Harvesting Historical Riches

To Victor Go the Spoils

Originally published in Colorado History NOW, August 2004

There is an old saying in the town of Victor: “Cripple Creek gets the glory, but Victor has the gold.”

The adage was true, to a certain extent.  Cripple Creek took its name from the district that miners formed after Bob Womack discovered gold in volcanic rock west of Pikes Peak in 1890.  When the district’s ore made instant millionaires out of mine owners, Cripple Creek’s fame, and population, grew exponentially.  And new towns—including Victor, Altman, Lawrence, Goldfield, Gillett, and others—popped up like mushrooms in wet grass.

These new towns tended to form around mines or mills.  Laborers, many of them escaping Colorado’s failing silver industry, moved in by the thousands to work in the fabulously rich Portland, Ajax, Independence, and Strong mines.  In 1893, developers Frank and Harry Woods founded Victor at the foot of Battle Mountain, the so-called “richest hill on earth.” But they couldn’t keep up with the population surge.  Miners paid up to a dollar to spend the night on pool tables in Victor’s saloons.  The brothers tried to capitalize on demand by building a hotel, but they discovered gold while excavating the basement and turned the project into the Gold Coin Mine.

Heritage tourists might expect Victor’s architecture to reflect its historically working-class roots.  Again, they might be right, up to a point.  Most of the town’s gold found its way into the pockets of company shareholders living in Colorado Springs and elsewhere.  But some of the wealth remained.  Masons and carpenters, working the magic of reverse alchemy, turned the gold into stately wood-frame cottages, substantial brick business blocks, and proud civic landmarks.

Victor’s city hall, built in 1900 after a fire destroyed twelve blocks in the town’s commercial district, exemplifies local commitment to preserve those landmarks.  The two-story Classical Revival building housed city offices, the municipal court, the police and fire departments, and a firefighter dormitory. The fireman’s pole from the second floor to the fire bay still exists. Reportedly, boxing great Jack Dempsey trained in the hall’s gymnasium.

In 1993, one year shy of the town’s official centennial anniversary, the State Historical Fund awarded Victor a $75,000 grant to rehabilitate City Hall. That grant was followed by two others totaling $568,750.  When the multiphase project began, only the city clerk’s offices were housed in the deteriorating building.  Now the municipal court and city council use the original courtroom, and the police department has moved back into rehabilitated office space.  A new visitor center and museum occupies the first floor.

Mayor Kathy Justice credits Alliance General Contractors with the careful work completed during the project’s final phase.  And she is looking forward to welcoming tourists to the new visitor center as her home town meets the challenges of the next chapter of its history.

Though mining continues near Victor, the work cannot match the excitement of the late 1800s and early 1900s when streetcars rushed residents to and from work, when gold could be found both in the banks and under them, and when miners clashed with the Colorado National Guard over wages and working hours.  But that era is brought to life every day through preserved—and waiting to be preserved—buildings in the National Historic District, museum exhibits, and new trails that lead to the old mines.  These treasures prove that Victor still has golden treasures, and is getting some well-deserved glory, too.

BY BEN FOGELBERG, Editor

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