Visiting Central City

I drove to Central City Friday afternoon to see what it looks like these days. It was established as a gold mining town back in 1859, and by 1860 was home to 10,000 prospectors. The gold deposits petered out pretty quickly, and by 1900 the residents numbered only 3,000. Today the offical population is 779. Happily, the town is still filled with many 19th century commercial buildings and countless Victorian era homes, and is part of the Central City/Blackhawk Historic District. I took the photograph on the left as I was entering the town, which is located in the mountains about 40 miles west of Denver.

The area was struggling economically back in the 1980s, when I moved to Colorado from Chicago, and shortly afterwards voters approved legalized gambling in both Central City and Blackhawk. The main road to Central City passed through neighboring Blackhawk first, which unlike Central City had no height restrictions on new construction, and so Black Hawk became the dominant gambling town, these days resembling a mini-Las Vegas. Central City has remained a sleepy, but attractive and quaint little mountain town. The photograph on the right shows what the downtown area looked like this past Friday afternoon. Not a person on the street as far as I could tell.

When you head up the hill on Eureka Street after leaving the downtown area, quaint 19th century homes line both sides of the road, and if you keep going you reach Central City Cemetery, where I took the photograph on the left of both it and the mountains beyond. For many years I have avoided these two cities because of all the gambling activity. Black Hawk is truly ugly, not to mention tacky, and for many years the only way to get to Central City was through Blackhawk. However, Central City paid for the construction of a four lane highway that leads directly to the town from Interstate 70 in an attempt to lure gamblers there (it didn't work). However, driving that highway last Friday, I was truly impressed with the mountain scenery around the area. It is actually a great place to visit, and only a short drive from Denver. My only advise is to just stay away from those damn casinos.