A Brief History of New Castle
New Castle’s settlement grew from an 1883 homestead along the Colorado River into a coal mining town. By its incorporation in 1888, miners were arriving to work nearby deposits, including immigrants from Italy and the United Kingdom. Local coal supplied silver smelters across the Rocky Mountain region. The work carried serious risks. An explosion at the Vulcan Mine in 1896 killed 49 men, one of the disasters that marked the town’s mining years. As coal mining declined during the twentieth century, farming and ranching became more prominent in the surrounding area.