The area in which the town of Cripple Creek in was originally called Poverty Gulch. It was all cattle ranching until Bob Womack discovered gold in 1890. Once people began to pour into the area, a town of 80 acres was plotted on land owned by Denver real estate men Horance Bennett and Julius Myers. The town was incorporated in 1892 and the name comes from a local creek where a rancher saw a cow fall and cripple herself. In that first year there where 2,500 people living her and some $200,000 in gold was mined. In the next few years the population swelled and so did the dollar value of gold mined. By 1893 there where over 10,000 people living in the town and millions of dollars of gold was being mined.

In 1896 there where two great fires that leveled almost all of Cripple Creek. The first was on April 25th in the early afternoon and it destroyed the eastern and northern parts of the town. Four days later there was another fire that finished off the town except a few houses on the western edge of town. The fires left over 2 million dollars in damage, over 5,000 people where left homeless and 6 people died. The town built used brick to rebuild from the ashes!

By the turn of the century Central City was the 4th largest town in Colorado with a population of more that 25,000 and it was the country seat of the newly created Teller County. By this time there where nearly 500 mines producing over 20 million dollars worht of gold! Here are a few facts about Cripple Creek at its peak circa 1900:

• It supported 40 brokers, 72 lawers, and 39 real estate agents
• It had 8 newspapers of which 5 where dailys
• There where 60 doctors and a modern hospital as well as 2 undertakers
• Some of the business' along Bennett Avenue (Cripple Creeks Main Street) included:
  • 4 department stores including a May Company Store
  • 2 dance schools
  • A business college
  • 4 book stores
  • 9 photographers
• Scattered throughout town where:
  • 49 grocery stores
  • 20 meat markets
  • 14 bakeries
  • 11 laundries
  • 11 dairies delivering milk to the local residents
• There where 75 saloons with most of them on Myers Street aka Sin Street. Myers street also had one of the biggest red light districts in Colorado!
• If you went to dinner in one of the 25 or so restaurants it cost you around 35 cents
• 18 passanger trains arrived and departed on a daily basis

This prosperity only lasted for a few more years and by 1920 there where only 40 or so mines operating and production was down to 4 million dollars. There was a brief revival in the mid 30's with around 135 mines operating and production of more than 5 million dollars a year. But by 1945, there where less than 20 mines operating and production fell below 1 million dollars.

It was around this time that the tourist industry started to pick up and a new boom began for Cripple Creek. First in the 40's the Imperial Hotel started showing melodramas in the now famed Gold Bar Room Theatre. In 1953, the Cripple Creek Distric Museum opened in what was the Midland Terminal depot. (The museum uses the old Colorado Trading & Transfer Co. building as it's gift store. This is the only building on Bennet St. that predates the 1896 fires.) In 1967, the Cripple Creek Narrow Gauge railroad began operation. By the 1980's, though, the town was starting to see fewer visitors and so a few people started taking about limited stakes gambling. So, in 1991, it was voted on by the citizens of Colorado and gambling came to town in October of 1991. And here we are today , 10 years later with a prosperous town, once again, in the high country of Colorado.