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Central
City's appearance today is very similar to how it looked over 100
years ago. After the fire of 1874, the business district was
constructed to last – with only buildings of brick and stone being
built. There would be no more wooden buildings with their ever-present
potential for destruction by fire.
On Eureka Street,
from the Court House to Main Street, only one building that existed in
1874 is not there today. That was the white wood Presbyterian Church
which stood between the Teller House and the Opera House. Even Henry
Teller's Law Office, built about 1860, still survives.
On Lawrence Street,
from Main street East to Raynolds' Court, most of the existing
buildings were erected in the 1870s. On Main Street, only the
buildings on the South side of the Gold Coin were built after 1900.
The Roworth Block even survived the fire of 1874, and dates to the
1860s.
Outside of
Central
City lie four cemeteries with hundreds of ornate stone markers and
intricate grillwork, with headstones dating back to the 1860’s.
Just outside of town,
remnants from the mining days are abundant. One mine is on a
hill just above the
Central
City Cemetery. According to geologists and experienced
miners, there are over 17,000 mining claims in the southern end of
Gilpin County. For safety reasons, most of the mines have been
‘capped" with concrete slabs or have been filled in.
Many people seem to
think that gold mines run horizontally into the side of a hill and
that it is safe to enter them. However, this is not true. Gold and
other precious metals were forced up through weak spots in the earth’s
crust. In order to follow the "vein", shafts were often dug straight
down for hundreds of feet. The deepest shaft mine in the area is
reported to be over 2,000 feet.
Central
City is on Highway 160 35 miles west of Denver.
Central
City is also said to be haunted by several restless spirits. Click
HERE to read about the
hauntings.
©
Kathy Weiser/Legends
of America, updated February, 2010
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