[2] When he was 15 years of age, Arthur Collins traveled with his father and brothers Henry and George to Andalusia, Spain, in the great mining region of Rio Tinto, where Joseph Collins was appointed chief chemist and assayer of the Peña del Hierro copper mine.

[1][3] Under his father, Arthur began his practical work in the laboratory and continued his studies in chemistry and mineralogy, and was soon employed as assayer and underground surveyor by the Peninsular Copper Co., in Southern Spain.

[1][4] Joseph H. Collins and his sons returned to England in 1885, where Arthur was put in charge of an experimental smelting works near Breage, in Cornwall.

[1] For the next few years he was engaged as a partner in the firm of J. H. Collins & Sons, examining and investing in mines around the world, including in Burma, Norway, Spain, Australia, Tasmania, and Mexico.

[4] In the following year Arthur married Marguerite Morton Becker, the daughter of Gilpin County Judge Clayton F.

In the middle of May 1901, the Telluride Daily Journal, a local newspaper hostile to the union, reprinted a story from a neighboring community, the Ouray Herald.

On 3 July 1901, Barthell, a native of Finland, stepped to the front of the picket line, faced company gunmen, and shouted in broken English, "You are under arrest."

Vincent St. John arrived on the scene and, in the absence of any effective response by management, was credited with directing rescue efforts, including entering the smoke-filled mine at serious risk to his own health.

Arthur Collins' decision to eliminate the fireboss positions, and his practice of promoting non-union men with less experience, was considered a significant factor in management's early, fumbling response.

On 19 November 1902, the eve of the anniversary of the great fire, Arthur Collins was mortally wounded with a shotgun blast through the window of the house on the Smuggler-Union property.