When she died several years later, her funeral was the biggest that Cripple Creek had ever seen.īy 1894 two railroads were racing to the city – the Midland Terminal from Divide and the Cripple Creek railroad from Canon City.

Humorously called the “Old Homestead ” Pearl’s going rate was $250 a night, at a time when $3 a day was considered a good wage for a miner. Pearl de Vere, the most famous madam of Cripple Creek arrived in the Boom Camp in 1893. Soon, she would build the most opulent Gentlemen’s Parlor in the American West. Businesses on the “Row” never closed, operating twenty-four hours a day providing entertainment to the many free-spending miners. The phrase “There’ll be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight” was coined on this street filled with parlor houses, “cribs,” dance halls and false-front saloons. Myers Avenue was known as one of the liveliest streets in the Old West. However, to keep the peace between the business establishment and the “ladies,” Marshal Wilson moved the “girls” and their establishments one block south to Myers Avenue, which soon became known as the Red Light District. At first, the houses of “ill-repute” were located near the many saloons along Bennett Avenue, the main street of the settlement. Like most booming gold camps, Cripple Creek wasted no time establishing dozens of businesses, including a number of saloons and brothels. The Homestead Museum in Cripple Creek, Colorado was once a popular brothel by Kathy Alexander. By the time the town was officially incorporated in 1892, there were already over 5,000 Gold Camp residents. Soon, they settled with the name of the creek. At first, the two men wanted to call the new town Fremont, but the post office officials rejected the name as there was already one by that name in Colorado. The camp took its name from the creek. The land where the many claims were being staked was owned by Denver real estate men Horance Bennett and Julius Myers and they soon platted 80 acres for a townsite, selling lots to the many miners and their families flooding the area. Tents and cabins began to spring up and a mining district was organized in the fall of 1891. The creek, which flowed through the camp, had already been named by area cowboys because so many cattle were lamed while crossing the rocky stream. Word then spread and men began to stake claims all over a six square mile area surrounding what would soon be the Cripple Creek Gold Camp.

In a drunken stupor, the foolish man sold his mine for $500 cash. By the summer of 1891, Womack struck a very rich vein and hurried to Colorado Springs to celebrate. In December 1890, a man named Bob Womack really did discover gold, but miners were slow to respond, remembering the hoax of six years prior.

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