July 11, 2026

Victor Colorado

Victor Colorado is a genuine Colorado mining town. Known as “The City of Mines”, Victor has most closely aligned with all the preconceived expectations I had imagined of what a small Colorado mining town would be-and it has held onto this lofty estimation despite my having subsequently visited a variety of others across the state over the past decade since I first stepped foot here. Most other old-town main-streets in the state seem to have become a haven for peddlers of fragrant soaps, spicy teas and mass-produced souvenirs. Victor, on the other hand, has managed to age gracefully, remaining a relatively small and mostly intact historic western town whose shops are owned locally and practically no tourists or obnoxious commercialization efforts have yet spoiled the atmosphere. It is an atmosphere drenched in history throughout which giant rusting skeletonized headframes mark the countless graves of the great mining companies where the ghosts of the men who worked the mines and the related interests which once thrived here many decades ago continue to leave a distinct and lasting impression upon the place.

Just down the road, you’ll find perhaps the most perfectly extreme example of a town ruined by the exact opposite fate; In Cripple Creek (Victor’s long-time neighbor/rival), a casino has taken over every single shop and storefront in the heart of town. Cripple Creek’s entire historic downtown is now just a facade for a large and structurally connected strip of casino interfaces whose flashy neon signage is expertly crafted to lure all of the most visibly unhealthy and lifeless husks of humanity into throwing away the dwindling few remaining moments of their life with the empty hope of winning back some of the heavy losses they have incurred during their utterly depressing and entirely wasted time here. The hordes of casino zombies are bussed in from out of town and, because they are effectively just saggy leather bags vaguely resembling the human form and lacking discernable mental faculties, the location of their slot machines is inconsequential. They couldn’t care less that their surroundings happen to consist of the hollowed out shell of what used to be a notable piece of the history of the American west.

There used to be one decent excuse to navigate through Cripple Creek’s casino hellscape: a diner in one of the casinos used to serve 49 cent breakfast. My wife and I took advantage of that deal once or twice and we found that it was a legitimately good diner breakfast with all the usual offerings. But apparently they stopped doing that a few years ago and now they pretend like it never happened. So now, aside from the Narrow Gauge Railroad and the District Museum on one end of town, and the Jail Museum on the opposite end, Cripple Creek has essentially nothing left that’s worth seeing. If the concept of ‘selling out’ was a place, that place would be Cripple Creek.

Victor Colorado, on the other hand, long ago proved itself to me as the most perfect base-camp for the most awesome Colorado adventures a history-obsessed dork like myself could ever hope for. For starters, the Vindicator Valley Trail of Gold is an incredible historic site whose trails wind around many of the mines which brought all of the nearby towns into existence and this trail alone could justify a visit for even the least athletic or adventurous among us. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Skaguay Hydroelectric Power Plant was definitely among-if not-the most epic Colorado adventure I’ve yet engaged upon due to the extreme difficulties of reaching the site and subsequently returning therefrom, the reward for which was the insanely remote and photogenic historic industrial ruins of the once state-of-the-art Skaguay Hydroelectric plant. And then there’s the Lake Moraine Hydroelectric Power Plant which was definitely the most obscure, longest-abandoned, and mostly unknown historic site I’ve yet had the pleasure to research and document, the results of which represent the distilled spirit of this blog and why I do what I do. For all of these adventures and more, Victor was my base camp. At one time, we actually, literally, camped at the Skaguay Reservoir but apparently they no longer allow camping.. Other times, we’ve stayed at the supposedly haunted Victor Hotel which features an awesome (functional) antique elevator, comfortable rooms and even a (limited-hours) diner. The Mining Claim Saloon next door has great food and drinks, Dirty Sally’s Pizzeria across the street has arcade games and pool, The Victor Ag and Mining museum down the road is awesome. There’s mining relics and ruins in just about every direction you look, the scenery is beautiful and there’s even a secret little put-put golf course in town.

I’m not in the habit of making a blog post about a town.. which still exists.. But Victor is cool and old and it remains generally unchanged. This is probably due to the fact that the mining of Battle Mountain never really stopped. The Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mine is the richest Gold Mine in Colorado history and it remains one of the largest in the United States. The headframes and the labyrinth of mines from the early days which dot the hills in every direction have basically all been gobbled up by the CC&V mine which has eschewed the old methods of digging tunnels in favor of simply churning them all up into a vast open pit mine.

Being fairly remote with limited amenities, Victor doesn’t exist to serve tourists, so they go elsewhere. And that’s one of the things I like most about it.

History of Victor Colorado

Victor was founded in 1893 at the foot of Battle Mountain by the Woods brothers, Frank and Harry. Victor Adams, the town’s namesake, was one of the area’s earliest homesteaders. In the early days, Victor was where most of the miners actually lived, while Cripple Creek was the financial and social center of the district.

Early Victor was comprised mostly of wooden false-fronted buildings and dirt roads, like all proper western towns in the 19th century. The 20th century would not arrive peacefully; In August of 1899, just three years after Cripple Creek was completely destroyed by fire, most of Victor was consumed in a conflagration. In only 3.5 hours, twelve blocks of the business district and numerous homes were destroyed. In total, around 200 buildings were destroyed, 3,000 people were made homeless and the losses were estimated to be around $2,000,000.

By dawn the next morning, hundreds of people went to work clearing away the ruins. Saloons and restaurants quickly raised tents and opened up for business. By noon, the post office was operational. On day two, more than a thousand people were at work in the reconstruction. By day five, brick buildings were going up all over town. Within eight months, Victor was completely rebuilt as one of the most modern mining towns in the state, it had become fifth largest in Colorado and it was one of the most prosperous mining districts in the United States.

The Labor Wars

In 1893, miners were paid three dollars per 8-hour day, or ~$75 per month. At this time, the total population of the district was only around 2,000. Notable this year was the “Panic of 1893”, during which the price of silver dropped by 37.5%. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act had just passed and the details of the act inadvertently caused a run on gold, tanking the price of silver. Many silver mines, such as those in Leadville sought to preserve their own profits with the announcement of a reduction in wages from $3 to $2.50 per day. In addition to labor strikes and violent clashes in Leadville and other silver towns, this led to an influx of silver miners to gold mining areas such as Victor and the Cripple Creek District in general.

In January 1894, despite the price of gold and its profitability remaining stable (and high), district mine owners sought to exploit the situation to their advantage. With the sudden increase in labor causing a downward pressure on wages, the mines announced an increase of the workday from 8 to 10 hours-without an increase in pay. On February 1, the mines implemented this new policy. One week later, the newly formed Western Federation of Miners went on strike. While the smaller mines in the area immediately agreed to keep the 8-hour day, and stayed open, the large mines refused and shut down.

Following a variety of back and forth hostilities, minor clashes, and tense negotiations between the WFM and the mine owners, by June 11, it was clear that the union had won. The mines reinstated an 8 hour workday at the original $3 per day. It was a massive victory for not just the WFM but for all workers in the region. Soon there were 54 different local unions representing everything from waitresses to newsboys. But a dark cloud hung over the union. The WFM had members who were willing to resort to increasing levels of violence to stop non-union workers from taking their jobs during a strike. But for the next decade, the WFM enjoyed significant public support and political power throughout the west.

The WFM’s power, however, would be tested in the strike of 1903-1904 and the violence which followed, which caused the situation to be called the “Colorado Labor Wars”. (Having been defeated by the WFM a decade prior, the mine owners employed the Colorado State Government including the National Guard and even the Pinkertons to crush their opposition.)

In 1903, mine owners went back on their agreement to an 8-hour working day. Evidently, the mine owners had greased the wheels of justice with enough cash that they were able to pressure the Colorado State Government to ignore a recent amendment to secure an 8-hour day in the state’s constitution. This is an amendment which had been voted on by the people and which had passed with an overwhelming 72 percent of the vote. In a blatant affront to democracy, the state did not pass the legislation and the pro-business governor of Colorado declined to use his powers to rescue the amendment. And thus began the Labor Wars.

Worth noting here is that: In 1904, the Cripple Creek Times reported: “Nearly $2,000,000 are added every month to the world’s wealth by the product from the hills within the district of Cripple Creek” (of which Victor was included). This works out to about $67,000 per day in 1904. In today’s value, that’s $75 Million USD per month, $2.5M per day. The mine workers themselves made $3 per day. Based on my loose calculations, the wages paid to the miners come out to a small fraction of the total monthly value of gold extracted.