Themes and Resources
The Institute will include the following themes:

• Beyond the Santa Fe Trail: The culture and history
  of Southern Colorado

   

• Immigration and work in Southern Colorado

   

• The ecology and archaeology of industrial relations
  in the Southern Coal Field

   

• The Coal Field War in literature, theatre, and music

   

• Work and Remembrance: The Legacy of Southern
  Coal Field History

These themes will be developed in a way that maximizes "experiential" learning. Walking tours of Trinidad's remarkably well preserved late 19th to early 20th century downtown, with visits to the city's museums, will establish a historical context for our studies. A day-long field trip to working archaeological sites will expose teachers to "underground" history, where they will also observe, and participate in, problem-oriented archaeological research. Driving tours of the surrounding countryside--including a visit to the well-preserved coal company town of Cokedale--will raise for institute participants some issues in the public interpretation of the past.

Adjunct Public Programs
Several programs are being planned, including an evening lecture by Zeese Papanikolas, author of Buried Unsung: Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre.

Curriculum Resources
The Colorado Digitization Program (affiliated with the Colorado State Library) has created this site in collaboration with the University of Denver's Colorado Coal Field War Project. Educators anywhere will be able to access information and lesson plans on the history of the southern Colorado coal fields.

Denver University's Colorado Coal Field War Project has a traveling exhibit on coal field war archaeology containing photographs and artifacts that can be used in classroom activities.

Materials
Each participant receives copies of principal course texts (including the text by Papanikolas) and a 50 page anthology of articles and documents selected by Institute faculty.

Audience
This one-week institute is especially developed for K-12 teachers, specifically those with an interest in Colorado and American history, cultural history, labor history, archaeology, and oral history. Minimum registration is 20 and maximum is 35.