Highway of Legends
Segundo, CO

There are really two Segundos. Old Segundo, or Los Varros, was one of several plazas which sprang up along the Purgatoire in the 1860s. The mining town of Segundo was built in the early l900s. At that time, Segundo was the largest coal processing plant west of Chicago, having 800 coking ovens. In 1901, the Colorado & Wyoming Railway reached Segundo, and located its operating headquarters there. A five-stall roundhouse was built, and every day trains from Segundo went west to Tercio and east to Trinidad.

A number of mines were opened by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) in the early 1900s. The names of these mining and coking camps, named in the order they were built were Primero, Segundo, Tercio, Cuatro, Quinto, and Sexto (Spanish for first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth). Also operating were mines at Sopris, Cornell, and Valdez, to name a few. Of all the mines, Primero and the Frederick Mine at Valdez were the major producers. The Cuatro Mine operated for only four years, but an explosion that took the lives of 19 miners may have hastened its closure.

Among the residents at Valdez was one Mr. Chrysler. They say that he built his first automobile in a little shop at Valdez.