Calumet, Huerfano County, Colorado

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Calumet, Colorado is an extinct coal mining town in Huerfano County. It was founded in 1904, northwest of Walsenburg near the Calumet Coal Mine complex. Calumet No. 2, a mine in the community, was briefly owned by Henry J. Kaiser and operated by Kaiser Steel from 1924 to 1971. Although the town was small, the Calumet Mine was the county’s leading producer in 1961. The name Calumet comes from a ceremonial pipe. The town never had its own post office and was abandoned by the 1970s. In popular culture, a fictionalized version of Calumet was the central setting in the 1984 film Red Dawn; the film’s town was created to resemble a typical American town, and filming took place around Las Vegas, New Mexico.