Looking at town across the Short Line where it crosses Poverty Gulch.

ONE quarter of the gold that is contributed by the United States to the wealth of the world annually comes out of Cripple Creek and the hills on which this thriving mining city is built. Cripple Creek is a romance; it is not a commonplace story. Yet it is not a romance, for it is real.

For twelve years men have been delving into the hills of Cripple Creek for gold, and each year has seen the wealth taken out in increasing quantities. During this total period the camp has added to the wealth of the world approximately $140,000,000. Little more than this need be said to tell the story of Cripple Creek. Its tonnage is about 600,000 tons annually.

In addition to its mines the city has a thoroughly equipped school system, its schools being graded to the highest standards reached in the state, and its citizens enter enthusiastically into whatever is for the best interests of Colorado as a whole.

Cripple Creek is a little south of due west from Colorado Springs. It is reached via "The Short Line," the trip skirting the south slope of Pike's Peak for forty-five miles, or by the Colorado Midland and Midland Terminal, which encircled the same peak via the north, the distance by this line being about sixty miles.

With the camp settled down to a steady production, its condition as to population, etc., also is settled. With the other cities of the gold district, including Victor, Goldfield, Altman, Independence, Elkton and Anaconda, who are but parts of a composite community, it has today about 25,000 people.