Cokedale Historic District
Las Animas County
Cokedale is a significant example of a company-owned coal camp and is associated with the coal mining and coke industry that served as the predominant basis of the southern Colorado economy around 1900. While most similar coal camps were dismantled as mines ceased operation in the Las Animas-Huerfano district beginning after World War I, Cokedale continued to thrive as a company town until 1946.
Cokedale Historic District (1999 photograph.)
Constructed in 1906-1907, it was long heralded as a model camp, with housing, educational and recreational facilities provided for its inhabitants by their employer, the American Smelting and Refining Company. Most of the houses, as well as the public and commercial buildings, have survived essentially intact. Also important are the surviving coke ovens. The two rows of double sided units are the largest surviving group of coke ovens in the state. The property is associated with the Mining Industry in Colorado Multiple Property Submission.