Willoughby: Wood, coal, and potbelly stoves 

Aspen’s history spanned much of the development of heating stoves and their fuel. The earlier decades capture the flavor of the subject.

The Aspen Times ran an article in 1886 portraying what, to readers of the time, was a major change. It said people were substituting coal for wood because it was cheaper, and hardware stores reported selling two coal stoves for each wood stove.

At that time, just before trains reached Aspen, heating and cooking stoves were mostly wood-fueled. A year later, coal could be economically transported to Aspen, and residents began converting. Simultaneously, coal mines opened along the Crystal River and in the Newcastle area, making coal very reasonable.

During the next twenty years, the news about the price of coal echoed the current gasoline/oil dialogue. Coal miner’s strikes, overstock and understock, extra-cold weather weeks, competition, and lack of competition all made the price of coal fluctuate, and that was news — good and bad — that everyone glued to in their reading.

The major focus was usually about the coal price in Denver that got most of its coal from the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company. The price in Leadville in 1899 was $9.00/ton ($250 in today’s dollars) compared to a low point in Denver in 1897, $2.50/ton ($73). Around 1905, coal sold for $7.00/ton ($194) in New York City, but only $4.50 ($118) in Denver. In 1913, Koch Lumber in Aspen sold coal for $5.50/ton.

Potbelly stoves made their appearance in Aspen during those years. They were poplar in miner’s cabins and in local downtown businesses that were not heated by steam radiators. Tomkins Hardware was the primary local distributor selling Cole’s Hot Blast stoves made in Chicago. Ads didn’t show a price, but it looks like they would have been somewhere between $300 and $1,000 in today’s dollars. 

Beginning in 1906, a representative of the Excelsior Stove and Manufacturing Company made annual trips to Aspen to push its company’s stoves. Potbelly stoves were one of its major products.

Potbelly stoves made sense in Aspen. They could be fueled by coal or wood. Some had flat tops that could be used for cooking meals, for heating water, as well as heating the room. Some had doors on the front side that opened to insert fuel. Others had only the removable top for that purpose.

My father had a great story about a couple of men he knew who favored potbelly stoves with the front side door that used wood fuel. What was unusual is they did not cut their wood into short lengths before throwing them into the stove; instead, they left the door open and shoved the long wood logs in a little at a time, so they didn’t have to employ the extra work of cutting them. You can imagine what the shortcomings, pun intended, of that method.

We can only guess today at the percentage of stoves fueled by wood compared to coal. The cabins out of town were on mining claims in the forest, and they owned timbering rights. Cutting their own wood would have made heating and cooking free, with only sore backs as the cost. Some would have preferred to put all their time into the mining and would have bought coal. The Midnight Mine had a crew in the summer cutting timber. They used some for mine props and some for their stoves. They also, even before they used trucks, hauled coal to the camp.

During the Depression, many locals could not afford coal even though the price dropped during that period. They did not have timber rights, but they would drive their trucks up Maroon and Castle Creek roads and cut aspen trees close to the road to heat their houses.

With our current gas gabbing, wouldn’t it be fun to transport back in time and listen to the conversations around the pot belly stoves complaining about the price of coal?

Tim Willoughby’s family story parallels Aspen’s. He began sharing folklore while teaching at Aspen Country Day School and Colorado Mountain College. Now a tourist in his native town, he views it with historical perspective. Reach him at redmtn2@comcast.net