The Dig • A Contemporary Speakeasy with Gregory Howell

In 2014 as a member of the Board of Directors, Gregory Howell curated an exhibition at the Steelworks Center of the West titled Heritage Square | Embracing Cultural Diversity at the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company. Since its earliest days, the citizens of Pueblo have brought to the fabric of the community a long tradition of exploration, discovery and self-expression. The region has been at the epicenter of opportunity in Southern Colorado since it's earliest days. CF & I was the first integrated steel mill west of the Mississippi River beginning production in 1872. At one time CF&I was the largest private landowner and the largest employer in Colorado. CF&I mines and mining towns operated throughout the west and the firm owned subsidiary companies located from Massachusetts to California. In addition to its importance to the industrial and business history of the West, CF&I played a fundamental cultural role throughout Colorado. It encouraged the immigration of diverse ethnic groups to Southern Colorado by recruiting Italian, German, Slovenian, Mexican, African-American, and Asian families to move to the west to work in the mines and Mills.

At the core of this 2014 exhibition was a CF&I report called the Nationality of Employees 1923-24 (see report below) which lists the entire workforce of 10,823 individuals and identifies the workers by their nationality and where they worked in the mines and mills. The data served as the foundation for the exhibition and reinforced our understanding of how powerful CF&I was in the development of this unique melting pot in Southern Colorado. The Camp and Plant Magazine was published weekly from 1901 to 1904 by the CF&I Sociological Department. It's purpose was to inform employees about the various activities and happenings at the company's steel mill, coal mines, iron mines, and quarries. Indicative of the multinational composition of the company workforce, some articles in Camp and Plant were written in German, Spanish, Italian and Slovenian.

The open door immigration policy of the United States would close in 1924 immediately after this CF&I report was issued. The Immigration Act of 1924 or Johnson - Reed Act, including the National Origins Act, and the Asian Exclusion Act was a United States federal law aimed at restricting the Southern and Eastern Europeans who were immigrating in large numbers starting in the 1890s, as well as prohibiting the immigration of Middle Easterners, East Asians and Asian Indians. The Act controlled "undesirable" immigration by establishing quotas. Some 86% of the 155,000 permitted to enter under the Act were from Northern European countries, with Germany, Britain, and Ireland having the highest quotas. So restrictive where the new quotas for immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe that in 1924 more Italians, Czechs, Yugoslavs, Greeks, Lithuanians, Hungarians, Poles, Portuguese, Romanians, Spaniards, Chinese, and Japanese left the United States than arrived as immigrants. The quotas remained in place with minor alterations until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.

As part of this 100 year commemoration, The Dig and Pueblo PopUp will showcase a collection of Floyd's photopgraphs from May 2-5, 2024. John Wilbur Clarence Floyd was a prolific photographer in Lock Haven, Conn. After marrying Blanche Bickford (he had been widowed twice before) in 1906, the couple departed for Pueblo, where they spent the rest of their lives. Floyd continued his photographic work in Pueblo, and in 1915 began a career in silent movies. In those days, operating a movie camera was no small feat of coordination. The awkward camera had to be hand-cranked by the photographer, who, at the same time, had to move the camera to keep the subject in the frame and also in focus. "It's a queer game," Floyd told the Pueblo Star-Journal. "In order to take a motion picture and get it correctly on the film, one must be able to make the mind and the hands perform two things at the same time. One hand must wind the film and the other adjust the machine and both hands must work constantly at their separate task." Floyd admitted the job was an acquired skill. "I have had my machine for long enough now to manage it, but at first, it seemed to me the work was about the most difficult I have ever taken." When Floyd wasn't making movies, he was taking photos. It is estimated that he took thousands in and around Pueblo. In 1925, Floyd's photo studio on Main Street was destroyed by fire. Floyd died in 1930 at age 77. His wife, Blanche, died in 1948. That's where the story of his photos becomes interesting. He took his photos on glass negatives. It is thought that after Blanche's death, those sorting through her belongings decided to get rid of the glass plates and took them to the dump. Fortunately, they were salvaged before they could be destroyed by Suhay. Source: Chieftain, Mike Spence, August 24, 2016

Telling stories is one of the most powerful means that humanity has to influence, teach, and inspire. What makes storytelling so effective for learning? For starters, storytelling forges connections among people, and between people and ideas. Stories convey the culture, history, and values that unite people. When it comes to our countries, our communities, and our families, we understand intuitively that the stories we hold in common are an important part of the ties that bind.

Good stories do more than create a sense of connection. They build familiarity and trust, and allow the listener to enter the story where they are, making them more open to learning. Good stories can contain multiple meanings so they’re surprisingly economical in conveying complex ideas in graspable ways. And stories are more engaging than a dry recitation of data points or a discussion of abstract ideas.

Our mission at The Dig is the amplify the Pueblo narrative to audiences far and wide. The Dig is more than a speaker series. Pueblo has a tendency to leave you speechless and then turns you into a storyteller. We invite you to come and experience Pueblo again for the very first time.

Host or Publisher Kadoya Gallery & Pueblo Star Journal