LUDLOW, Colo.—The southern Colorado site where 19 striking coal miners and family members were killed in 1914 in a confrontation with state militia was dedicated as a National Historic Landmark on Sunday.
Gov. Bill Ritter and an estimated 700 people were on hand for the dedication ceremony for the Ludlow Massacre Memorial Monument.
United Mine Workers of America International President Cecil Roberts likened the monument to union members’ Vietnam War Memorial.
The site about 180 miles south of Denver commemorates miners and their families who were suffocated on April 20, 1914, when the tent they were hiding under was set afire. Colorado National Guard and private security guards took part in the attack on the tent city.
The tent colonies were set up after miners’ families were evicted from company-owned houses when the miners went on strike.
Two women and 11 children were among those killed in the massacre.
“It’s burned in the hearts of every union member. The sacrifices they made still reflect today. Now the U.S. government believes it’s worth remembering and worth memorializing,” United Mine Workers of America International spokesman Paul Smith said after the ceremony.
The union erected the Ludlow Massacre Memorial more than 90 years ago, but vandals hacked off pieces of statues symbolizing the victims in 2003. It was restored, and state legislators announced plans to try to have the site recognized as a national historic site.
“It’s the best thing that ever happened. It’s about time,” former coal miner Joe Martinez said Sunday. Martinez, 80, said his father and uncles also worked in the coal mines.
