Aside from the abundant sunshine and the great opportunity to remodel a really cool property, one of the things that drew us to this part of Colorado was the history of the region.  Unfortunately, we’ve been so focused on the house over these past several months that we really haven’t devoted much time to exploring the area.

But, we’ve had visitors for the past couple of weeks and their arrival coincided with the Memorial Day openings of several local attractions that are closed during the winter months.

The current town of Cripple Creek is far smaller than it was a little over 100 years ago, when something like 55,000 people lived and worked here.  Nearly every one of them was involved, somehow, in the search for gold.  Some were digging prospect holes, some were working in mines that were already active, and some were working in support; running boarding houses, brothels, saloons, or stores.  With only about 1,200 people here now, we were curious to take a step back and see what life here was like in the 1890’s, so we began at the Cripple Creek District Museum which is housed in the old railroad depot at the end of Bennett Ave., the main street of town.

When we finished browsing all of the displays, photos, and artifacts, we went next door and boarded a narrow gauge train for a ride through the area on a 116 year old, coal fired, steam locomotive to see some of the old mining operations and learn a little more about the area’s history.

The hillsides are dotted with the head-frames of many old, abandoned mines, but you really can’t get much of a sense of what lies below, so we decided to visit the Mollie Kathleen, only area mine that offers tours underground.    We crammed into very small cages to be lowered a thousand feet in pitch darkness, down to the tenth level of tunnels, where our tour began.    As we moved through the tunnels, our tour guide explained how mining has evolved over the years, beginning with those original, old-timers; drilling holes by candlelight with iron bits and sledge hammers to prep for the dynamite that loosened the rock and gave them access to the veins of gold ore.

“Down the hill” near Colorado Springs, are a couple of area attractions that we drive past every time go to the big city.   We’ve visited Garden of the Gods before, but it’s always fun to drive through and see the cool rock formations.  This is a photo of one of the more interesting rock features called ‘Balanced Rock’.  Given the immense weight of this huge rock, along with the often-extreme weather conditions in this area, it’s a pretty amazing feature.  There are several other cool features and a lot of marvelous scenery in the park, and they have a really nice visitor’s center that does a great job of explaining the development of the region’s geology.

Finally, we visited the Manitou Cliff Dwellings, an ancient home to the Anasazi people.  You can actually see the cliff dwellings from the highway, but we hadn’t stopped before.  I was amazed at how well the structure was built, given the absence of modern stone-cutting tools, levels, ladders, and mortar.  I did feel a little cramped, though.  It appears the Anasazi were a little smaller than most folks today.

We’ve gotten a lot done in the house, too.  I have our next post started and I’ll try to get it published in the next few days.