After World War II, the town turned to tourism as its primary economic engine, but since the 1970s the giant Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mine has also provided steady production and employment. After it was destroyed by fire in 1896, the town and surrounding mining district reached peak production and population in the early twentieth century before experiencing a long decline.
Cripple Creek was the site of the last and greatest mining boom in Colorado, attracting tens of thousands of people to the western flank of Pikes Peak in the 1890s.
