Coalminers

By 1870 Marmaduke Green's claim to Jimmy Camp had been acquired by Matt France. The new owner and his stepson, Mort Parsons, built a grout house near Jimmy Springs. France was, however, more miner than farmer; like Rufus Sage thirty years before, he noticed the seams of coal that laced the land along Jimmy Camp Creek. When the Denver and New Orleans R.R. arrived in the area in 1882, the coal fields he owned about five miles southeast of Jimmy Camp became profitable to mine. A spur line was built by the railroad to the new coal town named Franceville. By 1885 the mines at Franceville were producing twenty carloads of coal a day.

Matt France Courtesy: Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum

Closer to Jimmy Camp - just south of present Highway 94 and east of the creekbed - were the mines of Judge J.H.B. McFerran. The judge mined on a small scale for several years. In 1885 he decided to expand his operations. A shaft was dug 150 feet deep and a well-equiped plant was constructed on the surface. Continuouos production brought up fifty tons of coal a day, most of which was hauled to Colorado Springs for local use.

Om 1886 McFerran sold out to a group of investors who, in turn, convinced the newly-arrived Chicago, Rock Island, and Paific R.R. to run a five mile spur line to the nearby mines. A town named McFerran was built to house the 500-man work force. By 1890 McFerran contained a company store, a hotel and boarding house, and about twenty-five private dwellings. A post office and school gave the company town a semblance of stability.(1)

Both Franceville and Mcferran continued to produce coal for several years after 1890, but they never quite reahed the potential their developers had hoped for. Gradually the output slackened and the towns faded. Their passing seems to have been barely noticed. The Franceville mines were briefly revived by Randall & Blake Inc., of Littleton in late 1879. The only thing remaining to identify the old coal town of McFerran is an air-shaft cap over the recently filled-in mine. On this cap the name of the old coal town has been mispelled as "McFerron."

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©1999 2000 Richard Gehling E-mail me.

FOOTNOTE -

(1) - Information from articles on Franceville and McFerran in the Colorado Springs Gazette and Telegraph, 1 January 1889 and 1 January 1890.