Brodhead: The Brothers' Mine
Colorado
About two and a quarter miles north of Aguilar, up a canyon draw, sat the coal camp of Brodhead. Three brothers named Brodhead opened their first workings in Gonzales Canyon in eighteen ninety-six, moved to this site around the turn of the century, and gave the canyon and the camp their name. By nineteen eleven a business directory counted three hundred residents, a post office, and the ordinary rhythms of a coal camp: company housing, a company store, shifts measured in tons.
The Brodhead post office opened in nineteen oh two and ran, with a brief gap, until it closed in nineteen thirty-nine. The mine itself kept working longer than most, with records showing operations continuing into the mid-nineteen sixties, well past the point when most of the surrounding camps had gone dark. Then it too went quiet, and the canyon emptied out.
