New Castle, Colorado
New Castle is a statutory town in Garfield County, in the western part of the U.S. state of Colorado. Situated on the Western Slope of the Rocky Mountains, the town has its roots in the coal mining industry of the late nineteenth century and has endured significant historical hardship, including mining disasters, before developing into a small but stable community. The town's water system serves approximately 2,500 people and falls under the regulatory oversight of both state and federal environmental agencies. New Castle is located at the postal address of 202 S 6th St, New Castle, Colorado 81647, and offers residents and visitors a tangible connection to the region's coal-era heritage through preserved historic sites and a dedicated local history program.
History
Origins and Incorporation
New Castle was among the many Western Slope towns incorporated during the era of Colorado's coal boom in the late nineteenth century.[1] The Denver Public Library describes the town as "a coal town that survives despite disaster," a characterization that encapsulates the central narrative of New Castle's past — one shaped by both the promise of natural resource extraction and the profound costs that came with it.[2]
Like many communities along Colorado's Western Slope, New Castle was founded during a period of rapid settlement driven by mining interests. The surrounding landscape of Garfield County offered coal deposits that attracted investors, laborers, and entrepreneurs seeking to capitalize on the demand for fuel generated by expanding railroads and growing cities across the American West.
Early Leadership
Photographic records from approximately 1892 provide a window into the earliest civic leadership of New Castle. Among the figures identified in a portrait of the town's earliest influential leaders is Al Beardsley, who served as New Castle's first Town Attorney.[3] The existence of this portrait and the identification of these individuals reflect the importance the community placed on civic organization from its earliest days.
Mining Disasters and Resilience
The description of New Castle as a town that "survives despite disaster" points directly to the mining catastrophes that defined much of the community's early experience.[4] Coal mining, while the economic backbone of the region, carried extreme dangers for workers and families alike. Explosions, cave-ins, and other underground accidents were recurring threats in Colorado's coal communities during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and New Castle was not spared from such tragedies.
Despite these hardships, the town persisted. Its survival stands as evidence of the durability of small Western communities and the determination of the families who chose to remain and rebuild after periods of loss.
Heritage and Historic Preservation
New Castle maintains an active commitment to preserving and sharing its history with residents and visitors. The town's official website provides dedicated resources on local heritage, including a walking tour that guides participants through historically significant locations within the town.[5]
Walking Tour
The New Castle Heritage Walking Tour offers an accessible way to engage with the town's built environment and its historical narrative. By walking through the community, participants can observe architecture and landmarks that connect to the coal-era past and the various phases of the town's development. The availability of such a tour reflects an awareness within the local government that heritage tourism and community education are valuable components of civic life.[6]
COGenWeb Historical Records
The COGenWeb project, a genealogical and historical resource for Colorado counties, maintains records pertaining to New Castle and Garfield County more broadly. Among its holdings is a circa 1892 portrait featuring some of the town's earliest influential leaders, providing a rare visual record of the men who shaped New Castle during its formative years.[7] These archival materials serve as an important complement to the town's own historical programming.
Water and Environmental Regulation
Town Water System
The Town of New Castle operates a public water system that serves approximately 2,500 people.[8] The system has been documented in the context of a broader national investigation by The New York Times into water quality and pollution across American water supplies. Data for the New Castle system was compiled by the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization that shared its findings with the Times as part of the "Toxic Waters" series.
The interactive database associated with the series notes that no specific contaminant data was available for the Town of New Castle's water system at the time of publication, meaning that the system could not be evaluated against either the legal limits established by the Safe Drinking Water Act or the typically stricter health guidelines used as comparative benchmarks in the investigation.[9] The absence of data in such databases does not necessarily indicate a problem with a given water system; it may reflect gaps in reporting or data collection at the state or federal level.
Sewerage System Compliance
The Town of New Castle also operates a sewerage system that has been subject to federal oversight under the Clean Water Act. According to data published by The New York Times in its "Toxic Waters" investigation, the town's sewerage facility at 202 S 6th St was inspected twice, with the last inspection date listed as unknown. The facility accumulated $0 in total fines and faced no formal enforcement actions.[10]
However, the facility did record a significant number of violations over the period from 2005 to 2009. These included effluent violations and other violations categorized in EPA data as reporting or monitoring violations — a category that, according to the EPA data, does not necessarily indicate any actual discharge of pollutants. In most cases, such violations resulted from required reports not being filed, which triggers automatic violations under federal rules.[11] The breakdown of violations by year was as follows:
- 2005: 1 effluent violation
- 2006: 16 effluent violations
- 2007: 12 effluent violations; 1 other violation
- 2008: 10 effluent violations; 3 other violations
- 2009: 3 effluent violations
The facility was not out of compliance in the 12 quarters preceding the data's publication.[12]
Riverbend Subdivision Wastewater Treatment Facility
In addition to the municipal sewerage facility, a separate wastewater treatment facility — the Riverbend Subdivision WWTF — is located at 9433 County Road 335 in New Castle, Colorado 81647. This facility was inspected once, with the last inspection date also listed as unknown, and incurred $0 in total fines. Like the town's primary sewerage facility, it is classified under the Sewerage Systems category and recorded no enforcement actions.[13]
Community
Population and Services
New Castle serves a population of approximately 2,500 people through its municipal water system, providing a baseline sense of the town's scale as a small community within Garfield County.[14] The town maintains its own municipal government, which administers local services, infrastructure, and historical programming.
Obituaries and Community Life
Local obituary records reflect the ongoing life of the New Castle community. Recent deaths recorded for New Castle, Colorado residents are tracked through obituary databases covering local newspapers and funeral homes across the region.[15] Among the individuals noted in such records is Vickie Jean Souder Shortt, born April 12, 1951, who passed away on April 8, 2024, at the age of 71. She was the third child of her family and was identified as a resident of New Castle, Colorado at the time of her death.[16]
See Also
References
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