Central dates to 1859, and 44% of its homes were built before 1940
3 places in town are on the National Register, among them the Central City-Black Hawk Historic District, a National Historic Landmark, and a historic district with 12 buildings. Below: old-book passages.
On May 6, 1859, during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush, John H. Gregory found a gold-bearing vein (the Gregory Lode) in Gregory Gulch between Black Hawk and Central City. Within two months many other veins were discovered, including the Bates, Gunnell, Kansas, and Burroughs.
The Mountain City, Kansas Territory, post office opened on January 17, 1860 The area uphill (west) from Mountain City was known as Central City. As many as 10,000 prospectors soon flocked to the town and surrounding prospects. On February 28, 1861, U.S. President James Buchanan signed an act creating the free Territory of Colorado. On November 1, 1861, the Colorado Territory created Gilpin County with Central City as the county seat.
Passages that mention Central, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The Rocky Mountain directory and Colorado gazetteer, for 1871, comprising a brief history of Colorado ... together with a complete and accurate directory of Denver, Golden City, Black Hawk, Central City, Nevada, Idaho, Georgetown ... First year of publica1870 · page 252Read the page →
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their headquarters and rallying point while in the country, since here they miss, less than elsewhere, society privileges, culture and bustle to which they have been accustomed. Others will not be content without a nearer contact with the rugged mountains themselves, and will prefer Central, Georgetown, or Idaho Springs as a rendezvous, from which to plan expeditions to the various points of interest. As a desirable mean between the two extremes, the mountain sheltered and thrifty town of Golden, located at the mouth of Clear Creek canon, and the present terminus of the Colorado Central rail-
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The Rocky Mountain directory and Colorado gazetteer, for 1871, comprising a brief history of Colorado ... together with a complete and accurate directory of Denver, Golden City, Black Hawk, Central City, Nevada, Idaho, Georgetown ... First year of publica1870 · page 332Read the page →
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Tte first discoverers of gold in the mountains were the first citizens of Black Hawk. The growth of this town, and the portion of Central known as Mountain City, were simultaneous, and in the fall of 1859 their population was numbered by thousands. We have gathered data of many interesting incidents attending the early settlement of these rich mining localities, but space forbids their publication in our p/esent issue, though we do not abandon the idea of giving publicity to the stirring events that characterized these early days in the history of the richest gold mining district in the
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Central, 1859 to 1961
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (3), Wikipedia, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
