The Price of Colorado Coal

About the Book

The Price of Colorado Coal is based on two events in the history of Colorado coal mining that are called massacres: Ludlow (1914) and Columbine (1927). Each is a drama of deep tragedy. At Ludlow an entire tent village, occupied by coal miners and their families, was riddled by company and militia machine gun fire and then burned to the ground, killing men, women and children. Thirteen years later at Columbine, picketing unionists were ambushed; six were killed and twenty wounded.

A philosophy of unrestrained capitalism, wherein the captains of industry had the right to freely use labor in any way they saw fit, still ruled in the minds of Colorado’s coal barons. This philosophy conflicted sharply with the newly emerging demand of workers for the right to organize and improve wages and conditions of labor. Ludlow and Columbine are but two instances of the industrial warfare that wracked eastern Colorado for a hundred years.

This is a book of dramatic fiction with a message from history. All the characters in the story are fictional except for Mother Jones, Josephine Roche, John Osgood, John Rockefeller and other well-known persons.

The story centers on two boys who begin their lives as miners at the ages of eight and ten. Following the deaths of their fathers in mining accidents, they become leaders in the union movement and are entangled in the tragic massacres of Ludlow and Columbine.

As the mining communities struggle for better safety conditions and human dignity there is amazing solidarity among workers who speak different languages and come from many different cultures. Because of the collusion between corporations and the state militia, however, much suffering is inflicted on the miners. Within this sad drama are stories of love and community as well as a glimpse of the joy of being coalminers.

About the Author

George E. Ogle was a missionary for twenty years in South Korea mainly working in an urban ministry with men and women laboring in the factories of Inchun. He has written three books on Korea—two on his work and the history of labor, and a third book of historical fiction, How Long O Lord: Stories of Twentieth Century Korea (2002). After retiring to Lafayette, Colorado he published two more books of historical fiction, The Price of Colorado Coal: A Tale of Ludlow and Columbine (2006) and Cherry Blossom Comrades: a Story of Japanese Immigrants in Colorado Coalfields (2008). Ogle also writes poetry.