Colorado School of Mines

19th century

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.

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. 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.

20th century

At the turn of the century, the School of Mines officially changed its name to the Colorado School of Mines. This marked the start of a long period of investment into Mines. In 1905, Simon Guggenheim donated $80,000 for the construction of Guggenheim Hall, which serves as the school's administration building. On nearby Mount Zion, student Herbert Everest designed a large M made out of rocks for his senior thesis, which was constructed by 20 faculty and 250 students. Also on Mt. Zion, the first experimental mine owned by the Colorado School of Mines was opened. Known as the School Tunnel, it served to train mining engineers until 1921, when the Edgar Mine was purchased and the original School Tunnel was abandoned.

In 1919, tensions between the Colorado School of Mines and the University of Denver resulted in Colorado Governor Oliver Shoup threatening intervention after students from Mines held DU students and local news reporter Bill Bliss hostage in Golden.

During World War II, Mines was one of 227 universities that participated in the Army Specialized Training Program by the War Department. The program focused on training students in practical engineering skills for military service.

21st century

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" 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.

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.

The Mines Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program provides funding for full-time undergraduate students to collaborate with campus researchers. This provides students with an opportunity to participate in research projects under the mentorship of Mines faculty in every field represented at Mines. Some past research MURF students have contributed to includes research on Particle Physics, Explosives Engineering, and Oceanography.