Cripple Creek District Museum
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o back in time at the Cripple Creek District Museum. A wonderful collection of artifacts, rare photos, mining memorabilia, and mineral displays ... including GOLD! See old mining cabins and Victorian living quarters. Also on display: the Gold Sovereign headframe, western firearms, and so much more. Fun for the whole family when you explore Cripple Creek's wild past. This is a must see when in Cripple Creek!
he Cripple Creek District Museum, located in Cripple Creek in central Colorado, preserves the rich history of the region’s railroad and gold mining boom that began in the late 19th century. Founded in 1953, the museum occupies a collection of five historic buildings, including the original Midland Terminal Railway Depot (built in 1894), miner’s cabins, and the former Colorado Trading & Transfer Company building. The Midland Terminal connected Cripple Creek to Colorado Springs and connections with larger railroads. The museum showcases artifacts, photographs, and exhibits that capture the lives of miners and townspeople during Cripple Creek’s peak as one of Colorado’s most productive gold mining areas. It provides a detailed look into the rise of the district, the challenges faced by miners, and the legacy of the gold rush that transformed the area, making it an essential destination for understanding the region’s mining heritage and historical significance. The museum complex is adjacent to the Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad.
Click to see the Cripple Creek District Museum plotted on a Google Maps page
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1895 Official Guide ad / collection
1920 Official Guide map / collection
1920 Official Guide ad / collection
1945 Official Guide ad / collection
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from Cripple Creek Railroads: A Quick History by Leland Feitz / collection
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he Colorado Trading & Transfer building was built in 1893 by business owner Albert Carlton. He started selling coal, but also moved freight within the district including gold ore. This building is the oldest wooden commercial structure in Cripple Creek and survived the fires of 1896.
The Assay Office was a former garage built in the early 1900’s and moved to the Museum grounds over 40 years ago. It has been converted to represent a working assay office where miners brought their ore to assess its gold value.
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n the late 1800s thousands of fortune-seekers made their way to Cripple Creek. Gold had been discovered in Poverty Gulch, starting a country's last great gold rush.
The town of Cripple Creek developed along the small creek winding its way from the mountains where gold was found by ranch hand Bob Womack.
By 1894, what had been a quiet, serene cattle ranch was a booming gold camp of about 50,000. The camp was to become the fifth richest gold strike in the world.
Several celebrities either grew up here or spent time in the mining district, including: Groucho Marx, Lowell Thomas, Wyatt Earp, and Jack Dempsey.
Disaster struck Cripple Creek twice in 1896. In late April of that year, a “taxi dancer” on Myers Avenue (the Red Light District) got into a fight with her beau and a kerosene heater was overturned starting a fire. Three days later, a cook at one of the hotels overturned a pot of grease on a hot stove, which started another fire.
Today the streets of Cripple Creek are lined with brick buildings constructed after the fire and renovated in the 1990s as casinos.
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See also our complete Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad scrapbook in Preservation
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Snapshots
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Links / Sources
- Cripple Creek District Museum website
- Wikipedia article for Cripple Creek District Museum
- Colorado Encyclopedia Cripple Creek page
