Altman, Colorado: The Highest Incorporated City in America and Headquarters of the 1894 Miners' Strike

Altman, Colorado was a mining ghost town in Teller County, perched at over 10,000 feet on Bull Hill in the Cripple Creek Mining District. It was once called "the highest incorporated city in the United States" and nicknamed "the wickedest town in Colorado's Cripple Creek District." In 1903, much of it burned down. By 1911, its post office had closed.

01Why Was Altman Founded?

Altman emerged from the Cripple Creek gold rush of the early 1890s. The district was the last great gold strike in Colorado — discovered in 1890, the Cripple Creek ores proved vastly richer than anyone initially believed, eventually producing over 23 million ounces of gold.

Sam Altman built the first stamp mill in the Cripple Creek area, and the community that grew around his operation took his name. The Altman post office opened on January 18, 1894. The town sat at 10,860 feet on Bull Hill, making it, at its peak, the highest incorporated city in the United States.

02A Union Town

Altman was composed almost exclusively of union miners. The Western Federation of Miners — founded in 1893 in Butte, Montana as a militant industrial union — established Local 19 in Altman within months of the town's incorporation. The WFM was one of the most radical labor organizations in American history, later evolving into the Industrial Workers of the World.

When Cripple Creek mine owners announced the extension of the workday in early 1894, Altman became the organizing center of miner resistance.

03The 1894 Strike

The Cripple Creek strike of 1894 ran for five months. It was the first major confrontation in what would become two decades of labor violence in the Colorado mining districts. Miners barricaded roads, fortified Bull Hill, and prepared for a siege. Mine owners hired armed deputies — many of them former Pinkerton detectives — to break the strike.

What made Colorado's 1894 strike historically unique was the state government's response. Governor Davis Waite, a Populist, sided with labor. When county-organized militia prepared to attack miner positions on Bull Hill, Waite sent the Colorado National Guard to protect the miners, not break the strike. The deputies backed down. Mine owners agreed to restore the eight-hour day at three dollars. The miners won.

It was a rare victory. Most Colorado mining strikes, especially the later ones in 1903-1904 and the 1913-1914 Ludlow massacre, ended in defeat and bloodshed. Altman's 1894 stand became legendary in American labor history.

04What Happened to Altman?

After the 1894 victory, Altman remained a union stronghold and a notoriously rowdy town. The "wickedest town" reputation came from its combination of labor militancy, high-altitude isolation, and the saloons and gambling halls typical of Colorado mining camps at their peak.

On May 24, 1903, a fire destroyed much of Altman. Rebuilding was partial. The 1903 fire coincided with the start of the second Cripple Creek labor war — a more brutal conflict that ended in union defeat and the deportation of hundreds of union miners from the district.

Altman's post office closed on May 30, 1911. The town dissolved into the broader decline of the Cripple Creek district.

05What Remains of Altman Today

Very little. Most of the buildings that survived the 1903 fire were demolished or collapsed. A few foundations remain on Bull Hill. The townsite is accessible via roads through the Cripple Creek district, though most visitors stop at Cripple Creek proper or Victor rather than making the drive up Bull Hill.

Bull Hill itself remains distinctive — a 10,800-foot peak still dotted with the scars and waste rock of the original Cripple Creek gold mines. Walking the hill, a visitor can see the terrain where miners built fortifications, where deputies massed, and where the 1894 strike became one of the first major victories for American industrial labor.