Victor, CO

Victor is a Teller County statutory city high on the southwest side of Pikes Peak, roughly 10,000 feet above sea level. Gold was discovered here in the late nineteenth century, and Victor grew into the working town of the Cripple Creek mining district. Founded in 1891 and platted in 1893, it was soon known as the City of Mines, with the Portland and other major operations cutting into Battle Mountain. The town reached about 18,000 people around 1900, before depleted ore, labor conflict, and World War I pulled the population downward.

ATTRDetroit Publishing Co. / Public domain

Victor's 1890s buildings, mine entrances, gallows frames, hoists, and rough mountain streets still give the city a strong industrial outline. Mining resumed on Battle Mountain in 1995, while tourism now works alongside the old gold story. Cripple Creek-Victor School District RE-1 serves students in the area. Victor sits on the mining district's high flank, with Cripple Creek nearby and Pikes Peak rising beyond the roads and tailings. It is a place where the old mine town remains visible in the architecture and in the mountain itself.