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Photo of “Orient Academy” with teacher and students, dated 10/06/1899, Orient, Colorado.

The age range of the kids in this picture and the presence of one adult point to the log structure being a one-room schoolhouse in Orient.  The unpretentious nature of the structure certainly gives life to the tongue-in-cheek caption “Orient Academy.”   Given the small size of the town of Orient and its location in the Sangre De Cristo mountain range, it’s hard to know if there was a steady supply of teachers.   In any case, there was much celebration on December 8, 1902, when a new school opened in Orient.  Officials expressed gratitude to the Sociological Department of the Colorado Fuel and Iron for its interest in establishing the school and providing material aid toward its completion.  

The town of Orient is named for the iron mine that gave it life.    It all began in 1870 when a prospector named Haumann struck iron ore at a spot on the western slope of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range.   Given its location on the east side of the San Luis Valley, it is believed the mine was christened “Orient” after the Old French word for “east” or “rising sun.” 

When the Denver and Rio Grande Railway reached what would become known as the town of Orient in 1881, Haumann leased his claims to the Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation, a major player in Colorado’s iron mining.    

The Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation

The coal-fed Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation plant was built in Pueblo in 1881 by the Colorado Coal and Iron Company, an affiliate of the  Denver and Rio Grande Railway Company. The marriage of a coal and iron company and a railway made perfect sense, given the railway’s constant hunger for more rails during an era of continuous expansion.  The establishment of the CF&I made Pueblo the center of industry for Colorado.  As of 1892, the CF&I was relying on the Orient mine and its neighbor the Calumet to supply 300 tons of iron ore per day, and it was believed at the time that the two mines would provide access to 3,000,000 tons of iron ore.    Within ten years, CF&I was relying on the output of 41 mines and 7 coke oven sites in Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming.

(The CF&I had quite a successful run and for most of its history constituted the main industry in Pueblo.  However, the steel market crash in 1982 led to the company’s decline.  After several bankruptcies, the company was acquired by Oregon Steel Mills in 1993 and its name was changed to Rocky Mountain Steel Mills.  In 2007, Rocky Mountain Steel Mills and the rest of Oregon  Steel Mills’ holdings were acquired by EVRAZ Group, a Russian steel corporation, for $2.3 billion.)

The town

The original town of Orient prospered until the mine’s surface veins were depleted in the early 1920’s.   At this point, CF&I decided to give the mine another chance and drilled further down the mountain.  This was a propitious decision, for the new drilling point led to the discovery of the mine’s largest and richest bodies of iron ore to date.     Accordingly, CF&I built a new town of Orient at a spot downhill from this discovery.  The new town prospered until 1932, when the mine was closed and the town structures were stripped to be used elsewhere.  At its zenith, Orient had 400 residents supporting a library, a barber shop, a school, two restaurants, a boarding house for 300, a saloon, a milling company, and other small businesses.   The Orient mine, active from 1880 through 1932, turned out to be the largest producer of iron ore in Colorado, having produced about two million tons of limonite.

Bats

Around 1967, it was discovered that a population of 100,00 to 250,000  Brazilian Free-Tail (also known as Mexican Free-Tail) bats, mostly male, were roosting every summer inside the now-defunct Orient Mine.  These bats migrate from as far south as Central and South America, arriving mid to late June and departing early to mid-September.  They exit the mine around sundown to feed prodigiously on flying insects, predominately moths but also small beetles and mosquitoes.  It is estimated that these seasonal dwellers of the old mine eat two to three tons of insects in their nightly feasts in the San Luis Valley.  This service provided to the valley by Mother Nature contributes significantly to chemical- and pesticide-free agriculture practices in the Valley.  

The Orient Mine is a designated Colorado Natural Area and Colorado Division of Wildlife Watchable Wildlife site. Humans are not allowed into the mine, for fear they would introduce the fungus associated with White Nose Syndrome, which is named for its visible white fungal growth on infected bats’ muzzles and wings.  However, visitors are welcome to visit at a controlled distance.  Visitors must first check in at the Orient Land Trust Office and then hike approximately one mile to the mine site.  Donations are suggested.  To get there, drive west on U.S. 24 to U.S. 285; go south over Poncha Pass to the tiny town of Villa Grove; continue four miles and turn left on County Road GG; then drive seven miles to the end of the road.

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