New Castle was a coal town, and an old mine fire still smolders underground

The town of New Castle, on the Colorado River west of Glenwood Springs, exists because of coal. In the late 1800s the seams in these hills fed smelters around the Rocky Mountains, and a cluster of mines grew up here, including the Vulcan and the Consolidated. The town incorporated in 1888.

Coal mining was dangerous work, and New Castle carries that history honestly. In 1896 a methane explosion tore through the Vulcan Mine and killed many of the men working it. It was one of the hardest days in the county’s history, and graves in the local cemetery still mark it. This part of the story deserves to be remembered plainly, not dressed up.

There is also a strange, durable legacy underground. Fire reached the coal seams long ago, and an underground coal fire has burned for well over a century in the old Consolidated workings. That is why the ridge above town is called Burning Mountain. On a cold day you may see steam or vents where heat reaches the surface. It is a quiet reminder of what lies beneath the hills here.

None of this is a reason to avoid New Castle, which is a settled river town today. But the mining past is part of the ground itself, and it is worth understanding.

For the documented town and mining history, including the disaster and the seam fires, see the Town of New Castle’s history pages and the Colorado State Archives mine records.