Bessemer in Pueblo in Pueblo County, Colorado — The American Mountains (Southwest)

The Colorado Fuel & Iron Company

— Steelworks Center of the West —

Photographed by Mark Hilton, August 11, 2025

1. The Colorado Fuel & Iron Company Marker

Inscription.
The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) was a firm of enormous importance to the industrialization of the West. The company's roots date to 1872 when General William Jackson Palmer and his colleagues in the Denver and Rio Grande Railway sought a local source for steel rails for their expanding narrow gauge empire.

CF&I was the first vertically integrated steel mill west of the Mississippi River. It owned and controlled as many facets of the overall operation as possible - from acquisition of raw materials, means of production, transportation, and marketing and distribution of its product to consumers. Spread out across Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming, the company owned more than 60 mines and quarries providing natural resources such as coal, iron ore, limestone, calcite, dolomite, and fluorspar.

When resources arrived at the steel mill they underwent a rigorous process of washing, heating, coking, refining, and rolling before final products were shipped to national and international customers. Some of CF&I's specialized products included.rails, seamless tubes, wire, rods and bars.

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At its peak in the 1950s, the company employed more than 12,000 workers in various steelmaking operations, with another 10,000 employed in the administrative, mining and support areas of the company. For many years CF&I was the state's largest private employer. The promise of work in the mines and mills brought Italians, Croatians, Slovenians, Mexicans, Germans, Greeks, Japanese, Hispanic-Americans, African-Americans and many more to the CF&I coal camps and company towns. Workers brought their wives and children, creating incredibly diverse communities. Immigrant families lived in company houses, shopped at the Colorado Supply Company store and were educated in company-built schools. Medical needs were met by company doctors.

CF&I continued to be the Rocky Mountain region's chief heavy industry until the defense industry exparded into California during World War II. CF&I did not survive the collapse of the steel market in the 1980s and declared bankruptcy in November 1990. The company was purchased by Oregon Steel in 1993, and today is operated by EVRAZ Rocky Mountain Steel.

Photo: CF&I blast furnaces, 1903.

Funded in part by the Historic Preservation Fund, National Park Service, Department of Interior and the History Colorado State Historical Fund

Erected by Steelworks

The Colorado Fuel & Iron Company and marker. image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Mark Hilton, August 11, 2025

2. The Colorado Fuel & Iron Company and marker.

Interstate 25 can be viewed just behind the marker.

Center of the West.

Topics. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Industry & Commerce. A significant historical month for this entry is November 1990.

Location. 38° 14.306′ N, 104° 36.73′ W. Marker is in Pueblo, Colorado, in Pueblo County. It is in Bessemer. It can be reached from Baystate Avenue east of East Abriendo Avenue, on the right when traveling east. Located behind the Steelworks Center of the West Museum in the Steelworks Park. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 215 Canal St, Pueblo CO 81004, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in Colorado’s Arkansas River Valley

and in the Front Range.

It is also in the American Mountain West.

Globally, it is in North America,

the Rocky Mountains,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Comanchería

and also the Republic of Texas.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 2 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Ore Carts (a few steps from this marker); Rail Manufacturing (a few steps from this marker); 1950s Allen Mine

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(a few steps from this marker); 10 Ton Ladle (within shouting distance of this marker); 130 Ton Ladle (within shouting distance of this marker); Site of YMCA #2 (within shouting distance of this marker); Karymor (within shouting distance of this marker); The Mormon Battalion (approx. 1.3 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Pueblo.

Also see . . . Steelworks Park. (Submitted on August 13, 2025, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama.)

Credits. This page was last revised on August 13, 2025. It was originally submitted on August 13, 2025, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama. This page has been viewed 261 times since then and 69 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on August 13, 2025, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama.