Colorado national parks: federally protected sanctuaries spotlight everything from sand dunes and alpine meadows to dinosaur sites and ancient cliff dwellings

Travel America, July-August, 2005 by Darlene P. Copp

Back in the 1890s, the Cripple Creek area, once a serene cattle ranch mushroomed into a gold camp of about 50,000 souls. Today the magnet is low-stakes gaming, introduced in 1991 to fund preservation of the business district's century-old buildings.

Known as the "Worlds Greatest Gold Camp." Cripple Creek was the site of the last great gold rush in the lower 48 states. More gold was taken out of the Cripple Creek District than from the California and Alaska gold strikes together. Today it's the fourth richest gold mining district in the world, thanks to the Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Companys Cresson Project--the largest open pit gold mine in Colorado. Mining operations, along with abandoned buildings of the old American Eagles Mine, are visible from American Eagles Overlook which also provides outstanding views of the Sangre Cristo Mountain Range and me Collegiate Peaks.

Visitors descend a 1,000-foot vertical shaft at Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine, where part of the underground tour is conducted on me last air-powered train manufactured in Cripple Creek. Mining equipment is demonstrated, and each guest receives an ore specimen containing real gold. This is the country's longest operating gold mine tour.

Cripple Creek's wandering wild donkeys are purported to be descendants of the critters that pulled ore carts before electricity was introduced. Looking for food, these moochers have been known to surround cars that stop to look. Donkey Derby Days, held the last weekend in June, celebrates the herd with races, a parade, and other events.

The Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad, an excursion train pulled by a steam locomotive, takes passengers on a narrated, 45-minute ride past old mines and the deserted mining camp of Anaconda

The Cripple Creek District Museum occupies three buildings--a former railroad depot, an assay office, and the wooden Colorado Trade & Transfer Building, the only commercial structure to survive the two infamous April fires of t896. (Most buildings in the town center date from that year.) Exhibits spotlight mining and railroad memorabilia and also touch on the seamy side of life--deadly epidemics, labor violence, gambling, and prostitution. The Old Homestead Museum, housed in a former brothel takes a closer took at ladies of the evening.

In summer the Cripple Creek Players present a Victorian-style melodrama and vaudeville musical revue in the recently restored 1890s Butte Opera House. The annual Cripple Creek Art Festival is set for August 13-14.

At the towns 18 casinos, most of them housed in historic brick buildings, the maximum bet is $5. Several casinos are also hotels. The 26-room Imperial Hotel dating from 1896, offers gaming in an authentic Victorian setting, with blackjack tables and banks of slot machines scattered through a number of intimate parlor rooms furnished with period oil paintings and antiques, The hotel has five turn-of-the-2oth-century bars.

Perhaps the best way to get an idea of how Cripple Creek looked before gambling is to visit nearby Victor. almost a ghost town, Besides quaint shops, the main attraction is the Lowell Thomas & Victor Museum, which celebrates the life of the famous 20th century journatist/author/film producer, who grew up in Victor and started his newspaper career there. The museum also recalls the town's mining heritage.