Fall Break - A Day in a Gold Mining Town

On Saturday, we packed the kids up and took another fall drive through southern Colorado.  Our intention was to find more picturesque sites where we could take pictures of the girls.  While the drive was beautiful, we really didn't quite get the scenery that we wanted, but we did get a bit of a history lesson!

We ended up in Cripple Creek, which is an old mining town, now turned casino town.   In 1891, gold was discovered in Cripple Creek by a cowboy and part-time prospector.  This discovery started the last great Colorado gold rush and transformed a sleepy, little ranching community into one of the world’s richest gold camps.  Thousands of prospectors flocked to the region, and before long, the largest gold strike in history - the famous Independence lode, was discovered.  Within three years, the population increased from 500 to 10,000 by 1893 and $500,000,000 worth of gold ore was dug from Cripple Creek. 

On our way out of town, we found a pull-off that had some old mining equipment.  The girls had a ball in the mining car!

Overall, this was a really nice day.  The drive was beautiful and the weather really cooperated.  We'd like to go back for some of their town events - especially at Christmas.  But I'm still not too sure about driving those curvy mountain roads in the winter!