The 1911 Colorado Business Directory described the town as "Coal mining town and station", population 200, on the Colorado and Southern Railway.[1]
On 7 August 1902 an explosion of dust ignited by giant powder at the Bowen Mine killed 13 people.[2] The precise location of the town site is unknown to the GNIS,[3] but newspaper articles reporting the 1902 Bowen Mine Explosion place the town "about a quarter of a mile below the mine",[4][5] near Trinidad.
A post office named Aylmer, Colorado opened on March 23, 1900. The name was changed to Bowen, Colorado on September 18, 1906, and it remained open until January 15, 1929.[6] The community had the name of Thomas F. Bowen, a state legislator.[7]