Colorado History - Early Cripple Creek District Photos

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Colorado History

- Colorado History -
Early Cripple Creek District
Photos, Fire, and Life in Cripple Creek

Historical Cripple Creek

Winfield Scott Stratton

Winfield Scott Stratton arrived in Cripple Creek in 1891 and began prospecting on savings he had earned from his winter carpentry work. Stratton had done this for 18 years. In 1891 he staked several placer claims on the Cripple Creek side of the District, but later found the Battle Mountain area more promising. After staking four claims there, he became one of Colorado's wealthiest and most influential gold barons.

City of Cripple Creek in 1892
The City of Cripple Creek in early 1892 when it was just one year old.

Cripple Creek miners in 1892
Placer miners equipped with pans and sluices at gold-laced Cripple Creek, Colorado in 1892.

Many of the prospectors in the gold rush at Cripple Creek had been farmers. "So green," went a common saying of the day, "that they mined with pitchforks."

City of Cripple Creek, July 1892
Cripple Creek - July 14, 1892

Cripple Creek Placer Mining Company stock certificate from 1892.
Click the $1 share to view an enlargement.

City of Cripple Creek in 1893
Cripple Creek - January 5, 1893

Patrons and bar girls drinking in a Cripple Creek bar.
Drinking was one of Cripple Creek's favorite forms of recreation.

The Crusher, Cripple Creek's first newspaper
"The Crusher" - Cripple Creek's First Newspaper

By 1894, Cripple Creek had four newspapers - The Morning Journal, Daily Crusher, Daily Miner, and Sunday Herald.

The Daily Miner Newspaper
Employees at the Daily Miner

Mining Stock Exchange Office, Cripple Creek
Lots of activity in front of the Mining Stock Exchange Offices in Cripple Creek

Spencer Penrose in Cripple Creek, Colorado
Spencer Penrose (fifth from the left) made fortunes in both Cripple Creek gold and in Utah copper.

Cripple Creek Fires - 1896

Two fires within a week in 1896 devasted Cripple Creek, which was later rebuilt in brick.

First Cripple Creek fire of 1896
The first fire of 1896 shown on Bennett Ave.

Cripple Creek fire 1896
Cripple Creek residents moved household possessions moments ahead of the second fire of 1896.

Cripple Creek after the 1896 fire
Cripple Creek after the fires in 1896

Reconstruction of Cripple Creek

The reconstruction period after the fire of 1896 helped change Cripple creek into a first class city. Cripple Creek officially achieved "city" status in 1897. By the mid 1890s, the water and sewer systems had been greatly improved. They had an official fire department, a school board that managed several clapboard schoolhouses, and five churches - Catholic, Methodist, Episcopal, Baptist, and Congregational.

Cripple Creek City Hall in 1898
Cripple Creek City Hall soon after completion in 1898.

It took two years to complete the City Hall. After completion, the building housed the central fire department, the board of aldermen, and the clerk's and treasurer's offices.

J. I. Brown's Assay Office in Cripple Creek

Cripple Creek 1890s
The "Great Commoner" Colonel William Jennings Bryan visited Cripple Creek in the 1890s. Among the dignitaries in this picture are Col. B.F. Montgomery, Hon. J. Maurice Finn and Jesse Waters.

Mining Stock Exchange, Cripple Creek, Colorado in 1905
The Mining Stock Exchange Building in Cripple Creek in 1905

The hoist at the Mollie Kathleen gold mine

Early Cripple Creek District
| Photos, Fire, and Life in Cripple Creek |
| Other Colorful Towns in the Cripple Creek District:
Gillett - Colorado's Only Bullfight, Victor, Independence |
| A Guide to the Miners' Gritty Lingo |

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- Colorado History In Depth -
Lecture Notes, Reading, and Information:

| The Cheyenne Migration to Colorado |
| The Gratlan Affair, Massacre, Fort Laramie Treaty |

Fort Union
| The Sante Fe Trail and Fort Union |
| Sumner - Ninth Military Department / The First Fort Union |
| Early Arrivals to Fort Union, Daily Life at Fort Union |
| Captain Grover - The New Fort Union, the Confederate Threat |
| Fort Union Arsenal, William Shoemaker, End of Fort Union |

More Colorado History Information
| Bent's Fort Photos, Personalities, Plans, and More |
| What Was Easter Like at Bent's Fort? |
| Colorado Trivia, Miscellaneous Old Photos,
Western Personalities, Forts, and More |
| Lullabies for Jittery Cows - Cowboy Ballads |
| Heraldry of the Branding Iron |
| Project Aims to Clear Infamous Cannibal, Alferd Packer |
| Lead Gives Alferd Packer's Story More Weight |
| Legendary Colorado Love Stories: Baby Doe Tabor & More |
| Colorado Pioneer Women: Elizabeth Byers |
| Early Denver Jokes / The History of April Fools' Day |

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Highlands Ranch High School 9375 South Cresthill Lane Highlands Ranch, Colorado 80126 303-471-7000