Lecture Series - John Harner, "The Impacts of Cripple Creek Gold on the City of Colorado Springs"
Impacts of Cripple Creek Gold on the City of Colorado Springs
The Cripple Creek mining district has a rich history full of wild-west lore, and impacts of this gold craze on the city of Colorado Springs were profound. Much of the mining investment came from Colorado Springs, and most of the wealth generated returned to the city. Certainly railroads first introduced heavy industry to the region, but the mining, transport, and processing of gold generated jobs and injected wealth into Colorado Springs at unprecedented levels. Nothing in the city’s history up until then created a regional control center, generated profits, constructed a built landscape of both industry and urban opulence, attracted a new and diverse immigrant workforce, and fueled business-friendly politics like the bonanza from the Cripple Creek gold mines. Rivers of wealth flowed downhill to Colorado Springs, engaging the entire population and forever changing the city.
Lecturer Biography
John Harner is Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. He received his Ph.D. from the Arizona State University in 1996. His research interests focus on American urban landscapes; cultural, economic, and social connections between the United States and Mexico; and the historical geography of Colorado Springs. His local work has culminated in the book Profiting from the Peak: Landscape and Liberty in Colorado Springs. Research for this book contributed to exhibits at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. He received the CU Thomas Jefferson Award in 2018.
