Things to do / Travel Guide
Mining Towns around Denver, Colorado
In a very big way the history of the eastern Colorado and Wyoming Rockies is the history of the mining of precious metals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In this respect, the histories of Gold Rush towns such as Idaho Springs, Georgetown, Silver Plume, Cripple Creek, and Victor, are all similar. Gold or silver was discovered at some point in the mid-to-late 19th century. However, by the early 20th century the metal had run out, and, thus the towns' reason for being was destroyed. In these cities, the townsfolk for the most part were not able to find a replacement for the dying mining industries, and the towns froze. As such, the towns have remarkably well-preserved downtowns.
It took a while for the tourism to pick up, one reason obviously being that time needed to pass to make the buildings truly historical. And historical these towns are! When you enter Silver Plume or Cripple Creek, you will most probably feel as if you have transported back to the late-19th century. A stroll or drive up any of the main streets of these towns will reward you with a fascinating time-traveling experience.
Cripple Creek is generally considered to have the best-preserved and most extensive downtown of these old mining towns. Walk up the main street, West Carr Avenue/East Pike Peak Avenue, with the old storefronts that used to advertise saloons, bars, and apothecaries, and imagine how it must have looked back when the city was a bustling hub of every speculator and miner in the area.
Special landmarks in the city include the Butte Opera House, built in the 1890s. At its height it featured the Ladies' Vienna Orchestra. Cripple Creek District Museum, which was once the site of the Midland Terminal Railroad Depot, is housed in three buildings and is stuffed with all kinds of memorabilia significant to the region. The depot was quite important during the height of the city's mining days, transporting people as well as the gold they mined.
The mines themselves in some places are open as museums, windows into these speculators' lives. The best of these is undoubtedly the still-active (albeit on a much toned-down level) Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine, north of Cripple Creek.
Ghost Towns around Denver, Colorado
In Canon City you can visit the Ghost Town Museum, a completely authentic town with sheriff's office and jail, saloon, and other attractions.
For a real ghost town experience reached in 45 minutes from Denver, explore what remains of Nevadaville, near Central City,
Historical Attractions around Denver, Colorado
Denver's beginnings were also humble, though. You can experience that first-hand at the sod, Four Mile House in Four Mile Historic Park.
By 1892, guests to Denver were no longer staying in sod houses. The still-elegant Brown Palace Hotel, is worth a stay or at least a drink in the lobby.
Historic Downtowns in Loveland, Fort Collins, Cheyenne, and Laramie, Wyoming
Aside from the downtowns of the mining towns and of Denver, many other cities in the region also boast charming historic downtowns as well.
- Loveland's downtown is now very art-filled, but many of the old buildings still exist. Many are former industrial or commercial buildings, such as 102 E. Third Street, the old grocery store, and 107-109 W. Second Street, a factory and warehouse. The historic Loveland theater is the Rialto, built in the 1910s at 228 E. Fourth Street.
- Many of Fort Collins' oldest buildings now reside in the Fort Collins Museum complex, at 200 Matthews Street, two blocks to the east of Colorado State University. On display are one of the oldest log cabins in the state, a stone cabin from the 1860s, and a schoolhouse dating to 1884.
- Finally, if you make your way up to Cheyenne and Laramie, picturesque old downtowns await. The buildings on these busy streets are practically unchanged from the cities' heyday in the late-19th century. In Cheyenne, you can explore the State Capitol, and then the Historic Governor's Mansion six blocks away. The mansion, built in the Colonial Revival style with huge sandstone columns, has been turned into a museum, but much of the furnishings are original.
Historical Sites in Denver, Colorado Springs, Boulder, Cheyenne Wyoming and the Eastern Rockies
Historical-Sites
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