were coal mines in the early 1900s. However, conditions in the company town tent colony were bad and in 1913, 1200 miners and their families went on strike. Click on the previous link to learn more. The strike lasted fourteen months until April 20, 1914, when the militia came out and fired on the strikers and their families, killing 19 people. Hopefully, clicking on the following photos will make them large enough to read.

This is the cellar where two women and eleven children were axphiated and burned to death when their house caught on fire.

Here is a monument to the victims of the Ludlow Massacre.

There was a sign advising us to travel on down the road to see the monument to the Hastings Mine Explosion and some old coke ovens. So we did.

We decided that this must be the entrance to the mine? 

It was kind of scary and we did not venture further down into it.

Here are the old coke ovens.

We were fascinated by this row of dug outs in the hills. I think this is where the tent colony was. We could just imagine tarps placed across the openings.

What a horrible place to live though! Ugh!!

This doorway in the middle of nowhere was a reminder of days gone by.

By this time, it was getting dark, so we decided to hit the road again. Hope you enjoyed our little side trip.

Runs the Tunnels - song: Nite Flights, artist: David Bowie, album: Black Tie, White Noise