A real gold mining town

This is the town hall of Victor, Colorado, which sits on the western slope of Pikes Peak, about 30-40 minutes west of Colorado Springs. Victor has the look and feel of a ghost town on the surface, with fewer than 500 residents and many crumbling historic buildings. But it is in effect still a gold mining town, as the Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mining Company (run under the ownership of AngloGold Ashanti, a global company) is just outside of town and actively mining for gold.

Victor was once a very bustling little city. At the end of the 19th century, gold was discovered in the region and over 12,000 prospectors descended on Victor and Cripple Creek. At its largest, Victor boasted several thousand residents and was the fifth largest city in Colorado. You can imagine the saloons, brothels, churches, mercantiles and the like, just like a western movie only for real. And it really still does look like that, there hasn't been any gentrification and all of the buildings are from that era (many of them are empty, but they are genuine turn of the century structures). The town actually burned to the ground in August of 1899 and was very quickly rebuilt -- in brick, just like the town hall you see here. Brick is a lot less flammable than wood! There was never a catastrophic fire like this in Colorado Springs, which is why there are very few brick buildings of that vintage in the Springs -- most of our gracious gingerbread Victorians still stand. But that is a subject for another post.

Victor's town hall, as you can see, has been restored and is still in use. Sadly, many other historic buildings in this charming town are in a grave state of disrepair and decay because the city lacks the funds to restore them. But it's a nice town to visit and to photograph. It has the patina and character that come from a lively history. You can learn more about this little gold mining town by clicking on this link: http://www.victorcolorado.com/