Central City, Colorado (Spring 2013)

Written by ceddammit

A mere three weeks ago, as part of my “Colorado Hodgepodge” post, I showed y’all a few pics taken in and around Central City, Colorado. When those pics were taken, I had arrived fairly late in the day. As a result, daylight was waning (waindwops keep fawwin’ on my head), and I got only a handful of photos before lighting conditions deteriorated. So, a few weeks later, I went back for a Full Visit. What’s so special about Central City? Why does it deserve so much attention? OK! All right! I’ll tell you! For crap’s sake, stop hounding me, already!

Central City once billed itself as “The Richest Square Mile on Earth”, and with good reason. Central City sits at the center (hence the name) of one of the most productive gold mining districts in U.S. history. Of the 500+ gold mining districts in the western U.S., the Central City district ranks number 11 in all-time gold production. It’s also the location of the first gold ore vein to be discovered in what is now Colorado. When John H. Gregory discovered a gold lode here in 1859, the town that subsequently sprung up around it was named Mountain City, Kansas. That’s right. Kansas (and Nebraska) once had mountains. But the real reason I give so much attention to Central City is that it’s unmatched in terms of how well the town has been preserved. In other words, there’s a lot of old crap layin’ around. So, let’s check it out! On this fine day, I parked at what is now known as the Grand Z Casino and walked east along an abandoned road…

This Old House, complete with This Old Well.
The neighborhood across the valley is the east end of town.
This town is impressively vertical…
From street level, go down TWO stories to your walk-out basement.
Some excellent Victorian architecture can be found here.
Massive pile of mine tailings dwarfing a sizeable house
Residential area on north side of Central City, with many historic homes
Building at center was a school; now a museum. I learned stuff there.
Quick glimpse of a distant snow-capped Rocky Mountain

At this point, I reached the end of my abandoned road, and scrambled down a hillside to the valley floor. This put me very close to the border between the City of Black Hawk and the City of Central. These next few pics were taken in the area of said border, which was where that first gold discovery was made, and the original Mountain City quickly burst from the earth.

Industrial and residential, cats and dogs living together!
In the late 1990’s this house was in terrible shape…
…it has been lovingly restored since then.
Industry and residence co-existing
Residential interspersed with industrial
Small old mill

Next, I walked juuuuuuuust far enough up the road to KNOW that I was fully inside Central City. This is the lowest part of town, in terms of elevation (Google Earth says this is at exactly 8200 feet). I hung out in the low end of town for a while, checking out some more of the industrial remnants of the mining era…

I ain’t gonna say shit about this picture.
I guess the bar is closed.
St. Louis Shitters…the finest in closely grouped toilets
Tailings from the mines of Gregory Gulch, the first gold lode found in Colorado
A huge mine further up Gregory Gulch. Remnants at right center are a small portion of the structures at this mine.
Not sure whether this is an enclosed headframe or a small mill (both?)

The low end of town isn’t all industrial, though. It also has several historic houses and commercial buildings…

Musta been a sign hanging there; otherwise, that’s some odd lighting
Love the obviously fake stone and brick
This park is where they move historic buildings threatened by construction.
You’d think the stone buildings would still be standing…
…and the wooden ones would have rotted away.
Well, well, well. Oh, sorry. There’s just one.

OK. Now we have walked up to downtown (elevation: 8450), which I can’t help but refer to as: The city center of Central City. FYI, I have never (yet) had a drone. The aerial-lookin’ shots below were actually taken from the top floor of a parking structure. Yes, I am that old-school.

After mucking about a bit, I continued uphill to the Central City Opera House. Every big mining town had an opera house back in the day. ‘Cause there’s nothing miners enjoy more than opera! This particular opera house still hosts performances; and when there aren’t any performances going on, you can take a guided tour of the place. And that’s just what I did. As is my style, I didn’t take many pictures…just kinda soaked it all in. Here’s a sampling of the few I did take…

After the opry tour, I continued to walk uphill, into the northwest portion of town. Plenty of historic stuff in this area, too…

St. James United Methodist Church
Gilpin County Courthouse
Gilpin County Courthouse
More houses from the Victorian era
Another mine, another tailings pile
That old stone building reminds me of Zeppelin IV. Let’s go in…
My favorite Grand Funk song…Inside Looking Out
Buildings of the Coeur d’ Alene mine, seen through a hole in a wall
Never seen a setup like this before

Next I turned to the south and walked a street (yes, I’m a street walker) just west of downtown, where I captured these images…

Cheery-lookin’ little place, ain’t it?

Und finally, I found myself in the southwest part of town. Not many old houses in this area, but some interesting stuff nonetheless…

This was the end of the line for the Colorado Central Railroad.
This platform was likely a water tower, providing water to steam locomotives.
Another dead stone building! I didn’t go into this one.
Buildings of the Coeur d’ Alene mine, NOT seen through a hole in a wall
Awww…isn’t it cute? ‘Ang about! Is that…? No, it can’t be…
That rabbit is a Terminator! Run for it!

A murderous bunny…now THAT is how you close out a blog post!

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