Discreet 24/7 Biohazard Remediation in Cokedale, CO

Cokedale is a statutory town in Las Animas County, Colorado, and a former company-owned coal camp west of Trinidad.

The town was built starting in 1906 by the Carbon Coal and Coke Company, a subsidiary of the American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO).

Cokedale took its name from the long rows of coke ovens beside the town, where coal was baked into coke for ASARCO's smelters.

By 1909 the camp had grown to about 1,500 residents, and at its peak its mine produced some 1,500 tons of coal a day while 350 coke ovens turned out about 800 tons of coke daily.

ASARCO built Cokedale as a model coal camp, with sturdy concrete-block houses, water and telephone service, a school, a hotel, and a rail connection.

The mine shut down in 1947, ending Cokedale's four decades as a company town, and the camp reorganized as the incorporated Town of Cokedale on March 15, 1948.

The 2020 United States census counted 127 residents in Cokedale.

At the 2000 census, Cokedale had 62 households and 86 housing units.

Much of the town forms the Cokedale Historic District, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 with 92 contributing buildings, making it one of the most intact surviving coal camps in Colorado.

The old Gottlieb Mercantile Building now houses Cokedale's town hall and the Cokedale Mining Museum, and the historic coke ovens stand beside State Highway 12.