Cripple Creek was once known as the "World's Greatest Gold Camp". The mining district opened in 1891. Bob Womack, a cowhand, was riding the range. He took an outcrop of rocks to the assay office. Womack's claim, although he had sold it, ended up yielding $5 million in gold and so the news spread and the gold rush had started.
With this discovery, the Cripple Creek and Victor Mining District, saw the need to make links to the front range. Roads and then railroads were constructed. Within 5 years, the population had grown to 25,000. The District ended up with over 500 mines, producing over 21 million ounces of gold. Most mining took place between 1891 to 1910.
Today, Cripple Creek is one of Colorado's popular Casino sites. The town is less than an hour's drive west from Colorado Springs, at an altitude of 9,508 feet. In the past, the town suffered two major fires within 3 days, destroying the majority of it, but it was rebuilt with brick and stone and all the buildings to this day, keep the old character of the town. Many have some wonderful paintings on them too.
Here is a handful of photo's from our recent visit and all the photo's I took, can be viewed at our online photo-album:
(copy & paste the link into your browser)
http://ikstone.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album28
4 comments:
Nice pics, Ian. It's hard to beat those brick and stone buildings from that era.
Thank you DD. I took a leave out of your book and added a bit of information related to the photo's.
I meant, "a leaf" !!
Looks a great place, we'll have to go there sometime.
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