Today, Victor remains much the same with its 1890s architectural buildings and head frames dotting the landscape. Beneath Victor's streets, more than two miles of Gold Coin tunnels remain. The entire city, as well as a number of buildings, has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Be sure to take a look at Victor's City Hall, built in 1900. The two-story Classical Revival building has been fully restored and continues to house the city clerk’s offices, the municipal court and the police department as well as a new visitor center and museum. At 230 N. 4th Street, the Midland Terminal Railroad Depot also continues to stand, as well as the Victor Hotel in the Woods old bank building, and Stratton's Independence Mine and Mill just outside of town.

Other mining remnants can also be seen at the Gold Coin Mine at Diamond and 5th streets, the Cresson head frame adjacent to the baseball field, and the Battle Mountain Interpretive site, that includes numerous mining remains, as well as old photographs, and the city’s history.

Of the Cripple Creek Mining District, only Victor , Gillette, Goldfield, and Cripple Creek remain today. The other many towns have long since disappeared.

To reach Victor from Colorado Springs, drive west on U.S. Highway 24, then turn left  (south) onto Colorado Highway 67 at Divide. Drive toward Cripple Creek and turn left off the highway onto Teller County Road 81 (near the former town of Gillette, marked with a tiny airplane hanger).

© Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, updated August, 2011.

Victor , Colorado today, June, 2006, Kathy Weiser.

This image available for photographic prints and downloads HERE!

Contact Information:

Victor City Hall
P.O. Box 86
Victor, Colorado  80860
719-689-2284

Cripple Creek gets the glory, but Victor has the gold.

- Old saying in Victor

Victor's 1900 City Hall continues to house city offices, as well as

a museum, June, 2006, Kathy Weiser.

This image available for photographic prints and downloads HERE!

Winfield Scott Stratton's Independence Mine and Mill still stands

 just  outside of town and is on the National Register of Historic

Places, June, 2006, Kathy Weiser.

This image available for photographic prints and downloads HERE!

The old Masonic Temple and newspaper office continue to stand,

June, 2006, Kathy Weiser.

This image available for photographic prints and downloads HERE!

A stranger from the distant East,
Begrimed with travel stain,
One day got off at Cripple Town
From an early morning train.
A near hotel he quickly sought,
His hunger to allay,
And after breakfast caught the clerk
And talked to him this way:
"For weeks and months I've read about
The Independence Mine.
The wonders of its treasure vaults
The walls with gold that shine
I'm curious now to view it,
And think I'll take a stroll:
Now what direction shall I take
To reach that mineral hole?"
The sad eyed clerk with pitying glance
Repressed a rising tear,
And answered with a faltering voice:
"It's six miles east of here.
Just take the next suburban
That goes to Victor - see?
And you'll find the Independence

in that locality."
The stranger, disappointed,
Was silent quite awhile,
But broke the silence painful
With conundrums of this style:
"Well, what about the Portland, Ajax,
Gold Coin and Strong?
You advertised throughout the
world to Cripple Creek belong?
I'll take a walk and look at them,
While I've nothing else to do."
But the clerk just faintly murmured:
"Those mines are at Victor too."
The stranger paused a moment,
Then gave it to him raw
"Well, where's your Battle Mountain,
And the hill entitled Squaw?"
The clerk turned pale and
gasped for breath,
Keeled over on the floor,
And the subsequent proceedings
Interested him no more.
The stranger grabbed his grip sack
And caught the Victor train.
The chances are he'll not be caught
In Cripple Creek again.

-- Anonymous