The last of Colorado’s great silver strikes, the town of Creede boomed after its namesake, Nicholas Creede, discovered silver along Willow Creek in 1889. An estimated 10,000 people poured into the narrow valley before the Panic of 1893 sent the town into…

The Rio Grande Hotel was built in the spring of 1892, when Creede faced a severe housing shortage as thousands of prospectors arrived into town on the recently completed railroad. The hotel withstood the town’s major 1892 fire and is a rare example of an…