In 1902, J.C. Osgood was one of the elite industrialists known as the Robber Barons. He founded the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company and set about building the town of Redstone, Colorado. Redstone was a deluxe company town, with 88 cottages, built in the Swiss style, for married coke oven workers. There was also the Redstone Inn for unmarried workers.
Residents of Redstone enjoyed a club with a theater, reading room and bar – said to rival many a city club. Osgood built a library, school, company store and public bathhouse. Men were required to change out of their work clothes and bathe and before leaving work tending the coke ovens each day.
Osgood built himself a castle in Redstone. Designed in the Tudor style, it was 66 rooms and 22,000 square feet.
A New York Times article of the era called Redstone the “Ruby of the Rockies.”
Visit UW’s American Heritage Center and learn more about Redstone in the Herbert Oliver Brayer Papers.