Fort Peabody
San Miguel County
Straddling the Ouray & San Miguel County lines near Telluride at an elevation of over 13,000 feet, Fort Peabody is associated with Colorado’s hard-rock labor strikes of 1903-04. A local Colorado National Guard unit constructed this redoubt in early 1904. Consisting of a small guardhouse, a flag mount, and what some characterized as a sniper’s nest, troops occupied the defensive fortification until martial law was revoked in June of that year.
Fort Peabody (2004 photograph.)
Built for a single purpose - to prevent members of the Western Federation of Miners, union sympathizers, and previously deported men from entering San Miguel County by way of Imogene Pass - the site illustrates how quickly and often illegally mine owner management gained control of local government and the Colorado National Guard to run roughshod over the legal, political, and economic rights of union members. The fort was named for then Governor James H. Peabody, who used the national guard to realize the anti-union objectives of the mine owners. The site tells the story of conquest, class, and the role of state government. It epitomizes the conflict between mine owners and the Western Federation of Miners, the questionable use of the national guard, and the discrimination faced by union members.
This site continues into Ouray county.