| The Colorado Coalfield War of 1913-1914 was a climactic struggle between coal miners and mine owners that was also part of a national conflict over industrial relations during the early twentieth century. Employees resisted the increasing role corporations had in their community and domestic lives as corporations attempted to enrich the social lives of employees and increase profits using corporate services, such as company schools, housing, and recreational activities. Work camps, including the coal camps of southern Colorado, were centers for these struggles. In these camps, labor and management negotiated issues related to the workplace and the home in every act and moment.; This dissertation presents a study in the effect the Colorado Coalfield War of 1913-1914 had on the development of corporate communities in Colorado's southern coalfields from 1890 until 1930. I compare the coal camp of Berwind, Colorado with the Ludlow strikers' colony. In both spaces, social authorities shaped space and influenced the activities occurring in these spaces to develop a sense of place and community among miners and their families. In interpreting data related to the landscape of Colorado's southern coalfields, I developed a method of data analysis that merges documentary, photographic, and material data while maintaining independence. I define each data set as a unique representation of a central landscape. By comparing the different perspectives from these landscapes, I can interpret an integrated view of community and place in the coalfields.; By addressing the local use of space in the coalfields with a phenomenological perspective, I look at how those in positions of social power, such as coal mine owners and union organizers, used material space and the activities within them to create community over a short duration. In education, recreation, and household practices, social authorities attempted to influence the ideologies and practices of working families. Miners used these programs to gain social access and benefits. The negations between miners and social authorities established a spatial struggle over the definition of place and community. |
