Cripple Creek, city, seat of Teller County, central Colorado; incorporated 1892. It is a summer resort and tourist center, situated at an elevation of about 2900 m (about 9500 ft). Local attractions include abandoned gold mines and the Old Homestead (1896). The community was settled in 1891 with the discovery of gold in the vicinity, and by 1901 was a major gold-mining center with a population of some 50,000. Violent labor disputes occurred here in 1903-4. Mining activity and the city's population declined drastically after 1920. The city is named for a local creek with banks so steep that cows sometimes broke their legs trying to get water. Population 655 (1980); 584 (1990); 1,115 (2000).
