The miners, who worked the steep tunnel mines, lived and worked in Coal Town located 8 miles up Coal Basin. The Highline railroad brought the coal to the Redstone ovens to be baked into high grade coke then shipped to Pueblo to fuel Osgood's steel mills.

The Redstone Story re-lives
the industrialization of the West . . .

Fortunes were won, lost and consumed and coal was king. John Cleveland Osgood, the sixth richest and most private of the elite industrialists known as the Robber Barons, built Redstone to give substance to his business ideas – a perplexing mix of feudalism, capitalism and industrial paternalism.

Completed in 1902 at the cost of almost $5,000,000 Redstone was the utopian coal town with the castle for Osgood and his succession of three wives, the Redstone Inn for the bachelor cokers (coke oven workers), 85 cottages for the cokers' families; a theater, a school, a library, a lodge and a clubhouse.

 . . . But this industrial utopia was short lived, the mines closed in 1909. In 1922 Osgood returned to his castle with Lucille, his third wife, to re-develop Redstone as a resort but he died before its completion. Lucille inherited Osgood's entire estate and attempted to run the Redstone Inn as a resort hotel, but the Great Depression fairly guaranteed its failure.  By 1941 Redstone had a population of 14.

Were it not for its spectacular scenery and the grand buildings, Redstone might have fallen into disrepair to become just another Colorado ghost town.   Today we invite you to share the incredible beauty, the true western hospitality and the unique history of this magical village.

Redstone Castle tour schedule.

Paintings by
Jack Roberts, reproduced courtesy of the Redstone Art Foundation.

QUESTIONS? - info@redstonecolorado.com Redstone Community Association, host of this site

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