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Aged split-rail fences, desperately in need of repair, sloped their way gently down the mountainside. At its base was Cripple Creek, a trickling stream with a propensity for maiming man and beast. This was the Broken Box Ranch, nestled in the high country west of Pikes Peak. Bob Womack, its lone caretaker, was a part-time cowpuncher, who mixed riding fences with his favorite pasttime, prospecting for gold. Bob Womack was a good-natured soul, who contented himself by digging all of the holes that gave Poverty Gulch the appearance of a prairie-dog colony. Not a very flattering description of what would become "the world's greatest gold camp." The town of Cripple Creek had humble beginnings, but fate would see it rise out of the ashes, literally, to become the quintessential mining hub of Colorado. In only 10 short years, Cripple Creek would grow from struggling ranch to a city that would vie for the capitol of the state. There was gold underneath the rock pastoral landscape, more gold than anyone ever dreamed.
It is fitting that a gold-mining town as unrivaled as Cripple Creek should have a railroad just as unique. While it took a full three years after gold was discovered for the first railroad to arrive, the narrow-guage Florence & Cripple Creek, spelled the dawn of an era that still captivated the hearts of Western historians. Narrow-guage locomotives, dwarfed in size by the engines of its competitors, pulled toy-like trains up 4.0-percent grades. By the hundreds, the F&CC brought in the hopeful and left with tons of ore, destined for the reduction mills of the Arkansas Valley. The arrival of the F&CC made it possible to move peopel and ore quickly and cost-effectively, thus ending a reliance on ore wagons. The success of mines depended on their ability to extract the precious gold from ore of all grades.
Hardcover; Author: Allan C. Lewis |
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