In August 1877, the Welch Mine (the first of many coal mines to come in the Northern Coalfield, an extensive
coalfield in present day Boulder and Weld Counties) opened in Louisville. The following year, local landowner Louis
Nawatny platted his land, named it for himself, and the resulting Town of Louisville was incorporated on June 16, 1882.
Coal miners (mostly European immigrants) soon swarmed into Louisville to work in Colorado's emerging coal industry, but this coal town differed from others in that it
wasn't solely owned by a single mining company. The result was a democratic community run by workers and not the owners of mines or
companies. Wages for the Louisville miners were somewhat higher than in other places, and the mines they worked in were relatively safe.
The economy in that era, however, was generally depressed, and the seasonal mining industry was often disrupted by strikes.
For nearly forty years (from 1890 to 1928), the two-level Acme Mine (one of 171 coal mines in Boulder County and one of 30 in and
around Louisville) operated directly beneath the original town of Louisville and produced nearly two million tons of coal during that
period. At one point (from 1907 to 1909) 12 mines operated in and around Louisville, but coal consumption declined after World War II
and the last Louisville mine closed in 1952. Many of modern Louisville's suburban yards grow without a hint of the abadoned mines beneath
which laid the foundation for the modern town.
