Built in 1878, the Central City Opera House is the oldest opera house in Colorado. Though it declined along with Central City’s economy in the 1880s, it puttered along as a theater and movie house until owner Peter McFarlane finally closed its doors in…

Central City and Black Hawk took shape during the boom years after John Gregory discovered gold on May 6, 1859, near the North Fork of Clear Creek in what is now Gilpin County. For much of the 1860s and 1870s, the area was the richest mining region in…

The discovery of gold near present-day Denver in 1858–59 drew thousands of people to present-day Colorado, prompting the political organization of first a US territory and later a state. Many current cities and towns, including Denver, Boulder,&nbsp…

Construction on the Denver, Northwestern & Pacific Railway Hill Route, also known as the Moffat Road, began in 1904 and was completed in the late 1920s. The route connected the Front Range to Middle Park via Rollins Pass. Built in part…

Emily Elizabeth “Emmy” Wilson (1902–63) was a well-known Colorado business owner, entrepreneur, and socialite who ran the Glory Hole Tavern, a popular establishment in Central City. Wilson and her tavern played an integral role in reviving the ex-mining…

Gilpin County, located in the high country east of the Continental Divide some thirty-seven miles west of Denver, was established in 1861 as one of the original seventeen counties of the Colorado Territory. The county encompasses about 150 square miles…

Located along South Boulder Creek about ten miles due west of Eldorado Springs and an hour’s drive from downtown Denver, Lincoln Hills was established in the 1920s as one of a small handful of black resorts in the United States and the only one west of…

Located near Pinecliffe, about ten miles due west of Eldorado Springs and an hour from Denver by car, Winks Lodge was the main hotel and social hub at Lincoln Hills, a historic black resort community in Gilpin County. Opened in 1928 by Denver businessman…