The Irish of Leadville: Looking back at the mining strikes in the 1880s

In the mid-nineteenth century, Ireland suffered from an event known as the Great Hunger or the Potato Famine. Ireland at the time was an imperial property of the British Empire and the majority of the crops grown in Ireland were exported to England. The potato was the primary crop that the Irish could grow for themselves. 

When the potato crop suffered a blight, many Irish starved or were unable to pay rent to their British landlords. This led to mass evictions from the land as well as mass emigration. America was one of the most common destinations for Irish people seeking a better life. 

While many Irish immigrants moved to the east coast, many others moved all the way out west. Mining in the American west was taking off and many immigrants moved to towns like Leadville with the belief that they would be able to find fortune for themselves and for their families back in Ireland. 

Leadville in particular had a significant Irish population. Like many places in Colorado, Leadville experienced a gold rush in the mid-1800s, followed by a silver rush and became a mining boom town. According to IPUMS, an international social and economic database, nearly one in four miners in Lake County in 1880 were Irish-American, the largest immigrant population in the county. 

Jim Walsh is a professor at the University of Denver who has spent decades studying the Irish miners in Leadville. Walsh said that like other immigrants, the Irish came to Leadville with the expectation that they could benefit from their labor in mining and make a better life. However, by the time the Irish arrived, mining had become monopolized by a few owners running large corporations. 

Miners worked for low wages for large companies and did not find the fortune they sought. Many Irish immigrants felt that the conditions they found themselves in were worse than what they had left in Ireland. A typical miner would work for $1 a day, six days a week in dangerous conditions that led often to death or injuries. 

While the high society of Leadville occupied many of the large Victorian mansions still standing in Leadville today, the working class occupied shacks and shanties. The Irish in particular mainly live on the eastern side of Leadville in these wooden structures with only a stovepipe to heat their home. 

Although the poverty and dangerous working conditions were not unique to Leadville’s mining industry, the harsh mountain environment added more struggles for immigrants. Pneumonia was a common death among the Irish population. In the Evergreen cemetery, the pauper section contains the wood planks and unmarked graves of many Irish immigrants who could not afford a headstone. The average age of those buried in the pauper section is 22.

“Leadville was known as a death trap back then. People went there with a certain vision of opportunity but when they arrived, they realized they were in a death trap,” Walsh said. “People died very young and that was younger than the general population.” 

In response to their working conditions and pay, many Leadville miners formed the Miners Cooperative Union and joined the Knights of Labor in 1879. On May 26, 1880, miners walked out of the Chrysolite Mine behind Michael Mooney, an Irish immigrant who the miners had selected to lead their strike. The strikers made their demands of $4 a day and an eight-hour work day and began recruiting strikers from around the Leadville mining district. During the strike Mooney gave a speech to his fellow miners.

“Here we are today in a high altitude and living in the mines, breathing in the bad and stifling gasses, with every danger of impairing our health and losing our lives,” Mooney said. “Now we have just come to this conclusion, that if they can pull the reins, we can pull tighter and we are determined to have our rights no matter what comes.”

The mine owners negotiated with the strikers but refused to agree to $4 a day, leaving negotiations at an impasse. On June 12, 1880, hundreds of strikers marched silently through the streets of Leadville. In response, Colorado Governor Fredrick Pitkin declared martial law in Leadville. The state’s presence on the side of the mine owners ended and most mines resumed operations on June 15 without a change in wages.

Over a decade later, another strike was prompted by the crash of the silver market in 1893. The Knights of Labor agreed to reduce wages from $3 a day to $2.50 to offset lower prices. However, as the mining industry recovered and many mines returned to $3 a day, around a third of mines remained at $2.50.

The Western Federation of Miners (WFM), known for being more aggressive than other unions, formed a Leadville chapter in May of 1895. That same month, WFM and the Knights of Labor met with several mine managers to request a return to $3 wages but were rejected by every one. The unions went on strike and this time negotiations were even less successful. 

The tensions between the two sides culminated in violence between strikers and strike breakers at the Coronado and Emmett mines on Sept. 21 which resulted in several deaths. The National Guard was sent in but the strike continued at a standstill for several months. Finally, on March 9, 1897, the strikers voted to return to work for $2.50 a day.

Walsh said that although Leadville’s two strikes were unsuccessful in their demands, they were an important foundation for future strikes and a stepping stone in the growing labor movement that would come to fruition in the 1930s. He also said that the Irish and other immigrants played a significant role in these strikes.

After Leadville’s boom ended, its population declined as people sought work elsewhere. Many of the Irish immigrants left with the majority of those going to Denver. However, those who worked outside of the mines and even some miners stayed in Leadville. 

Today, there are still Irish-American families in Leadville who can trace their roots back to the silver boom and the importance of Irish heritage can be seen in the Irish Miner’s memorial and the biannual St. Patrick’s Day parades. Along with creating the memorial, Leadville has found a sister city in Allihies, Ireland, where many of Leadville’s Irish immigrants originated from. 

Kathleen Fitzsimmons and Luke Finken are Leadville locals with Irish roots. Both teach history in Leadville’s schools and have been interested in the Irish immigrant story both personally and professionally. Fitzsimmons and Finken also helped Walsh with his research as well as in the creation of the Miner’s memorial. 

“I think that fundamentally, if you don’t know where you’ve been, you don’t know where you’re going,” Fitzsimmons said. “Recognizing the important role that immigrants have played in Leadville and will continue to play is an important point for me. Being able to embrace the struggles of those whose story hasn’t been told can lead us to being more enlightened and compassionate as we move forward.”