The Cripple Creek story

The story of the Cripple Creek district is the story of gold mining. Humans are hard-wired to be greedy about the golden stuff, no? And men have gone to the ends of the earth digging it out. The old underground mines in Colorado are exhausted, but open pit mining has operated since 1994 around Cripple Creek. This is an unlovely process of grinding up entire mountains and leaching gold from ore in open cyanide ponds.

After a boom of 10,000 people in 1893, in the 1930's the population of Cripple Creek was down to a few hundred. The view above is from the 1950's, when Cripple Creek drew interest only as a decaying historic town. The Cripple Creek I remember from the 1960's looked something like this. There was a court house and a few cowboy restaurants and bars along with a hotel that staged melodramas. It was a quaint place for tourists to take pictures of old mine shafts (or fall in them) and buy ice cream cones and souvenirs. To a teenager itching to head out for California, it was the most boring place on earth. But as time went by, Cripple Creek grew on me, and I've had many enjoyable trips back there since. The winters are cold, but the scenery and high mountain climate is beautiful in the summer and fall when the aspens change color.

Gambling (or I should say gaming) changed Cripple Creek forever 1991, when Colorado voters allowed the town to establish legalized gambling. Below is a recent view of downtown during a motorcycle rally. Just the next boom in a boom-cycle town.

High tech casinos sprang up behind the original building fronts on Bennett Avenue, which were carefully preserved for historic atmosphere. This gives the disorientating sensation of walking through an old brick storefront into a jangling, banging, ringing, miniature Vegas-style casino. Outdoor lights are not allowed on the facades, except at Christmas (below) when the casinos go all out for a few weeks.