Cripple Creek Historic District
/ref> is a historic district including Cripple Creek, Colorado
Cripple Creek is a statutory city that is the county seat of Teller County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 1,155 at the 2020 United States Census. Cripple Creek is a former gold mining camp located southwest of Colorado Sprin ...
, United States and is significant for its gold mining era history. It developed as a gold mining center beginning in 1890, with a number of buildings from that period surviving to this day. The mines in the area were among the most successful, producing millions of dollars of gold in the 1890s and supporting a population of 25,000 at its peak. It was declared a National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 1961.[ and ]
Many Cripple Creek buildings post-date the gold mining era. The district includes a number of structures that survive from that era:
* The Midland Terminal Depot
*Teller County Courthouse
*The Imperial Hotel
*The Old Homestead
*St. Paul's Catholic Church
*Mansard Roof House, on Warren Avenue
*The El Paso County Hospital, a brick Greek Revival
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...
-style two-story building.
The boundary of the district is defined by high points around Cripple Creek to include the "natural setting reminiscent of the historic environment. Additionally, it encloses part of the extent of Poverty Gulch where some of the original ore discoveries were made as well as the County Hospital building which is located outside the town limits." (p. 10) It runs from the peak of Mineral Hill (elevation 10,255 feet) southwest to a peak (elevation 9,855 feet), then to northeast corner of Mount Pisgah cemetery, then south along the east border of the cemetery to its southeast corner, then southeast to the peak that is 1600 feet to the northwest of Signal Hill (at elevation 9731), then northeast to the summit of Globe Hill (elevation 10,436), then northwest to peak of Carbonate Hill (elevation 10,335), finally east back to the peak of Mineral Hill.
State Highway 67 is the principal road through the area.
See also
* Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad
*
References
{{National Register of Historic Places
National Historic Landmarks in Colorado
National Historic Landmark Districts
Geography of Teller County, Colorado
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado
History of the Rocky Mountains
Tourist attractions in Teller County, Colorado
1890 establishments in Colorado
National Register of Historic Places in Teller County, Colorado