Thursday, October 12, 2017

It's a warm and sunny day here, so we struck off for Cripple Creek, CO.  If we went by the way the crow flies, it's 15 miles from here.  But we had to traverse around Pike's Peak and take the winding and curvy road, which took us an hour.  It was very scenic, though, and the roads were very good.  Cripple Creek was built quickly in the 1890's and 1900's, during the mining boom.  The miners worked for $3.00 a day in wages, but they carried out some of the richest ore, in their pockets and lunch buckets, when they left at the end of the day.  They called this, "high grading".  It was very hard work, as it was all manual labor, using a pick axe, shoveling, and washing the ore.

I took this picture (of a picture) in the Heritage Center in Cripple Creek, and this was a log cabin that the miner's built in which to live, during that time.

This is another picture I took, that shows how they used the donkeys to transport the ore.  When the rush was over, the miners left Cripple Creek and left the donkeys to fend for themselves.  They roamed and reproduced and used to visit the townspeople!  We saw none on this trip, so they must be dwindling.

This is Bennett Street and where most things are happening in town.  We tried to find a 'mom and pop' restaurant to eat lunch at, but were told by the local firemen, that everything is owned by the casinos!  Oh, yuck!  So, we took their recommendation and ate at the Mexicali Rose Restaurant.  It was terrible, but then I've never known casino food to taste good.  We walked the streets and they roll with the change in the terrain, so we found it a little difficult to breath comfortably at nearly 10,000 feet elevation!  We found several caches here, and learned a lot about the mining industry here, and couldn't think of a better way to spend our last day in this area.  We returned by Hwy 1, and it was quite different from what we saw coming up the other way.  The Aspens have lost all their leaves, but I can only imagine how beautiful it is when they are in their blaze of glory! 

      Thank you, Cripple Creek.  You gave us several hours of entertaining and we leave enriched.