I was exploring an iron furnace in an eastern state recently, and did an internet search for them. There are a LOT
of them surviving, from Connecticut to one (only) in Illinois, and Missouri. I could not find any listed in Kansas or
Colorado. Most of them just have the larger pyramid shaped stone furnace surviving, with none of the support
buildings. One in Ohio, the Buckeye, has restored buildings supporting it. I wondered if there were any ever in
Colorado, and that led me to the once huge Colorado Fuel and Iron complex headquartered in Pueblo. It opened in
1872 and some of these old furnaces, of which some examples had opened in the late 1700's, had operated into
the 1900's. I am trying to find a photo of an early Colorado furnace. As it happens, the huge CF&I complex,
with Rockefellar connections, owned coal mines all over southern Colorado, and elsewhere. One of those mines
was the Morley mine near the top of Raton Pass. (this is in Lee's territory near Traindad). This mine operated
until 1956, used mules then as one of the last mines doing so, and had its company town with some substantial
Spanish architecture buildings. "Morley" does not show up on my road atlas, and it was said that the town was
razed upon the 1956 closing! Among photos on the net is that of the "Santa Fe Southern" Morley RR station, and
of coal filled ATSF hoppers. As a ghost town freak, I want to go visit Morley, wonder about the "Santa Fe Southern",
and if there WERE any of those primitive stone iron furnaces in Colorado, because I want to build a model of one.
