Welcome to Cripple Creek, Colorado! Like the Headline indicates, Cripple Creek is NOT your usual Vacation Resort town.  Cripple Creek is unique in so many ways it will be interesting to see if I can summarize them all in a brief blog!  First of all, Cripple Creek is a small town 'way up in the Rocky Mountains, altitude 9494.  We don't have any ski runs culminating downtown.  We don't have big, fancy restaurants or pricy retail shops.  What we do have are fantastic museums, inexpensive residences and affordable vacant land and plenty of that small town homeyness that is missing in the bigger boys up the road!  Oh, and gambling.  Casinos rolled open their doors in 1992, a year after Colorado voted to allow gambling in Cripple Creek, Blackhawk and Central City.

Gold was discovered in the 'Creek back in 1892, creating the Worlds Last Greatest Gold Camp on a small stream known as Cripple Creek.  It is rumoured that the stream got its name when the ranchers that were working the valley roped a calf and broke its leg, then when he got off to work the calf he slipped and fell and and remarked "This is sure some cripple creek".  Well, fabled as it might be, the discovery of gold turned this valley into a bustling city.  Miners flocked to the area looking to strike it rich.  The areas first realtors and speculators laid out their particular townships, eventually to merge them into one big City with a population of 50,000. Gold from the mines in the District built many a mansion in Denver and Colorado Springs, one of the most famous buildings being the Broadmoor Hotel. 

Visitors can take a tour at the Mollie Kathleen Mine, riding 1000 ft down on a mine elevator and experience what it was like to work underground.  Tour the Homestead House, where Cripple Creeks finest ladies of the night plied their wares in relative luxury compared to the "cribs" stationed along Myers Avenue, next to attorneys and realtors!  Walk the cemetary grounds with its expansive view of town, see the headstone of Pearl DeVere, Cripple Creeks most famous madam after you have listened to her history at the Homestead House Museum. Take in the Melodrama at the Butte where you can participate in the play with your "BOO" or "HISS" as the Villian takes the stage!  Take a walk through the new Outlaws and Lawmens Museum located in the 1800's jail that operated into the 1980's!  And best of all, the Cripple Creek District Museum, with photos and articles original to the town are displayed for you to see! 

Summers bring tons of interesting activities.  Donkey Derby Days is our Celebration of all things Donkey, beginning with a street dance on Friday nite, a parade of interesting entries at noon on Saturday along with Donkey Races, Mountain Mama contests and all sorts of unique small town foolishness that gives the visitor an idea of what this town is about!  This summer, not only will we have Donkey Derby Days, but beginning June 20th we are kicking it off with a Chili Cookoff.  We have invited World Class cooks to participate and will have a locals challenge as well as hairy legs and shoot and holler contests, bands and street vendors.  The weekend of June 27 begins the official Donkey Derby Days, and the following weekend will be our most spectacular hometown 4th of July celebration ever. 

I was right, I cannot begin to describe the fantastic fun we have in Cripple Creek in a brief blog.  There will be more to come, for sure, as we are having an Ice Carving Festival in February and a Wine Tasting Extravaganza in October.  Spring brings a riot of wildflowers, Summer offers great outdoor fun, Fall brings vivid color to the Aspen trees and the mountains electrify with brilliant colors!  I promise to do my best at bringing you the flavors of Cripple Creek in later blogs, I have a ton of photos and maybe I will be able to figure out how to wrap them smoothly within the text in the future.  I have tons of links and info on town, but my project is to get them all out here to you!