Cripple Creek
The World'S Greatest Gold Camp A District That Produced More Than Twenty Three Million Ounces Of Gold After A Cowboy Found It In 1890. The Town Centre Is A National Historic Landmark District, Rebuilt In Brick After The Fires Of 1896 And Now Full Of Small Casinos. · Cripple Creek, Colorado
Bob Womack was a cowboy who spent years telling people there was gold on the back side of Pikes Peak and was generally regarded as a drunk and a nuisance. In 1890 he was right. What followed was the last great American gold rush: more than twenty-three million ounces out of one volcanic caldera, a town of fifty thousand people at 9,494 feet, and a crop of millionaires including Winfield Scott Stratton and Spencer Penrose, who took his money down the hill and built the Broadmoor with it. Womack died poor. Two fires levelled the place in 1896 and it was rebuilt in brick within a year, which is why the National Historic Landmark district looks as solid as it does. Today about twelve hundred people live here, the brick fronts hold small casinos, and wild donkeys descended from the mining herds wander down Bennett Avenue in summer. The district is not finished with gold either - the Cripple Creek and Victor mine above the town is still the largest gold producer in Colorado.
Bennett Avenue, Cripple Creek, Colorado, 80813, United States
A year-round town, but a seasonal one in practice - the casinos and restaurants operate all year while the mine tours, the narrow gauge railroad and most museums run roughly from May to October. At 9,494 feet the winter is long and the roads in can be difficult. The Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine tour and the Cripple Creek and Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad are both seasonal and both ticketed. Donkey Derby Days takes place in June, and the wild donkey herd is loose in town through the warm months.