Depot: (
Satellite)
Looking South from Carr Ave.
Looking East from 5th Street. The depot is on the left and the musuem building is on the right. The
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Michael Emerson Avitt posted
April 7, 2015 - Cripple Creek, CO.
Michael Emerson Avitt posted again |
The tourist railroad is the
Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad.
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CrippleCreekRailroad
The 4-mile ride takes 45 minutes. It "includes an interesting and educational narration on the rich history only a dynamic gold town could produce. Also stops for special points of interest, impressive photo spots, and Echo valley." |
Since Michael took his photo above, they subtracted a year from the age of the depot on the Gift Shop sign.
Since they run just steam locomotives, I presume this water tower is operational.
South of the museum building is the shaft of an old gold mine. This photo was taken from the train soon after it left the depot.
Note the two winches in the above photo peeking out to the left of the dirt pile. That must be part of this equipment exhibit. Note the donkey engine (small steam engine) on the right.
This side view shows a cable going from a winch to the lift hoist. There was probably a huge ore processing building to the right of the hoist into which those tracks extended. That way the ore cars could be dumped directly into the processing machinery.
I presume these are centrifugal water pumps. Since underground mines not only go below the water table, but they also go through aquifers on their way done to ore veins. The problem of pumping water out of a mine was the inspiration for the development of steam engines in England. Underground mining was the enabling application for steam engines. That is, mines were willing to pay a lot for the development of steam engines that would keep deeper mines dry.
There seems to be a couple more shaft displays near the museum.
This one is wood instead of metal.
And this one has a building next to it. And there are no ore cars on the tracks.
Is this a blast furnace remnant? It sure looks like it. They must have found a vein of iron ore. I wonder if there are also limestone and coal deposits in the area.
This is a sampling of the displays inside the museum.
And, as the sign states, the depot is a gift shop.
Because of the gold mines around Cripple Creek, two railroads crawled their way to that town. The Midland Terminal from the north and the Florence and Cripple Creek from the south.
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| 1901/01 Pikes Peak Quad @ 125,000 |
The tourist railroad uses the Terminal Midland RoW. CO-67 uses the F&CC RoW.
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| Digitally Zoomed |
It is not hard to spot a strip mine.
I see that gold mining is now similar to anthracite mining in Pennsylvania. Instead of mining underground, they just take the top off the mountain and then dig deep.
"The Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mine (“CC&V”) (100% SSRM owned) is located approximately 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of Denver, Colorado. Mining in the Cripple Creek district dates back to the 1890’s, with large-scale surface mining commencing in 1994. CC&V is an epithermal gold deposit associated with alkalic intrusive rocks mined via conventional open pit mining methods. All of the current Mineral Reserves are oxides, which are stacked on valley leach facilities as either run of mine (“ROM”) material or after a two-stage crush. SSR Mining completed the acquisition of CC&V on February 28, 2025." [
ssrmining]
I just Googled "gold price today" [Nov 13, 2025].
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| Google results |
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TBReel98 posted
The Ajax mine, located just north of Victor, Colorado, was one of the Cripple Creek district’s top gold producers. In this photo, miners are posing at the cages of the Ajax shaft ca. 1900. |
