Historic Districts
Eldora
Eldora's beginnings go back to 1850 and, of course, the discovery of
gold. In 1875 the Fourth of July mine was opened eight miles to the
west, and 14 years later 1,200 people thrived in the community. There
were two other mining camps close by: Hessie, two miles west of Eldora,
and Sulfide Flats, a mile below Eldora. The Hessie townsite remains
today. Eldora also was on the "Switzerland Trail" railroad
line, and for 16 years, starting in 1904, the 'little engine that could'
(now in Boulder's Central Park) brought tourists to the community.
Eldora was originally named Happy Valley after the Happy Valley placer
mine that opened in the 1890s. Later, it became known as Eldorado Camp,
but this caused confusion with a camp of the same name in California,
so the US Post Office changed the original name, Eldorado, to Eldora.
Ward
Today, Ward remains much as it was during its heyday when it was one
of the richest gold mining towns in the country. Many of the old buildings
are still intact, though it suffered a series of devastating fires just
before World War I. Old mine dumps and scars on the surrounding hillsides
are testimony to how hard miners worked looking for gold.
Calvin M. Ward made the first mining claim in the area in 1860. By
1892, the town had a weekly newspaper, a 15-piece band, and a school.
Ward's most famous citizens were Horace Tabor, his wife Baby Doe and
their daughters, Lilly and Silver Dollar. The family lived in Ward from
1897 to 1898 while Tabor worked the Eclipse mine north of town.
Central City
In Central City, you can see the famous Central City Opera House, built
in 1878 by Cornish and Welsh miners. Tosca, The Barber of Seville and
The Crucible, all sung in English, are just a sample of the high quality
offerings of this historic theater.
Next to the Opera House, the Teller House serves as a living museum
of Victorian artifacts and furniture once belonging to Governor John
Evans and Baby Doe Tabor. It is also the site of the famous øFace on
the Barroom FloorÓ immortalized in Hugh Antoine D'Arcy's poem of the
same name.
Many of Central City and Black Hawk's streets were built on rock walls
that were erected without mortar by the Cornish and Welsh miners. You
can still see some of these walls today.
Above Central City are the cemeteries, and several times a year, the
Gilpin County Historical Society provides ghostly tours, called Cemetery
Crawls, complete with spirits from the past who tell stories about their
lives.
Today, like its sister city Black Hawk, it continues to survive as
a mixture of its mining past and town devoted to casino gambling.
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