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Lafayette - Colorado - History |
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In 1874, the Millers moved to
Boulder where Mr. Miller ran a butcher shop and served as town trustee. He was a member of the volunteer fire department and Mrs. Miller served
on the school board. Lafayette Miller died suddenly in 1878.
Widowed with six small children,
Mary Miller moved back to the farm and managed it alone.In 1888, Mary Miller platted 150 acres for the town of Lafayette, which she named for
her late husband. By July of 1888, the first houses were built and a second mine, the Cannon, was in operation. The town boomed! Within six
months, there were two general stores, a livery stable and several boarding houses. In 1900, Mrs. Miller founded the Lafayette Bank and was
elected President, distinguishing her as the only female bank president in the world. By 1914, there were two banks, four hotels, three
restaurants, a "picture show", a bakery, a candy store, local newspaper, two poolrooms and a pickle factory. Lafayette also had a
brick works and a power station that provided electricity to Boulder, Louisville, Longmont and Fort Collins.
From the early days of mining,
through the 1930s, the lives of Lafayette's mining families were controlled primarily by the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company. The large mining
conglomerate literally prospered on the sweat of the men toiling underground. Miners and their families used company "credits" to
purchase dry goods, groceries, hardware, clothing, and appliances from the company-owned store. Miners suffered poor working conditions, low
wages, injuries, serious illnesses and death. Mining operations came to a halt many times through these troubled times as miners went on strike.
In 1927, a bloody battle between miners and the guards at the Columbine Mine resulted in the slaughter of six miners. Eventually, through
continued striking and unionization of the miners, these atrocities came to an end.
As natural gas slowly replaced
the use of coal for fuel, the mines began cutting production and finally closed. The Black Diamond Mine was the last Lafayette mine to close in
1956. Many Lafayette miners continued to work at the Eagle Mine in Erie until it shut down in 1979. Through this period, agriculture again
became the dominant economic activity in the Lafayette area. Rapid growth in Denver and Boulder brought Lafayette substantial residential growth
and as the town grew, the farming-base economy shifted again to commercial enterprises and small industrial and manufacturing concerns.
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In
1863, the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains was a wild and wooly place. Ute, Arapahoe and Cheyenne peoples lived nomadic lives, hunting bison
and other game which flourished at the western edge of the Great Plains. Gold prospectors were among the earliest arrivals from the east. These
fortune hunters headed for the nearby Rockies or just passed through on their way to California. A few settlers eked out a living on small and
scattered homesteads, dirt farming and trapping or hunting. To some extent, goods and services were traded among these groups, but for the most
part, it was-"every man for himself" In June of that year, newlyweds Lafayette and Mary Miller joined an ox-team wagon train of fifty
wagons and made their way across this country's vast heartland. After months of hard travel, the couple initially settled in Burlington, which
later became Longmont. They left soon after to operate a stage stop along the Overland Trail between Denver and Cheyenne at the present site of
the Coal Creek Farm. The couple moved to the Lafayette area in 1871 and began farming on land they acquired through the Homestead Act.
