Colorado School of Mines

Golden, Colorado, established in 1859 as Golden City, served as a supply center for miners and settlers in the area. In 1866, Bishop George M. Randall of Massachusetts arrived in the territory and, seeing a need for higher education facilities in the area, began planning for a university which would include a school of mines. In 1870, he opened the Jarvis Hall Collegiate School in the central building of the Colorado University Schools campus just south of the town of Golden, accompanied it with Matthews Hall divinity school in 1872, and in 1873 the School of Mines opened under the auspices of the Episcopal Church. In 1874 the School of Mines, supported by the territorial government since efforts began in 1870, was acquired by the territory and has been a state institution since 1876 when Colorado attained statehood. Tuition was originally free to residents of Colorado.

In 1878, Jarvis Hall’s main building and Matthews Hall were both destroyed by fires in the span of two days. The School of Mines building was the only structure of the complex left standing. Following the fires, the School of Mines enrollment grew, consisting of prospectors and mine owners. A school library was established with $250, and a gymnasium was built to support the growing student body. The school's fight song, "The Mining Engineer", the first two verses of which are still sung today, was established on campus by 1885.[9]

Following the 1880s, the School of Mines transitioned to become a 4-year university, removing its assaying certificate program. Around this time, silver and blue began to be seen as the official school colors. In 1894, Engineering Hall was completed. As the oldest building on campus, Engineering Hall originally housed the physics and drafting departments, but now houses the Division of Economics and Business.[10] The following year, the CSM Alumni Association was founded with members wearing the first instance of the school's Reuleaux triangle symbol. In 1898, Florence Caldwell became the first female graduate of the School of Mines, earning a Civil Engineering Degree.[11]

At the turn of the century, the School of Mines officially changed its name to Colorado School of Mines. In 1905, Simon Guggenheim donated the largest private donation to the school at the time, $80,000, for the construction of Guggenheim Hall to honor his family history in Colorado.[12] The first experimental mine owned by the Colorado School of Mines is built into Mount Zion. Also known as the School Tunnel, it served to train mining engineers and is now incorporated into the basement of a house on the mountain. Also on Mount Zion, the large "M" is constructed based on a senior thesis to make it proportional when viewed from campus.[13]

Tensions between Colorado School of Mines and the University of Denver, locked in a bitter rivalry, boiled over in 1919 when the Orediggers heard of a plot to deface the M on Mount Zion. In retaliation to the plot, students from Colorado School of Mines planted bundles of dynamite on the DU campus which, when detonated in the early morning, blew out windows in many buildings and cracked the DU administration building.[14] The chancellor of DU stated that “if all the dynamite planted on our campus had exploded simultaneously, it would have knocked down our buildings and destroyed life."[15]

Additionally, Colorado School of Mines students paraded DU students down the streets of Golden and implemented armed patrols on Mount Zion, claiming the right to search all vehicles for concealed DU students. Colorado School of Mines President, Victor C. Alderson, sanctioned the actions of the students; however, Colorado governor Oliver Shoup asked the schools to seek a truce. Representatives from both schools agreed to cease and opted for a game of football to settle the conflict. The game was played on a snowy day and resulted in a 0-0 tie.[14]

Campus legend states that the bell that used to hang in Guggenheim Hall was stolen by students from the University of Colorado Boulder and held on their campus. In 1948, a group of mostly GIs decided to return the bell to the Guggenheim Hall. 18 men, all students at Colorado School of Mines, drove to Boulder to locate the bell and discovered that it was behind a locked door with a night guard. Returning to Golden empty handed, they returned weeks later with more students to steal the bell.[16]

On their second attempt, a student who had been planted inside the building before it closed opened the doors and they proceeded to lift the 1,200 pound bell onto a dolly out to a truck. The bell was reported stolen by CU, and was said to be their "Old Main" bell. According to the Silver and Gold, CU's campus newspaper, the bell always belonged to CU.

After returning to Golden, the Colorado School of Mines students quickly realized the bell was too big to ever have hung from Guggenheim. Unwilling to return the bell, they buried it in the clay pits adjacent to campus and left it for their time at the college. In 1950, the bell was dug up and placed behind Guggenheim Hall with an M etched into it. The CU administration immediately requested to retrieve the bell, but the Mines administration refused to authorize it until CU provided proof of ownership. 10 days later, CU provided a receipt from the bell caster, and it was returned to be displayed in the CU heritage center with an M clearly on display.[17]

The CoorsTek Center for Applied Science and Engineering, opened to students in September 2017. It is the home building for the Physics Department, and the College of Applied Science and Engineering Dean's Office.

In August 2007, a new student recreation center was completed. In 2008, the school finished expanding its main computer center, the Center for Technology and Learning Media (CTLM). In May 2008 the school completed construction and installation of a new supercomputer nicknamed "Ra"[18] in the CTLM managed by the Golden Energy Computing Organization (GECO), a partnership among the Colorado School of Mines, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the National Science Foundation. In 2014, CoorsTek granted a $27 million investment to the university, leading to the 2017 opening of the CoorsTek Center for Applied Science and Engineering, a multi-disciplinary building on campus dedicated to both academic and research activities.[19]

Since 1964, the Colorado School of Mines has hosted the annual oil shale symposium, one of the most important international oil shale conferences. Although the series of symposia stopped after 1992, the tradition was restored in 2006.[20]

• Tied for 36th in U.S. News & World Report's 2024 "Top Public Schools" in the U.S.[34]
• 52nd in U.S. News & World Report's 2024 "Best Engineering Graduate Schools" in the U.S.,[34] with the Petroleum Engineering program ranked third.[35]
• Tied for 76th in U.S. News & World Report's 2024 "Best National Universities Rankings".[34]
• 83rd out of 174 schools ranked in Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine's 2019 "Best Values in Public Colleges."[36]
• 9th in "USA Today's Top 10 Engineering Schools 2015".[37]

Freshmen students at Colorado School of Mines are expected (but not required) to participate in the M Climb during orientation week. During this climb, students carry a ten-pound rock up Mt. Zion. Before ascending up the mountain, students are given colored hard-hats, which are spray-painted by members of the Blue Key Honor Society.[39] Along the climb, non-freshmen encourage the new students with water balloons, silly string, and lead the new students in learning the Mines' fight song. At the top of the mountain, students place their rock on the "M," a large sign made of rocks in the shape of Mines' M logo, and paint the M white using whitewash.[40] On graduation, seniors are invited to take a rock from the M as a keepsake of their time at Mines.[41]

Beginning in 1934, Mines students have celebrated Engineering Days during the spring semester.[42] During E-Days, classes are canceled and students attend a variety of events beginning with the ore cart pull. Students take turns pulling an ore cart down 7.5 miles of Colfax Avenue to the state capitol building, where the governor of Colorado officially declares the start of E-Days.[43] E-Days continues with field events, tech demos, concerts, comedians, manual mining competitions, and a trebuchet contest. The next morning, teams race cardboard boats down Clear Creek, competing to see which team sails the farthest before sinking. A carnival is held during the day and the Formula SAE club hosts a car show.[44]

The tradition of awarding silver diplomas was started in 1934 by Charles Hull, an Instrument Designer at Mines.[45] In 1935, President Herbert Hoover, who was a guest at the commencement ceremonies, was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Engineering for his contribution in translating De re metallica from Latin to English.[46]

In the 1930s, a Golden local began to bring his donkey to football games. The donkey quickly became the school mascot, now known as "Blaster the Burro".[47]