Museum Receives Skull; Cabins Ready for Viewing‏

REPOSTED WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE CCV DISTRICT MUSEUM


*** For immediate release
March 14, 2010
Contact: Jan Collins
719-689-2634
CCDMuseum@aol.com

Museum Receives Skull; Cabins Ready for Viewing

On Christmas night of 1901, miner James Roberts stopped off for a drink at the Dawson Club on bawdy Myers Avenue in Cripple Creek. A few hours later, after his friends departed, Roberts exchanged some heated words with bar owner William Brooks. As Roberts turned to leave, Brooks came up behind him and gave the hapless man a good whack on the side of his head with a Colt .45 revolver. Roberts fell, hitting his head once on the heating stove and again when he hit the floor.

For the next hour, Brooks and his friends jeered at the injured Roberts. The man was urged to the bar for a drink as he lay dying, then was dragged to the back of the bar room as patrons continued drinking. Eventually someone thought to call a doctor, but it was too late. Roberts was dead by the time authorities arrived. Brooks and several witnesses were arrested.

Enter J. Maurice Finn, the illustrious lawyer who defended such notable characters as outlaw Bob Curry of the notorious Wild Bunch and worked for some of Cripple Creek’s millionaires. Finn decided the best defense was to prove Roberts had an abnormally thin skull and thus his client did not intend to kill Roberts by hitting him with a gun butt. Under dark of night, Finn convinced the coroner to saw the top of Roberts’ skull off so he could use it in his defense. The ploy worked. Brooks was acquitted, nearly mobbed by those who liked Roberts, and got out of town on the next train.

For over a century, the partial skull of James Roberts has sat in the Teller County Courthouse. It received brief notoriety in the 1970’s but was virtually forgotten until court reporter Lisa Sadler-Wheatcraft rediscovered it early this year. Research revealed Roberts was buried in Cripple Creek’s Mt. Pisgah Cemetery, but the location of his grave is unknown. Sadler-Wheatcraft worked with former attorney P.J. Anderson to relinquish ownership of the skull to the Cripple Creek District Museum for safe keeping. Roberts’ skull is now on display, with the Museum planning to bury it with its owner—if Roberts’ grave is ever found.

In other Museum news, the two cabins acquired last September are at last furnished and ready for viewing by the public. Donated by the City of Cripple Creek, the cabins were initially saved from demolition by City Engineer Jeff Miller. One is the former home of prostitute French Blanche LeCoq from the District town of Midway; the other is a typical miner’s log cabin from West Masonic Avenue in Cripple Creek. Each structure has been decorated to look as it would have when occupied, and a special ceremony on May 1 will include dedication of a plaque for Mr. Miller. The Museum would like to thank Mayor and First Lady Dan and Janida Baader, City Councilmen Gary Ledford, Milford Ashworth and Steve Zoellner, Karen Zoellner, Yvetta Ashworth, Carrie Miller, Jesse Bielz and his crew, Christina Whitmore of the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, city employee Steve DiCamillo and his crew, Jeff and Missie Trenary, District Supply, The Lock Shop of Woodland Park, and everyone else involved in making this project happen.

Jan Collins
Director
Cripple Creek District Museum
P.O. Box1210 ~ 500 East Bennett Avenue
Cripple Creek, Colorado 80813
www.cripple-creek.org
719-689-2634 ~ 719-689-9540

Research Requests: Research is conducted by our limited staff and volunteers. The Museum respectfully requests a minimum $10 donation when requesting research. PayPal is available on the Museum website, or checks can be sent to the above address. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

The Cripple Creek District Museum is a private, not-for-profit foundation. Donations to the foundation are tax-deductible. Ask about our Friends of the Museum membership!

Sunday Aug 3 2008

DOME ROCK~ Yet another of my favorite rides. Takes me about 2.5-3 hours to ride this loop of about 10 miles. 2.5 if Luke is in any kind of shape, 3 hrs to take it easy-ish and take lots of photos, which I did yesterday. It was gorgeous out, hot, clear, sunny. A perfect day for this ride. Most folks are sitting in their air-conditioning, I take off and go find a cool spot to ride. This one offers a nice long climb to the top of the world where you can see 360degree peaks surrounding meadow covered hillsides and pine and aspen covered mountains.




DOME ROCK! There it is, stately and proud against the blue Colorado sky. The ride to this spot is great! Heres a shot of some purple asters clustered against the hillside. I took this from the saddle on Luke.



This is a really fun trail for some minor technical spots, rock hopping, knee banging even some toe twisting. I ride it backwards and forwards quite a bit so can cruise along in high gear once Luke gets rid of his hay belly. Its probably not going to happen this year! ha ha ha!

I warn ya now that you might only see horse ears. I take a lot of shots of Lukes ears! Look closely in the shot below; the aspen tree has an Arrow that SOMEBODY carved into it many moons ago, perhaps as a trail marker cause this used ta be a mountain goat path back in the day.....leads to some beautiful single track, aspen groves, springs, cool grassy meadows. Used to be an old line or miners cabin along this route, but that has since fallen and been taken by Ma Nature.

Well, gotta run. I have lots more photos of this ride and will try to get back to edit before the week is out. Check back often, or email me with questions at carrie@goldcountryco.com
I sell Real Estate and am always happy to help someone out.
Happy Trails!

Trail Aug 2 2008

Saturday morning broke clean and clear, as I watched the sun rise over Pikes Peak I'm thinking to myself "Good day for a ride". Heres a shot of the poor victim awaiting his fate, the little red one on the right. His name is Luke. His pasture partner/boss is Major, who is the boss of all he surveys and lets everyone know it. Big bossy boy.

So I loaded ol' Luke up and headed out to one of my closest and most favorite places to ride, Deer Haven. Its a little chunk of BLM just off the High Park Road which is also County Road 11 in Fremont County, Colorado. From here I can ride to some really high overlooks, through varied and spectacular terrain, oak bush, Ponderosa Pines, Aspens, grassy meadows, granite and quartz outcroppings.
I always manage to see something really cool here. Last time I flushed a black bear. We were both surprised! Ol'Luke, boy he sure scooted along the trail after seeing that little blacky. I also caught a coyote marking territory before he scented me. Today I got a shot of this hawk hanging in this tall dead tree overlooking his world. This was in a meadow full of oak brush and lots of rabbits and little birds.

This ride took 3 hours on Saturday. I also ran into some old friends who came up from Canon City. They were poking along on some Quarter Horses. I hadn't seen this gal for 2 years and here she was riding along on a nice bay horse with a group of friends. So I should warn you that there is hardly any photos of me cuz I am always taking the pics and besides, am pretty hard on a camera. But I like to take good pics of the trail, its always nice to see what the trails look like if you are a rider.

Anyway, thats what I did on Saturday.

If you are interested in more trails or anything else about the area you can contact me at

carrie@goldcountryco.com or through my office in Cripple Creek. All the numbers are on my website. Thanks for reading! I would love to hear comments!

My Cripple Creek World

GOLD COUNTRY REALTY

333 E BENNETT AVE

CRIPPLE CREEK, COLORADO
My New Digs on the Main Drag in Cripple Creek! This photo below is obviously before i got the sign placed on the window!

Here in Cripple Creek this summer you just never know what is gonna come down the road! I sit here in my office at Gold Country Realty and watch the world drive by, and sometimes I am lucky enough to get pictures. Today, Saturday, July 26 happens to be the National Day of the Cowboy. In honor of this day, the local Saddle Club out of Woodland Park, Co had a commemorative Trail Ride from Cripple Creek to Victor, Colorado, through some of Colorado's most spectacular mine country. Take a look browse the photos and enjoy!

These are some friends that I horseback ride with.

Thats it for now, I am waiting for the Trail Riders to come off the hill at about 10,000 ft elevation and its lightening and raining out, and the train whistle is a blowin and echoin through the mountains and valleys! Its another beautiful day in the High Country!

Happy Trails, Carrie

If you want to come and Play in the Creek give me a call; I will be happy to guide you around the District!

719-689-3434 office

719-641-7074 cell

carrie@goldcountryco.com

http://www.goldcountryco.com/ website with awesome property for sale!

Summers in the Creek

So, summers here are spectacular and to add to the fun we sit around all winter long and think of things that we would like to do in the Summer! Take Summerfest, for instance; a 3 weekend long blitz of activities starting off with the Chile Cookoff over June 20-22. We had 30 cooks come in and demonstrate their ability to cook some ass kicking chile, while we demonstrated our ability to cook up some ass kickin' margaritas!

After that weekend and we had all recouperated from the hot fired chile and margaritas and salsa, we have Donkey Derby Days. This is a great 3 day event full of fun for us up here in the high country.

We kicked off the event with a Steak Fry cookout complete with Dancing Girls and Can Can acts, Mae West showed up as well as Annie Oakley and some really nefarious charactere, Wild Bill, Buffalo Bill to name a few. Saturday's fun starts with a great parade with marching bands, and every kind of vehicle we can muster to show up here including the pooper truck which is also known as our local septic pumper. Donkey races commence through town where we make tourists perform all kinds of tricks while dragging or being drug by a burro to the finish line and the 200.00 prize! Smack through town, too!

4th of July was a lallapalooza! 40,000 folks paraded through town and got entertained at the stage, showed off their hair legs and white legs and enjoyed home made ice cream. We had 2 eves of fireworks! I went home and slept! I was tired!

Our next events are Veterans Appreciation days, we have a parade then also, its in August over the 18, 19 & 20th, so be sure to come up and salute our awesome Veterans. Check the Cripple Creek website for better information, my dates may be off. We have a General coming to speak as well as other military dignitaries and we really appreciate what you Vets do for us and our country! (http://www.cripple-creek.co.us/)

Well, till next time, I am trying to keep the batteries in my camera in good shape, but over the Big 3 Summerfest weekend I did not have time to take many photos!

For More Info on Cripple Creek, the "District", advice, opinions or anything else for free:

Carrie@goldcountryco.com

www.goldcountryco.com

719-689-3434 office

719-641-7074 cell

A Tour of My Country

Here are several photos of my town, Cripple Creek. The mountain peak in the top left is Mt Pisgah, very distinctive and prominent. Our cell phones and internet distribution towers are on top of this peak, so a lot of us are dependent on line of sight with Mt Pisgah! The Jail Museum opened up this late fall, it has been restored and there are actual cells within its walls....we used to have Boy Scouts Haunted Houses in there back in the early 1990's, it was certainly a creepy cold box then but is definitley an interesting and worthwhile tour! There is a gift shop inside also!

Here are a couple of photos of the towns most distinguished residents, the Donkeys! They are notarious and world renown! These little guys (or, their ancestors) are symbols of stability and dependability in Cripple Creek...they helped develop the District and packed many a miner and his tools up to and into the mines which made Cripple Creek the Worlds Greatest Gold Camp! Every year we celebrate their brayiness with Donkey Derby Days the last full weekend in June. We have a great parade, kids activities and street vendors and Donkey Races and lots of other foolishness that goes with a towns summer festival! This year promises to be awesome with a new line up and a healthy injection of funds into supporting the event, starting off with a Chile Cookoff June 20 2008 then the Donkey Derby Days starting June 27 2008 then ending with a BIG finale of Fireworks on the 4th of July. We have awesome fireworks and great visibility!


I run into these guys to the right very often on my drive into town. This herd has been around for years and lives in a protected area known as Dome Rock State Wildlife Park. It is just over the hill from Teller County Road #1 that I use to get to town. They come down to the road as it is warm and lick the salts and nibble on the exposed grasses. They are very cool! Rocky Mountain Sheep!

To the left is a photo of the Train Depot. That train runs a short 45 minute guided tour up the mountain on narrow gauge and open cars, with a coal fired locomotive every spring and summer. We all know it is spring when the smell of coal drifts through the air and we hear the whistle blow! The middle photo is of our County Courthouse, built in the late 1890's and housing our valuable records, it is great to walk inside and check out. The building had some renovations last year to the interior. The courtrooms are authentic, the Assessors, Clerks, and Treasurers office are all authentic with some minor modifications for the computer age! This is right across the street from my office! Upper Right Hand corner is the District Museum. This building houses many archival pieces of interest for you History Buffs, all original to the District. Well worth the visit and the minor donation it takes to tour the place, you will see many photos, pieces of equipment, clothing and more original Cripple Creek pieces!


Finally I will end this short tour with a photo overlooking Cripple Creek, taken at sunset this month. The distant mountain range is the Sangre De Cristos, one of the many you can view as you drop into town off of Tenderfoot Hill. Thats the town below. Quaint and quiet? Ha ha ha NOT! Come and see for yourself!

A Cripple Creek Trail Ride!

Early Spring around here brings out the intense desire to saddle up the old pony and head for the hills....here are a few photos of one of my favorite rides. Its quiet, remote and challenging. But it is also a great place to ride in the Early days of Spring! Most of the photos are of my horse's ears as we stop along the trail, but occasionally I do have a group of girls that go with me. I am on the sorrel horse on the left, in the pink shirt at the BLM trailhead, and those are my good friends Sherry & Sharon.

I love this dead tree that I come across on one particular route. It is so magnificent and

photogenic! It just stands up against the skyline and is a particularily useful

landmark as I wander through the brush. I often take along my spare horse, and here is a photo of Willow as we stop for a break along the trail. I like to keep 2 horses shaped up through the summer. Luke is my main ride, he is the sorrel horse I am riding. Hope you enjoy these photos!