Our Day at Ludlow

Hey everyone, Wrennie here!

Wow it feels like a long time since I posted. We've been so busy. Several things happened since the last time we talked but the biggest one is that we moved! To a new house. It's huge and there is a park really close! Chloe and I are really excited (Chloe thinks the boy next door is SUPER cute) (WRENNIE! SHHHHH -Chloe) BUT we'll have to show you the new house later.

Today I want to tell you about one of our EPIC adventures this summer. We had so much fun in Colorado, but my favorite part of our whole vacation was visiting Ludlow!

Ludlow, Colorado was a mining town back in the early 1900's. It was also the site of a horrible massacre April 20th, 1914. I am going to go into some detail about this so continue at your risk!

There isn't much left. But we were eager to see the memorial and the few buildings that are left.

So we drove three hours south from Denver and then down a long, long gravel road. We were pretty sure we were lost and never going to find it when suddenly the memorial appeared!

Or at least the sign.

I'm not sure what that white building is for but the memorial is actually in front of it.

The whole thing is kept up by the United Mine Workers of America. I think it's pretty nice that they still remember this place after over 100 years!

Here we are in the parking lot before we went in. Four girls ready to learn and adventure!

And finally here is the memorial:

In September of 1913 the United Mine Workers of America organized a strike in Colorado to protest the unsafe and unfair working conditions. A lot of things were going on including the fact that the miners were under a curfew and it was enforced by thugs hired by the owners of the mines. Miners were paid by how much coal they brought out of the mine but not for doing things like making sure the mine was stable. So the mines were even more dangerous and the miners were treated very poorly. The death rate of miners in Colorado was double the average in the rest of the country.

When the strike happened the miners were kicked out of their homes and moved to camps set up by their union. So Ludlow was not a city like we think of one. It was almost entirely made up of tents. This is part of why this was such a tragedy.

April 20th 1914 three members of the Colorado National Guard came to the camp and demanded that a man, they thought was being held there, be released.  The Ludlow miners suspected something was going to happen and sent their leader to talk to the commander of the guard, but while he was doing that two companies of men set up a machine gun close to the camp and near the rail road tracks.

The miners tried to outflank the men but fighting broke out. It lasted all day and only ended at dusk when a train blocked the machine gun. In the end between 19 and 26 people died.

It's a lovely memorial:

The part with the mother and the child really hurt my heart.

You see most of the people who died in this massacre were women and children.

Above this cellar was a tent.

Several women and children hid here, but the tent above them caught fire. And so 2 women and 11 children died.

We didn't go all the way to the bottom of the stairs but we did go down far enough to get an idea of how frightening it must have been to hide down there.

Someone still brings flowers.

Around the memorial were several big signs that told the whole story. Here is a map:

We started where the tents were, but there are no buildings there! We had to walk about a half mile to Ludlow Station to see what's left of the town.

Here is the street sign:

The Ludlow Station is that cluster of buildings to the left in this picture:

You can see it from the memorial but it sure looked far away!

There were lots of no trespassing signs:

And we did NOT trespass. We stayed close to the road and on the outside of the fence that surrounds the whole station.

It seems like we walked a long while but it slowly got closer:

The first structure we came across was just this foundation:

We could see other buildings though. A lot of them were in piles like this:

Before we left we found this site (the buildings with the playground are still there but we didn't walk down to them for reasons) which had pictures from 2001 and showed a lot more of them intact. We wondered if maybe the owners of the property were slowly taking the buildings down but we really hope not!

This really neat outhouse looking thing is still there though!

Callie got a great picture in front of it!
I look tiny!! - Callie

This one is almost falling down but it's still there too:

It's really beautiful in a sad way.

This was my favorite building:

It was mostly just a wall

Two windows

And a chimney

But for some reason I thought it was really neat!

Here is a close up of the chimney:

I really love this shot:

Chloe and Penny got the best pictures in front of it!

My sister is so pretty! Awwwww :) -Chloe

And so is my cousin: Awww thank you! <3 - Penny

We took the most pictures of these buildings:

There was a bunch of debris right next to it and part of the smaller building was torn down:

But that meant that we could see into part of the building!

There were even still bars on the windows in the back: We think it was probably the jail! - Callie

We kept expecting to see faces or something when we were looking at these closeups later!

It's spooky but such a neat building!

A closeup of the windows:

And the door.

I'm pretty proud of this picture! It's my favorite one! -Chloe

There was some graffiti on one side:

But we couldn't read it!

There was a fence and some space between the small building and the big one:

This pipe was pretty neat:

I wonder what it was for!

This building was so big:

We got good closeups of the windows:

So creepy on the inside!

The roof was way rusty:

But someone put JR on the top!
I wonder if they meant that guy from Dallas -Chloe
Don't let our dads hear you, they will disappear for a week and watch it all again - Penny

It's sad they had to put keep out on the door:

But it made for my favorite picture of me:

And the best picture ever of my sister!

You could see a lot through the window:

I'm still expecting someone to be standing there!

Penny tried a bit of her high wire act:

And then we checked out the other side:

Another great picture through a window:

We couldn't go in but we really tried to see what was inside!

At the back were two more buildings:

They look like they're about to fall down soon!

I wonder what they were used for.

The last couple of buildings were far behind the big building:

We got a few closeups but it was hard to see them!

It was so beautiful there. The buildings were really cool and the scenery was so amazing!

Beautiful mountains:

And so much perfect, blue sky!

Callie and I had time for a couple more pictures:

But then Callie heard footsteps IN one of the buildings!! We were kind of done then.

This was one of my best days ever! I had so much fun taking pictures and learning all about the people who lived there. Ghost towns are pretty much my favorite!

I hope you guys liked hearing about our trip! Tell us what you think. Do you guys see any faces in the windows?

~Wrennie