Listing Through Life

Not much of a story here. I decided to spend the day seeing what there is to see in Cripple Creek. That included a ride on the narrow gauge railroad. I sat in the first of two cars, right behind the engine. Next to me was a family with four kids (more on them later).

My train was pulled by Engine 1.

The track curved up around Cripple Creek, headed into a patch of trees, and ended maybe two miles from the station. The two engineers took turns giving us the history of Cripple Creek and the many gold mines in the area. If the train was stopped, I could understand what they were saying perfectly. If the train was in motion, I couldn’t pick out a single understandable word.

The engineers turned the train around on a side track and back we went the way we’d come. I had held my phone out at one point to take some video. Perhaps five minutes later, the 6ish-year-old boy next to me tapped my shoulder and said, “Mister, you’re not supposed to put your hands or head out of the train.” A few minutes later, he tapped me again to show me a small plastic bag with two pieces of coal “just like the ones they use on the train.” After that he just kicked me a couple times. He didn’t even say goodbye.

Near the station, we pulled off onto a siding so the other train in operation this day could go past. The ride wasn’t an unpleasant experience, and if you happen to be in Cripple Creek, there are worse ways you could spend your time and money. But I wouldn’t recommend a special trip.

Mollie Kathleen Gortner lived in Colorado Springs with her husband. Their son Perry surveyed gold mining claims in Cripple Creek. When Mollie visited in the fall of 1891, Perry told her where she could see a large herd of elk at the head of Poverty Gulch. Mollie hiked up the hill and sat on a rock. She noticed gold ore in a nearby rock formation and sneaked down to town to make a claim.

Poverty Gulch (below) where gold was first discovered in the Cripple Creek region. Active surface mining is still going on at the top of the hill. We were told that much more gold still lies underground, so when surface mining is no longer worth the effort, mining companies will go back down.

Mollie’s mine was in operation until 1961 when the local ore mill closed. Almost from the very beginning, the mine offered tours. The current operators have blasted some new tunnels to create a looped path on the level 1,000 feet below the surface. They’ve also added air compressors so the guides can demonstrate equipment.

The Mollie Kathleen Mine from across the road.

We descended into the mine in two skips (think “elevator cages”) Each skip is about the size of a phone booth with a sliding door. I was squeezed into a skip with four other people. I was by far the skinniest. One woman weighed at least 400 pounds, and I can truly say I’ve been closer to her than I have to all but about eight people in the whole world. Because we were in the top skip, we first rode up about 10 feet so the lower skip could load with four adults, a young girl, and the guide. The trip to the bottom level lasted about four minutes. The bottom skip unloaded first, so our sardine experience lasted three or four minutes longer than their ride. I didn’t enjoy the extra time.

Our guide was a miner back in the 1970s. He knew his stuff and made it interesting. He also included several jokes, but he had to tell us he was being funny almost every time because none of them were.

The rest of the people on the tour got more of a kick out of me. We each had hardhats on. I put mine on over my hat, which probably isn’t the intended way to wear it, but otherwise it was very uncomfortable. Not long into the tour, I looked up at the ceiling and my hat fell off and made a resounding crash. The guide said, “Don’t lose your head.” About 10 minutes later, the guide told us to look up a shaft. I did, and my hat fell off again. This time the guide just looked at me with a disgusted look. Someone else said, “You need to tighten that.” I did, but it didn’t help. It slipped off again, but this time I trapped it against the wall and kept it off the floor. The guide thought it was funny by now and chuckled. The fourth (and last) time it fell off, I managed to catch it in midair. This time I was congratulated!

The tour took us through the history of mining, beginning with the days when miners broke rock with spikes and hammers. We saw several types of pneumatic drills in operation, learned about explosives, and took a short ride in tram pushed by a compressed air locomotive. We also saw how the ore was collected and taken out of the mine. And then it was time to pack back into the skips for the uncomfortable ride back up to the surface.

Update: In October, 2024, there was an accident on one of the skips that injured four and killed the elevator operator. Another 12 people were stranded in the mine for several hours until it could be determined that they could be brought up safely. The tours were shut down for several months until an investigation concluded that the issue was “operator error” and not faulty equipment or bad practices.

If you were dropped into the middle of the El Paso County Fair without context, you would not guess that the county was home to a city of 600,000. The fair screams rural in every way. There were eight or nine rides, three games of chance, perhaps twelve food booths, and about 25 vendors. There was a mechanical bull riding attraction, a one-trailer reptile show, a camel ride, and a cheesy magician. A large barn was a quarter filled with 4H competition entries. A small barn displayed three rows of poultry, another had three rows of rabbits. There were two goat barns, perhaps 30 sheep, 15 llamas and alpaca, and maybe 18 cows. And, of course, a demolition derby. I paid $15 for a ticket that gave me entry to the fair and the grandstands.

I chose derby day. I got there at 3:00 when it was sunny and hot, but a storm rolled in slowly and cooled things off without ever delivering enough rain to interrupt anything. I wandered, saw what there was to see, and dined on a corn dog and weak lemonade. I spent perhaps 20 minutes in the auction barn watching people pay surprisingly large amounts for rabbits, turkeys, and goats. Still, two hours was more than sufficient.

The demolition derby began at 6:00. I found a seat in the half-filled grandstands shortly before 5:00. My daughter and son-in-law decided last minute to join me, so I saved them seats. They arrived around 5:30 to discover that the derby was sold out. I encourage them to try to talk their way in. Instead, they happened upon a guy who had decided not to go after all. He sold them his bracelets for $2 more than he’d paid.

The derby, I’m afraid, wasn’t worth the money or the wait. The cars drove around in a football-field-size area and ran into each other until only one was running. There were four rounds. Only three drivers competed in the first round and no more than five competed in any of them. There was a great deal more maneuvering for position than there was crashing. Compared to the derbies I’ve seen at the Walworth County Fair in Wisconsin or especially those I saw years ago at Santa Fe Speedway near Chicago, it was all very tame. But the others had never seen one and had fun, so all was good.

The storm had turned the day prematurely dark. As I drove west toward home, the sun peaked through a crack in the clouds and cast a bright rainbow. It also gave the illusion of driving from night into daytime, which was a bit surreal.

I’m glad I made it to the fair, dinky as it was. It had life — much more than the Colorado State Fair we visited two years ago.  And it was fun to get a taste of the other side of El Paso County.

This was a day when you could fry an egg on any surface. It was close to 100° in Denver and not much better anywhere east of the mountains. I decided to check off some things on my list that wouldn’t provide a whole day’s worth of entertainment by themselves.

I started at Red Rocks Park where the Barn Owls are nesting again this year. Before going to the cliff where the owls lives, I headed to the cliff where the Peregrine Falcon lives. It took me about four seconds to find it perched high overhead.

At the owl cliff, an American Kestrel was harassing a Prairie Falcon, making this (I believe) my first three-falcon day. The owls were in their hole. I could see the face of one of the adults back in the shadows.

The Barn Owl stood up briefly, and another birder allowed me to look through her scope to see it. I also let a young couple look through my binoculars after they asked me what we were looking at. Their brother-in-law is studying to be an ornithologist, and they were happy to see something cool they could tell him about.

I drove to Superior and arrived at Wayne’s Smoke Shack just after it opened. It was voted by somebody or other to be the best BBQ in Colorado, and I had high hopes. There were a lot of people there, and the place LOOKED like the food ought to be good, but I was disappointed. The brisket had no smokey taste — I didn’t even finish it all. The sauce was bland. The peach cobbler was dull. I won’t be back.

I headed further north again, this time to Longmont, to visit the Dougherty Museum. It’s a smallish, privately-owned museum housing a collection of antique cars, farm equipment, and player pianos gathered by a local turkey farmer named Ray Dougherty. Most of the pieces were found locally. A handful of people were walking about for the first half of my stay, but then I had the museum to myself except for the four or five older folks who sat in the lobby to greet people and take their money. The guide book says, “In 1998 the Boulder County Commissioners offered to include the museum among the sites to which tax-workoff participants could be assigned to serve as desk personnel and tour guides.” Which I think is a funny thing to print in a booklet that the “participants” themselves were handing out.

I took photos of most of the cars and so forth, but I’ll try to limit the number I post.

1902 Mobile Steamer — Perhaps the first car ever seen in Boulder County. It was owned by a bank president. The driver would sit in the backseat and steer with that lever. A mirror allowed the driver to see the water level in the boiler.

1915 Stanley Steamer 12-Passenger Mountain Wagon — This car was owned by a geology professor at the University of Wyoming and used to take his students on field trips. The professor tried to take it to California, but the car broke down in Laramie and  was left at a gas station. The prof never returned for his car.

1930 Chevrolet 1½ Ton Truck

1928 American La France Pumper — Purchased in 1928 by the city of Longmont for $12,000 and used until 1955. It “went” to 1,697 fires.

I was mostly impressed by the size of these two tractors, which is why I put myself in the photo. The guide book gives very little information. The one next to me is a 1918 Aultman and Taylor Steam Traction and the one behind it is a 1916 Aultman and Taylor.

1913 Case 12-25 hp — My chief thought when looking at the old farm equipment is that there were a lot of ways to get seriously mangled in the old days.

Case 32-51 Grain Threshing Machine or Separator

1915 Threshing Cook Car — Used by a local farmer to prepare food for his threshing crews. Usually threshing took about a month each year. There’s a wood stove, cabinets for cookware, and bins for apples, potatoes, and ice. The average crew had 20 members.

Mitchell Heavy Duty Farm Wagon with Grain Box — Used to haul grain from the field to the threshing machine.

1867 Concord Overland Coach — Six-horse coach built in New Hampshire and purchased by Wells Fargo. This particular coach ran between Denver and Central City and later between Breckenridge and Fairplay. It was last used in 1910, after which it sat outside at an amusement park for years. It’s been heavily restored.

1908 Rural Mail Carrier One Horse Cart — Used on a mail route northeast of Longmont. There’s a leather seat inside for the mailman. The windows can be rolled or slid open.

From Longmont, I drove into Denver to Mile High Comics, which bills itself as the largest comic book store in the world. About two-thirds of it is storage accessible only by employees. I wandered for about an hour in the mood to buy, but I guess my comic book days are officially over because I saw nothing I wanted for a price I was willing to pay. There were books, clothing, figurines … The inventory wasn’t very well cared for, and many of the shelves were filled with a random mess. I did get a selfie with Sully, so the visit wasn’t a complete loss.

I stopped a couple miles away at Enstrom Candies, known for their toffee — which was indeed very tasty.