Town of Cripple Creek

Cripple Creek is such a nice small town and we are already made a first round of walk there - Winter day in Cripple Creek.

As it said before, Cripple Creek is a great place to feel the spirit of an old mining town. And you can start even before reaching the town. 

 

Just before the last turn on the highway, you can find a Heritage Center that sits on top of the hill overlooking the Arkansas valley and the town. The building looks quite unusual and was designed to resemble the entrance to the mine shaft, as well as town buildings before and after the fire. So, the part on the left is showing the wooden construction that was common for all earlier buildings. The big fire of 1896 wiped out most of the buildings and the residents learned the lesson and all downtown buildings were built using bricks since then. So the right part of the Heritage center is a reminder of these (after fire) buildings. The center of the Pikes Peak Heritage center is a replica of a hard-rock mine. Miners in the gold camp entered the mine shaft that looked like this one. So... designers were able to reflect the history of the town in this center. Isn't it nice?

 

And the monument to the main digging tool was erected just next to the entry door and reminded us that the rusty shovel is the most important tool to dig gold and it is made from steel, not gold ;)

Once you enter the center, you find yourself in the small museum. You can learn about the early days of the gold rush and find here many stories and even biographies.

 

This model of the mine is mind blowing. I had no idea how deep one needed to dig before gold was showing up.

 

We spent almost an hour browsing around and learning about Cripple Creek history. But finally we left the Heritage center and soon found ourselves on the main street.

 

The Main Street was packed with the people who were there for the Ice Sculpture festival, but a couple of blocks outside downtown everything was so quiet and peaceful...

Because the streets were so crowded, we mostly were looking up, enjoying the decoration of the upper parts of the buildings.

 

We also found a cool mural that made the old wall look bright and fresh and quite alive... but showing the picture of the past.

 

That was a nice walk around and as usual we enjoyed old streets, old buildings and old spirit that caught between the structures and still presented everywhere in this old town with rich history.

And, we dropped dead once we saw the second floor door in the middle of the brick wall. What the... and I guess, you can find the Exit sign in the room inside ;) . But I hope this door is locked and maybe even blocked so no one can even try to use it for leaving the building. Unless you are an angel and don't care if you step away and literally fly, instead of walk ;)

We wandered around for a while, visited a couple of nice places and realized it was our time to leave. We still had a couple of hours to drive and wanted to be home before dark. Here is the footage from dash camera, where you can have an impression of the streets, houses and curvy mountain road leading you out of the town...

And... you know... once we left, we immediately felt as if we needed to come back. And, believe it or not, but we have this feeling every time leaving Cripple Creek. Maybe this is why we always come back ;)

To continue reading - Cripple Creek, Old Homestead

Pictures were taken on February 26, 2020.