Colorado Chronicles : Central City

I just happen to know a little about Central City, Colorado. I have lived there on several occasions and I have family ( Hi Mom and Mark!) living there right now. Plus !, my dear friend Doreen Bob and her husband, Josh, live there as well. The photo above is of "downtown" Central City, which is made up of a few small casinos, assorted shops and Annie Oakley's Grocery and Liquor Store. As you look at the photo, I lived less than a half mile to right of the shot. Central City has a very interesting history. President Teddy Roosevelt visited CC more than once and stayed at the historic Teller House and attended performances at the Opera House just next door. The house my Mom lives in now was once owned by Daniel Boone's grandson. Early on, mining played a pivotal in the development in Central City and neighboring Black Hawk. Reclaimed and closed-down mines still dot the country side in the area. Today, mining of a different kind is the staple of the local economy...casinos. Needless to say, I contributed mightily to the Central City and Black Hawk gaming coffers. However, one day comes to mind when I woke up very early and a 7AM went down to Red Dolly's Casino in Black Hawk with $20 dollars in my pocket. By the end of the day I had over $4000 in my pocket. It was fun. Central City is close enough to I-70 to make a trip to Metro Denver for any other wants (read : shopping,etc.) you may have. There are also many opportunities for outdoor activities within driving distance - fishin', hiking, skiing, sight seeing and the Coors Brewery in Golden. Central City, a good place to call home.

Colorado Chronicles : The Ancient Ones

Some of the most stunning vistas in the world are in Colorado - Pike's Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park, Mesa Verde National Park....wait! Did I say Mesa Verde? Why, yes I did. Those stunning vistas I mentioned a few words back are truly astounding...villages built into the sides of sheer cliffs, indicating, for the times, an advanced civilization. Rock engravings, or petroglyphs,  and pictographs (rock drawings) on the stone walls of the village give us insights regarding the daily lives of these early Americans such as how they saw the world around them and what they hunted for food.

The story of the Ancient Ones is believed to have begun around 1200 B.C. They flourished for many years, then all of the sudden (or so it seems), disappeared. How and why the Anasazi suddenly vanished is a mystery still in need of a solution today. Although the Spanish explored the area in and around Mesa Verde (Spanish for "green table") in the 1700's, it appears that the first outsiders to see the cliff dwellings did so in the last half of the 19th Century. These magnificent structures were regularly vandalized, therefore in order to help protect them from such destruction, President Teddy Roosevelt declared Mesa Verde to become a National Park in 1906.

What an incredible, if not spiritual, place Mesa Verde is and it stands as a Monument to the ingenuity and engineering skills of The Ancient Ones.