Re: Georgetown Loop Video on Youtube- 1903

Indeed, Georgetown was quite the boom town, It was big enough to warrant five different fire "hose companies," thus escaping the fires that leveled most Colorado mining towns at one point or another.

Until 1893, nyway. Georgetown was primarily a silver mining town (although some gold was mined too), adn after the 1893 Silver Panic, resulted from the United States going off the silver standard and ceasing to purchase silver to support its price, then Georgetown began to slowly fade way. It wasn't until Georgetown was "discovered" by the Denver social set in the 1950s, who began snapping up the surviving Victorian homes and restoring them to their present splendor, primariuly as summer homes. All the miners shacks you see around the periphery of the town likely either collapsed from a lack of maintenance or were carried away by scavengers.

On the other hand, Cripple Creek, which, as a gold mining district (still is) wasn't bothered by the Silver Panic, was stuck by two devastating fires only two days apart (25 and 29 April 1896), virtually leveling the business district and nearby residences. Most of what you find in today's Cripple Creek business district was erected after the 1896 fires.

Cripple Creek fires, courtesy of the DPL catalog:








Mike