Day # 19 features Engleville, Colorado
A solitary sunflower contrasts with the ruins of two Engleville homes
Engleville lays just a short distance southeast of Trinidad, Colorado at the base of Fisher’s Peak- A local landmark which can be seen for miles signalling one’s approach to Raton Pass and the New Mexico border.
Engleville, in the shadow of Fisher’s Peak
Engleville was a coal town dating back to around 1877. Locals in the trinidad area had always supplied their stoves and furnaces with the plentiful coal found in the region, simply loading carts with it from the open coal seams that dotted the hills around town. In the 1876, when the Sante Fe Railroad reached El Moro, a town just north of Trinidad, Colorado Coal and Iron, which would later become the famous Colorado Fuel and Iron Co., took note, and established large coke ovens at El Moro to supply the railroad. Sortly thereafter, Colorado Coal and Iron developed the coal seams at the foot of Fisher’s Peak and the company town of Engleville sprouted. A peak production figure at Engleville was recorded in 1881 when the mine there produced 200,000 tons of coal for the ovens at El Moro.
A crumbling adobe at Engleville, piles of leftover coal from the mine can be seen in the background, slowly being reclaimed the earth
Engleville remained a steady producer through the early days of the 1900s, then faded as the railroads were replaced by the automobile and airplane, and gas and electric replaced coal as the nation’s top heating sources. Today, five or six abandoned dwellings remain at the Engleville site in the shadow of Fisher’s Peak, all on private property, but easily viewed and photographed from the county road. One old dwelling peers out over the vast expanse of the southeastern Colorado prairie offering an amazing view for countless miles. There is also a cemetery at Engleville, located beyond the fence line of a private residence which remains occupied. Mountains of black coal, deemed too low-grade to ship at the time still surround the town site.
The view over the mesa from this Engleville house, and out across the southeastern plains of Colorado is breathtaking and goes on for miles and miles
Another shot of the same house, surrounded by blooming cholla cactus and a random sunflower here and there. Engleville is a picturesque ghost town in the summer months.
Engleville is easy to reach in dry months with a passenger car, or an SUV in wet or snowy conditions by taking Engleville Road southeast out of Trinidad.
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My uncle actually rebuild the church.. It’s really neat, in the shape of a cross, just like it was in the 1800s..
Hi Sammie
I’m trying to track down my family history. My grandfather was Alfred Aguilar and he was from Garcia Colorado. His Father was Sais Aguilar. Would you be related to them?
The church that Sammie Aquilar is talking about was built by using the adobe bricks from the old Engleville house you have in your story, the two pictures of the same house. Which is where my Mother and her siblings were born.