While those minerals were still hidden under the soil, Tabeguache Utes long used the region’s rolling hills and mountains as a summer hunting ground. Ironically, it was not until the last gold rush in Colorado, in the early 1890s, that prospectors flocked to the Pikes Peak region, where a volcanic eruption about 35 million years ago heaved minerals to the surface. The Colorado Gold Rush of 1858–59 was often called the “Pikes Peak Gold Rush,” but all the major mining activity at that time was many miles away from the peak. In 1990 Colorado voters approved an amendment that allowed Cripple Creek to build casinos, which have generated millions of dollars for the local economy and historic preservation across the state but have also transformed the town they were supposed to help preserve. After World War II, the town turned to tourism as its primary economic engine, but since the 1970s the giant Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mine has also provided steady production and employment. After it was destroyed by fire in 1896, the town and surrounding mining district reached peak production and population in the early twentieth century before experiencing a long decline. Cripple Creek was the site of the last and greatest mining boom in Colorado, attracting tens of thousands of people to the western flank of Pikes Peak in the 1890s.

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