Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 83% of U.S. towns. What drives it
1 place in town is on the National Register, among them the Cripple Creek Historic District, a National Historic Landmark, and a historic district with 7 buildings. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1894 on, and the census since 1900.
The Cripple Creek post office opened in 1892, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 83% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Cripple Creek is more historic than 83% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
Few Colorado towns list much on the Register (a typical Colorado town has 1.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Cripple Creek’s 73.3 sits above most of its state (92% of Colorado towns have fewer) while its 7 historic buildings outnumber those of 73% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1900 and 1970, then more than doubled.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Cripple Creek’s Wikipedia page.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1894Sheet 1 of 9Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. One is a National Historic Landmark, the highest tier.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Cripple Creek.
For many years, Cripple Creek's high valley, at an elevation of 9,494 feet (2,894 m), was considered no more important than a cattle pasture. Many prospectors avoided the area after the Mount Pisgah hoax, a mini gold rush caused by salting (adding gold to worthless rock).
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Cripple Creek, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The immediate task before the union was to provide a relief fund. This was done in several ways. The men who remained at work on the eight-hour schedule were taxed $15.00 a month. The Green Bee Grocery Company of Cripple Creek gave credit amounting in the end to about $400; $1,000 was loaned by business men of Cripple Creek, $700 was received from the miners of the San Juan country, and $800 from the Butte, Mont., unions. Empty boarding houses were occupied by the
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveCO Cripple Creek 1895
In the archiveBattle Mountain mines
Born hereBetty May is born here
Born hereRuth Hiatt is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey2 decades in the archive, from the 1890s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cripple Creek. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Cripple Creek.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Cripple Creek’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Cripple Creek’s post office has been open since 1892.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
The Cripple Creek post office opened in 1892, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Cripple Creek is more historic than 83% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
One place: the Cripple Creek Historic District (listed 1966).
39% of Cripple Creek’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±12.2 points), against a typical 2.5% for a Colorado town; the median home was built in 1979.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
★ Landmark
1895
1896
1896
c. 1897