Idaho Springs
Where Colorado'S Gold Rush Actually Began George Jackson Found Placer Gold At The Mouth Of Chicago Creek In January 1859, The First Significant Strike In The Territory. A National Register Historic District Thirty Five Minutes From Denver On Interstate 70. · Idaho Springs, Colorado
Colorado's gold rush started here, in January 1859, when a Georgian prospector named George Jackson found placer gold at the point where Chicago Creek runs into Clear Creek. Within a year the Pike's Peak rush was on and the territory had a population. What is left is a narrow main street of nineteenth-century fronts wedged into a steep canyon with Interstate 70 running past the end of it, which means Idaho Springs is both a genuine historic mining town and the place everyone stops on the way to the ski resorts. Above it, the Argo Mill stands over the town at the mouth of a tunnel driven more than four miles through the mountain to Central City. There are natural hot springs in caves under the hillside, and the road up Mount Blue Sky starts at the edge of town. What most visitors see is the stop on the way to the ski resorts; what is actually here is the place the state began, with mine workings visible on the canyon walls in every direction once you know to look for them.
Miner Street, Idaho Springs, Colorado, 80452, United States
A year-round town thirty-five minutes west of Denver on Interstate 70. Shops and restaurants on Miner Street keep daytime and evening hours, busiest at weekends and in the ski season when the interstate is full. The Argo Mill and Tunnel and the Phoenix Gold Mine run tours seasonally with their own schedules. Indian Hot Springs is open year-round. THE MOUNT BLUE SKY BYWAY STARTS HERE and its upper road is seasonal, reservation-controlled and has closed for reconstruction in recent years.