Day Trip Part 1 - Cripple Creek

We're finally getting strategic about our time here in Colorado since it seems like it is slowly slipping away from us so we sat down the other night with the Colorado map and made some decisions about places we want to go before we leave in October.

Since we go back to work tomorrow we decided a one-day excursion was our best bet right now so we headed off to Cripple Creek.

Cripple Creek is an old mining town about an hour northwest of Canon City and played an integral role in the rich heritage of Colorado. The first homesteaders arrived in the mid 1800s. In 1890, a ranch hand named Bob Womack discovered gold and Cripple Creek changed forever. By 1900, more than 50,000 people called the gold camp home. When the golden era ended in 1918, more than $300 million in gold had been mined in what would be the last great gold rush in North America. By the 1920s, only about 40 mines remained, but two decades later, in the 1940s, the town began to promote itself as a tourist destination, offering visitors a glimpse into the past.  In 1991, the town was opened to limited-stakes gaming. Today the venerable gold camp has reinvented itself as a full-service tourist destination, all the while preserving and showcasing its rich history.

And now with the price of gold being what it is, 300,000 ounces a year are still being mined by the Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mining Company, making it the fourth largest producing gold mine in the world.

Cripple Creek has a state-of-the-art Heritage Center (which we did not visit) with informative tours and interactive displays, distinctive museums and attractions, a guided tour of a modern working mine and a spellbinding tour of the Mollie Kathleen Mine (neither which we took) from the Gold Rush that will take you 1,000 feet underground.  There's also the Narrow Gauge Railroad (which we didn't ride) through the Gold Mining District and a great jail museum (which we did visit).

Now that you know a little bit about Cripple Creek, how about some photos of our one-day journey?

Here's our Cripple Creek greeting sign--well, not exactly the official city sign, but one that gave us a greeting to the historic downtown district on the side of one of the buildings.  Notice the old brick?

The first thing we saw in town after we parked were these burros just roaming around wild and free in this backyard!  You can see that Sadie isn't very interested in pursuing a relationship with that very big dog!  While I only have a photo of this one donkey, there were actually 5-6 burros roaming the streets.  From this backyard they meandered off to another yard. What a sight to see.  Shoot-howdy, do you ever see that in Los Angeles, I ask you? 

 Now for some photos of the downtown area and some of the neighborhood.  Unfortunately, there was a lot of construction going on downtown so getting a nice photo of the main street without yellow caution tape and wooden barriers was difficult (first picture below).  Hopefully, you get a good flavor of what this historical town looks like.

 

 

 The plaque below was on the church that is pictured below the plaque. 

 

The next four photos were taken on the main street in front of a couple of different businesses.  The first one was basically an empty building with this card game set-up in the front window to simulate the gambling that took place during the gold rush days.

 I thought the pink donkey was a good place to take a photo of Gary and Sadie.

This one is for all you men out there ... I just couldn't resist taking a pic of him!  She must have been really on a shopping binge!

This bronze was by the train station which you'll see next.

While we decided not to ride the train, we still felt it was worthwhile to take a few photos.  This particular train ride is about 45 minutes round-trip but doesn't go all the way to Victor, the neighboring historic gold mine town.

Our final destination in Cripple Creek before we headed off to Victor (the topic of my next blog) was the Outlaws & Lawmen Jail Museum.  Here's Gary at the front entrance.

We were given an oral rundown of the jail and what we would find in it by the docent which was really helpful and made our self-guided tour more beneficial.  The housed mostly men in the jail, but also a few rabble-rouser women!

Here's a picture of their first inmate who looks pretty disgruntled with the food service and amenities!

These artifacts were hanging on the wall in the Warden's office.

This photo is a depiction of the women's quarters.  This first one is the actual jail cell where women offenders were housed.  The second one is where the matron lived (she was responsible for the female prisoners).

This is a photo of the women's bathroom facility.  It is a far cry from the men's which was basically housed in one of the jail cells on the first floor (women were housed on the second floor).

Here's a photo of the first female prisoner.  See how happy she is being incarcerated?  She's probably that happy because it's giving her a reprieve from her husband (ha!ha!ha!).

To end this blog on a nicer note, here are a couple of photos of just a couple of the beautiful wildflowers growing recklessly and aimlessly in and throughout this scenic area.

From here we traveled on to Victor, the next mining town which is very closely associated with Cripple Creek in the gold mining region.

 

Ephesians 4:1-6
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  There is  one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.