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MINING
1900 was a pivotal year for the Cripple Creek Mining District. Gold worth more than $18 million was mined that year in nearly 500 mines. Eight-thousand miners worked there, including 700 men at the Portland Mine alone. The rewards of this hard life were worth the effort.
The district produced 30 millionaires, including a hard-working Colorado Springs carpenter named Winfield Scott Stratton. Stratton dug for 15 years and finally found gold on the Fourth of July in 1901. He called that claim the Independence, and he eventually sold it for $11 million. The C.O.D. Mine was also profitable, and co-owner Spencer Penrose used his profits to build The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs.
Most miners lived in tents or simple log cabins. They started work at daybreak and the wage for a day was $3.
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