Beth Batchellor, with her son and dog, was one of several women who tried to make a home at the Tomboy Mine, located at 11,500 feet above Telluride. The challenges she, and they, faced are recounted in “Ladies of the Mines,” a production of the Rocky Mountain PBS series Colorado Experience.

This photograph of the Smuggler-Union Miners circa 1905-12 show how predominantly male Colorado’s mining camps were. The documentary “Ladies of the Mines,” a production of the Rocky Mountain PBS series Colorado Experience, will be screened in Jan. 12 in Durango.

Anne Ellis, picture in this undated photo, grew up in poverty in Colorado mining camps in the late 1800s. Her papers are in the collection of the University of Colorado, Boulder. Ellis is one of three women profiled in “Ladies of the Mines,” which will be screened Jan. 12 in Durango.

The Feckes family, seen circa 1900, lived at a mining camp in the Telluride area. A documentary called “Ladies of the Mines,” a production of the Rocky Mountain PBS series Colorado Experience, tells the story of what it was like to be a wife or daughter in the camps. A label on the photo says Frank, Minnie, Dorothea Feckes, but does not identify who they are or who the other people are.

The Tomboy Mine, located at 11,500 feet above Telluride, was home to 900 hardy souls in its heyday, including several women. Harriet Fish Bacus was one of them, and she is featured in “Ladies of the Mines,” a production of the Rocky Mountain PBS series Colorado Experience.

Mabel Barbee Lee, who grew up in Cripple Creek during the Gold Rush, was sent to Colorado Springs for finishing school because her father didn’t want her to marry a miner. Lee is one of three women featured in “Ladies of the Mines,” which will be screened Jan. 12 in Durango.