Money Mountain: The Story of Cripple Creek Gold

by Marshall Sprague

Cripple Creek was the last of the open gold camps before mining fell to giant corporations. Its life was short and violent, but towns, cities, schools, railroads, institutions and financial dynasties grew upon its yield. Today a million tourists each year pour through the region, enjoying what Teddy Roosevelt called “the ride that bankrupts the English language” through Cripple’s upper reaches, and imagining the gaudy, brawling days when the quiet, patched and peeling facades of the town were new.

Those are the days that Marshall Sprague, New York Times correspondent, calls back to life in this fascinating book.

He says of his “When I moved to Colorado Springs, and began hearing about Cripple, I wanted some information. None existed in one place, so I dug up the story. I spent a year at it. I combed the libraries, news files, directories, court records and cemeteries. Most important, I interviewed dozens of Cripple Creek pioneers. I hope this adds freshness to a story which should have been written a long time ago.”

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Historical

344 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 15, 2010

Reviews

[Chrome Dynamo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun read. The town is still pretty small and mining is done by strip mining

Bigger than life characters and more violence that I knew had happened. Just good history. The writing takes you back to those times. Still a lot of those times remain in the area.

[Jonathan Beigle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really cool book about the history of Cripple Creek. I work for the company that now owns the mines and it was really interesting to learn about how it all began.

[Mckinley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This does read like an exciting novel verse a dry history of gold mining.

[Danny Schlegel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative and laced with humor.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The crazy days of the Colorado gold rush and the diggings on the west side of Pikes Peak.