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Photos from the Ludlow Monument re-dedication, June 5, 2005. The monument commemorates the massacre of the families of striking miners by the Colorado National Guard and coal mine guards in 1914.
Ludlow Monument
The Coal Miners' Memorial in the Trinidad, Colorado business district.
Trinidad Coal Miners' Memorial Closeup
The grave of Louis Tikas in Trinidad. "DIED APR. 20, 1914, VICTIM OF THE LUDLOW MASSACRE. ORGANIZER FOR THE U.M.W.A.. PATRIOT."
The grave is in the Masonic Cemetery, behind the first mausoleum, encircled by a small group of Japanese graves. Dr. Michael Beshoar, who treated the miners and their families, is also buried in this cemetery.
Ludlow is a ghost town.
West of Ludlow the shells of coke ovens line the canyon. Coal was "cooked" to make coke for the steel mills. The process removed impurities in the coal.
From the coke ovens one spins around to see the Hastings marker. One hundred and twenty one lives snuffed out in a flash. More on the Hastings tragedy
Into the black hole of Ludlow, once a cellar dug under a miner's tent to provide the families with protection from sniper fire.
"Four women and 11 children crouched in the cellar while the flames crackled above them. In the first light of dawn, the camp was a smoking ruin. In the dark hole below the tent, Mary awakened to find her baby dead in her arms. Two of the women and all 11 children seeking shelter in the cellar had suffocated. During the battle, the guardsmen had seized Tikas and two other camp leaders and shot them dead."
—Randall McGuire, professor of anthropology at Binghamton University
The Ludlow Monument does not just mark the site of untimely deaths. It is the final resting place for Mike Livoda, a well-known union organizer and UMWA partisan.
The monument before the unveiling, June 5, 2005. Photo taken from the steps into the cellar. On this day i saw grown men with tears in their eyes.
Dad's hat on a sunny day? These precious photos were not posed.
More than 400 people attended the re-dedication.
Professor Dean Saitta, an anthropologist at the University of Denver, shows a framed poster of the "Dreaming American: The Immigrant Struggle at Ludlow" exhibit that was at the University of Denver.
IWW member Gary Cox (left) and Ryszard Tomtas, a Polish immigrant who was involved in Poland’s Solidarity union movement in the 1980s, converse through the monument fence with Jonathan Rees (unseen), Associate Professor of History at Colorado State University in Pueblo.
State Representative Buffie McFadyen, always a popular speaker at the Ludlow ceremonies, wants the memorial designated a national historic site.
Union bureaucrats prepare for the unveiling.
The monument unveiled. Move, guys! Let the families see!
The new monument. In the foreground is Jobs With Justice organizer Bill Adler and his 11 month old son.
It is for our children that we must remember...
The monument is beautiful, as before. The faces look a bit different, the result of a different artist's work. But the style fits well, and one of the most famous monuments of the working class is once again intact and inspiring.
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