| a town in central Colorado: gold rush 1891. 655; 9600 ft. (2925 m) above sea level. |
Crip·ple Creek  (krĭp'əl)  A city of central Colorado in the Rocky Mountains southwest of Colorado Springs. After 1891 it was the center of a thriving gold-producing area but declined as deposits were exhausted. Population: 1,070. |
Cripple Creek
city, seat (1899) of Teller county, central Colorado, U.S., overlooked by Mount Pisgah (10,400 feet [3,170 metres]). It lies west of Colorado Springs in a granite pocket 9,600 feet (2,925 metres) above sea level, at the edge of Pike National Forest. In 1891 gold was discovered in nearby Poverty Gulch by Robert Womack, a cowboy (who died poor), and in nearby Victor by Winfield Scott Stratton, a carpenter (who left a fortune of $20,000,000). Three railways reached Cripple Creek (whose name is of obscure origin) between 1893 and 1901.
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