Gold Camp Road, Cripple Creek Mining District, Teller County, Colorado, USAi

Regional Level Types
Gold Camp Road	Mining Area (Active)
Cripple Creek Mining District	Mining District
Teller County	County
Colorado	State
USA	Country

The first discovery of gold in the land that is now Colorado occurred in 1858. It was found in a small placer that yielded about 20 ounces. That was enough to start a rush that led to the establishment of the Colorado Territory in 1861. By 1869 railroad tracks were being laid to service the booming mining industry. Colorado became a state on August 1, 1876.

In 1890 Bob Womack was prospecting in the area of Cripple Creek. The location was west of the Pikes Peak Batholith and he was digging in Intra-ash flow quartz latitic lava, a fine grained intrusive rock composed mostly of alkali feldspar and plagioclase with some quartz. Included in in the volcanic rock were pipes of dark Lamprophyre breccia. He was finding a brittle brass yellow to silver colored material in the breccia. His samples were assayed in Colorado Springs and found to be gold tellurides. The gold rush moved to Cripple Creek!

As the mining camp at Cripple Creek expanded tunnels were cut, trestles were built and tracks were laid connecting Cripple Creek to Colorado Springs. In 1901 the Cripple Creek and Colorado Springs District Railway known as the “Short Line” began service with 200 freight cars used to haul mining supplies and ore.

In 1926 the tracks were removed and cars could traverse the road by paying a toll. It became a public road in 1939 and was finally named “Gold Camp Road” in 1940. Thousands of people have driven across the road as an adventure. In 1988 Tunnel No 3 collapsed closing a segment of the road. Much of the road can still be driven by car but only hikers and mountain bikers can make a complete passage.

The location symbol for the Gold Camp Road is at Cathedral Park east of Cripple Creek.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References