SWISS VILLAGE RESORT—Lodge one mile above Redstone. It was originally the Osgood gamekeeper’s house. —Photo courtesy Mrs. Olyn Parker, Redstone, Colo.
OSGOOD MANOR—“Cleveholm” (across beautiful Crystal River from Swiss Village Resort) patterned after a castle in England. —Photo courtesy John B. Schutte, Glenwood Spgs., Colo.
REDSTONE, One Man’s Dream
of an Ideal Village for Miners
(Elevation Approximately 6,500 feet)
John C. Osgood came to Colorado in the early 1880s to make a thorough investigation of all the coal deposits in the state. Those up Coal Creek, a branch of the Crystal River, seemed especially favorable for his plan, and he was able to buy them from their original owners for a few hundred dollars. The dream he had of building a model village for miners in this valley did not materialize for almost twenty years. He organized the Colorado Fuel Co. and later acquired the Colorado Coal & Iron Co. and merged them into one—Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. (CF&I)—and was its first president. Then he set out to carry through his dream and built Redstone, a model village of 40 workmen’s cottages (each styled and painted differently), a modern 40-roomed inn, a school house, a club house, and a library; all electrically lighted and as modern as they could be made at that time.
Every workman was given the opportunity of joining the club and making use of the club rooms. Every member had his own locker and was urged to come there after work and bathe or shower, and change into clean clothes before appearing on the street. They elected their own officers and made their own rules; one of which was especially good—treating was not permissible.
The mines were up Coal Creek about 12 miles. There the miners had their own little village in which they took great pride, vieing with Redstone as to neatness and gardening.
All the buildings in this model village were constructed to last, nothing of the overnight box-car type. Yet all this came to an end in less than a decade. Rumor has it that Mr. Osgood became too ambitious: he tried to “buck” John D. Rockefeller and J. P. Morgan. He ran out of millions; they didn’t.