Last reviewed 16 October 2026 · A three-minute read · 1896–2009
Aguilar, Colorado, sits near a coalfield whose ground along County Road 44 carries one of American labour's harshest episodes. A tent colony raised by evicted strikers in 1913 became, on April 20, 1914, the site of the Ludlow Massacre, after which federal investigation, memorial, and recognition slowly reshaped the ground's meaning.
The short answer
The Ludlow Massacre took place on County Road 44 near Aguilar, Colorado, on April 20, 1914, when Colorado National Guard troops and company guards attacked a tent colony of about 1,200 striking coal miners and their families, killing roughly 20 people, including children and women who suffocated in a cellar beneath a burning tent.
Ruins of the Ludlow Colony near Trinidad, Colorado, following an attack by the Colorado National Guard. Forms part of the George Grantham Bain Collection at the Library of Congress. — 1914 · Bain News Service · Public domain
September 1913 to April 1914
Evicted miners built a tent colony on this ground
The Ludlow Tent Colony Site is now a quiet field in southern Colorado, marked by a stone monument and a patch of restored ground. It sits near the ghost town of Ludlow, 18 miles from Trinidad. In September 1913, coal miners went on strike against the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, part-owned by John D. Rockefeller Jr. The company evicted them from its housing. The United Mine Workers of America put up a tent colony on this ground to shelter the strikers and their families. At its peak, about 1,200 people lived here in roughly 200 tents.
The miners and their families stayed through a hard winter. They dug pits beneath their tents, cellars to shelter from gunfire that company guards sometimes sent into the camp. That digging saved nobody on April 20, 1914.
April 20, 1914
Troops burned the camp and twenty people died
On the morning of April 20, 1914, Colorado National Guard troops and company guards opened fire on the tent colony, and the fighting lasted all day until the camp was burning by nightfall. The next day, a telephone lineman found a pit under one tent packed with bodies. Eleven children and two women had suffocated there, hiding from the shooting and the smoke. In total, about 20 people died, including Louis Tikas, a strike leader killed during the fighting.
Miners across Colorado struck back. For ten days, armed bands attacked mines and guard posts across 225 miles of the state, until federal troops sent by President Woodrow Wilson ended the fighting in late April. Congress later investigated. Its 1915 report helped push through child labor laws and the eight-hour workday.
The United Mine Workers bought this 40-acre site in 1916 and raised a granite monument here in 1918, carved with the figures of a father, mother, and child. Vandals damaged it in 2003; it was repaired two years later. The site became a National Historic Landmark in 2009.
1915 to 1918
Historians still dispute the exact death toll here
Historians still argue over who fired first on April 20, 1914. The death count is argued too. Contemporary reports counted 20 dead, 12 children and 8 adults, including a bystander. Later historians put the toll a little higher, at 19 to 21, with 12 children, 2 women, and 5 or more strikers among the dead.
2003 to 2009
Vandals struck the monument before landmark status came
The granite monument stood for most of a century before anyone touched it with violence again. In 2003, vandals damaged the statues of the father, mother, and child. A preservation grant paid for repairs by 2005. The National Register of Historic Places had already listed the site in June 1985. In 2009, the federal government named it a National Historic Landmark, and Colorado Governor Bill Ritter came to Ludlow for the dedication that June.
2019 to now
The union still holds the land and memory
Archaeologists have since dug here, turning up buttons, tin cans, and toys from the tent floors, the first strike camp of its kind ever excavated. Their finds backed up what the strikers said happened, down to the layout of the camp and the pits dug under the tents. Starting in 2019, Colorado Preservation Inc., the United Mine Workers, and the National Park Service worked to restore the concrete-covered cellar where the children and women died, the "death pit" the union sealed over not long after the monument went up in 1918.
The United Mine Workers of America still owns the 40 acres. Members hold rallies and memorial services on the ground where the tents once stood. The granite monument remains the centerpiece, its three carved figures facing the empty field where the camp burned.
The site today is open grassland in Las Animas County, holding the restored monument and cellar where the 1914 massacre took place.
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James T. Davis, Aguilar's town marshal, was indicted for killing a Mexican man while breaking up a street fight, though the murder charge was later dropped and he was discharged.
After Colorado Fuel & Iron Company evicted them from company housing, striking coal miners and their families, organized by the United Mine Workers of America, pitched about 200 tents on this 40-acre site, housing around 1,200 people at its peak.
In October 1913, early in the Colorado Coalfield War, several buildings in Aguilar were set on fire, including a post office, after the miners' union announced its demands.
The Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel & Iron Company guards attacked the striking miners' tent colony here, and at least 19 to 21 people died, including 11 or 12 children and two women who suffocated in a cellar beneath a burning tent.
Armed miners attacked dozens of mines and anti-union targets across a 225-mile front from Trinidad to Louisville before federal troops, sent by President Woodrow Wilson, restored order by late April 1914.
The union purchased the 40-acre site in 1916 and in 1918 erected a granite monument showing a father, mother and infant, and encased the death-pit cellar in concrete.
E. Haraguchi and K. Kusuhara, two Japanese miners, were killed in 1918 when rock fell at the Green Canon coal mine, four miles west of Aguilar, after timbers failed.
The Ludlow Tent Colony Site joined the National Register of Historic Places in June 1985 and was elevated to a National Historic Landmark in January 2009, dedicated that June with Governor Bill Ritter attending.
On April 20, 1914, Colorado National Guard troops and Colorado Fuel and Iron Company guards attacked the striking miners' tent colony, and fighting lasted into the night until the camp was burning. About 20 people died, including 11 children and two women who suffocated in a pit dug beneath one tent, and strike leader Louis Tikas, who was killed during the attack.
What was here before the massacre?
Before the massacre, the ground held a tent colony of about 200 tents, put up by the United Mine Workers of America in September 1913 after Colorado Fuel and Iron Company evicted striking miners from company housing. At its peak the colony sheltered around 1,200 people.
How many people died at Ludlow?
Contemporary reports counted 20 dead, 12 children and 8 adults, including a bystander. Later historians have put the toll at 19 to 21, with 12 children, 2 women, and 5 or more strikers among the dead.
Who was Louis Tikas?
Louis Tikas was a strike leader who was captured during or after the attack on April 20, 1914, and killed, reportedly while trying to arrange a truce.
What happened after the Ludlow Massacre?
Armed miners retaliated for ten days, attacking mines and guard posts across a 225-mile front in southern Colorado until federal troops sent by President Woodrow Wilson restored order in late April 1914. A 1915 congressional investigation into the killings helped drive new child labor laws and the push for an eight-hour workday.
Is there a monument at the Ludlow site?
The United Mine Workers of America raised a granite monument on the site in 1918, carved with figures of a father, mother, and child. It was vandalized in 2003 and restored by 2005, and the site became a National Historic Landmark in 2009.
