During the miners' strike that began in September 1913, as the United Mine Workers of America tried to unionize Colorado's coal mines, Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, a nationally famous public speaker, organizer, and morale-booster, became a central figure. The 83-year-old, twice deported from Trinidad for "rabble rousing," returned in January 1914 in defiance of General John Chase, commander of the Colorado Militia, and was promptly incarcerated "for her own protection" in Mt. San Rafael Hospital, 15 blocks east of here. Infuriated striking miners gathered at union headquarters, and after Chase warned there would be violence if they approached the hospital, they decided that women and children would march in peaceful protest. More than 400 headed toward the hospital, but at this intersection they met a solid phalanx of militia cavalry with Chase riding back and forth on a nervous horse that slipped and fell. He lost his seat, his dignity, and his temper, and the cavalry surged forward with sabers drawn and bayonets bared. As the marchers fell back, the women hurled rocks, curses, and screams. In the melee, arms were slashed, feet were crushed, and one woman had an ear severed before the marchers finally scattered. The strike grew more bitter and culminated in the battle at Ludlow, north of Trinidad, where a miners' tent colony burned and women and children died. The union was not recognized by mine owners until 1935, and then only because a new federal law prohibited company-controlled unions such as the so-called "Rockefeller Plan."