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Tuesday, January 27, 2009

We Spent Monday in Black Hawk and Central City - Two Old Gold Mining Towns








CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE

About 40 miles west of Denver is Black Hawk and Central City. At one time they were two of the most productive gold mining towns in the world. After the gold petered out - the towns almost became ghost towns. Then around 1990 - Colorado allowed the towns to become gambling meccas.

The towns sit at about 8500 feet above sea level so it is quite a climb up from Denver. All the way it was snowing and the highway conditions weren't great. Fortunately - we were in a casino bus - and could enjoy the scenery both ways.

If we were expecting big Vegas style casinos - we would have been disappointed. Most of the casinos were very small - not much bigger than our living room. A few large Vegas style casinos are there - but they are not the norm. When we went into some casinos - we were the only customers. There were mostly slot machines - but quite a few poker tables - blackjack tables - even some Texas Hold Em table. The slot machines were pretty old - you still inserted coins and they paid off in coins.

There was a small shuttle bus that went up and down the valley for tourists to go from town to town and casino to casino. Walking outside was difficult with the wind - cold - and blowing snow. In many places - they had heaters on the sidewalks - so this weather must have been normal.

There were a few museums and lots of old empty buildings.

We are at the Denver Airport now - and just got called - we are upgraded to First Class for the trip home. They must have heard that the Trailing Spouse was on the plane.

Note - we got home safely in Tallahassee at 11 PM.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The first picture kind of reminds me of Jim Thorpe.
Glad you made it home ok. Sorry about Florida State. Check the Bucknell site after Sat. Kerry is running in a big race at Penn State.