Colorado 150: How Western Slope mining helped secure statehood — and shaped its future more than a century later

The first mining towns were those in proximity to the Front Range, including Central City, Blackhawk, Leadville, Georgetown and Idaho Springs. ‘Mining always reinvented itself’Not every mining town’s story was the same. “Coal mining has always been a pretty essential economy in Colorado,” said Storm with History Colorado. Agriculture and mining were also intrinsically linked in non-coal communities across the Western Slope, as ranchers saw an opportunity to feed mining towns once the gold rush began in 1859. “If agriculture wouldn’t have come hand in hand with mining in 1859, there wouldn’t have been a mining boom in Colorado,” Storm said.