The Hastings Mine Explosion Killed 121 Men, the Deadliest Mine Disaster in Colorado History

Once upon a time, there was a coal town in southern Colorado, near Trinidad, named Hastings.

At its peak, close to a thousand miners and their families lived there, in a town owned entirely by the coal company.

Tragedy struck more than once, and today almost nothing of the town is left.

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Family Feud Turns Deadly in Hastings, Colorado

The first notable tragedy in Hastings came in January 1903, when a feud between two families, the Tomacias and the Campicias, ended in gunfire at a wedding.

Frank Campicia and Angelica Tomacia married despite the bad blood between their families. When the bride’s father and brother, Salvatore and Joseph Tomacia, found out, they stormed the wedding and shot two members of the Campicia family, including the groom.

The Tomacias fled, but they didn’t get far. They were chased down and shot, and Joseph Tomacia died from his wounds.

The Hastings, Colorado Mine Explosion

Roughly 14 years later, on April 27, 1917, disaster hit the Victor-American Fuel Company mine.

A coroner’s jury later ruled that the explosion was caused by the mine’s own safety inspector, David Reese. Deep underground, he opened his safety lamp to relight it, and his body was later found with matches in his pocket, which was against mine-safety law.

The blast killed 121 men, making it the deadliest mine disaster in Colorado history.

Hastings sits only a couple of miles from the site of the Ludlow Massacre, which happened just three years earlier.

This explosion and subsequent fire occurred just five years after another, smaller explosion occurred in the mine where twelve lives were lost.

Today, the homes are gone, but crumbling coke ovens, old foundations, a cemetery, and a granite monument to the 121 miners still mark the spot.