Up on Cripple Creek

When I get off of this mountain
Ya know where I want to go?
Straight down the Mississippi river
To the Gulf of Mexico
To Lake Charles Louisiana
Little Bessie, girl I once knew
And she told me just to come on by
If there's anything that she could do



Now me and my mate were back at the shack
We had Spike Jones on the box
She said, "I can’t take the way he sings
But I love t’ hear him talk"
Now that just gave my heart a throb
To the bottom of my feet
And I swore as I took another pull
M’ Bessie can’t be beat




Up on Cripple Creek, she sends me
If I spring a leak, she mends me
I don't have t’ speak, ‘cause she defends me
A drunkard’s dream if I ever did see one




Lyrics: Robbie Robertson, ©1969 by Canaan Music, Inc.
Images: Cripple Creek Colorado, 1999

Up On Cripple Creek

In the mountains around Cripple Creek Colorado are a lot of old mines and the associated works. This part of Colorado was settled by miners in the 19th century, all looking to 'strike it rich', few did. Just a little below this site is the town of Cripple Creek, with its casinos and tourist shops. (where yours truly once stopped to eat, put his change from the meal into a nearby slot and walked out $80 richer!) Now the tourists and seniors' buses pull up and they are 'mined' for their silver and gold. Whenever the price of gold jumps, someone will try to open up an old mine, that lode is just a little further, don'tcha know?

We're all a little like that miner, finding a vein in the form of a job or career, working it until it no longer pays out or we've had enough. Once in a while someone gets lucky, there is such a thing as a 'free lunch', I guess, but not very often. It's the activity itself that brings rewards- as long as it isn't too hard. And is there any job harder that mining?

Midwest

Impressions from the nation’s heartland:

Colorado

This Bud’s for You (Colorado Springs (2014) 
Miniskirts and Ibsen (Colorado Springs 2014)
Florrisant and Cripple Creek (2014)
Cripple Creek

Iowa

Decorah (2011)
Dubuque (2011)

Kansas

Rockets in the Heartland (Hutchinson, 2013) 
Salt Mine (Hutchinson, 2013) 
Waitress in a Greasy Spoon (Scott City, 2013) 
The Other Minneapolis (2013)
Postcards from the Road (Minneapolis, 2013)
In a Fiat 124 (1971)
The Day After (1971)

Nebraska

Terra Incomprehendia (Farwell, 2013)
Barnanew (Scottsbluff, 2013)

South Dakota

Mulder’s Farm Mulder’s Farm Again
Sorum (c. 1920)

Wisconsin:

2022
Nick Englebert’s Grandview (Hollandale)
Postcards from Mineral Point
Concrete Sculpture
Shake Rag Street

2017 - 2018
Return to Mount Horeb
Blood Cookies (Mount Horeb)
How Much…  (Madison)
Pastoral (Mount Horeb)
Your Next Home (Vermont)

2016
Gonstead Guest Cottage (Mount Horeb) 
Searching for Shoshanah (Mount Horeb)
More from Mount Horeb
Madison
Carnival (Madison)
Is Anybody Home? (Mineral Point)
Walking with Ms. Lee (Mount Horeb)
Friday Road Trip (Mount Horeb)

Older:
Visions of Shoshanah (Mount Horeb - 2015)
Last Day of Summer (Mount Horeb - 2014)
Meat Cheese Beer (Milwaukee - 2014)
Milwaukee (2014)
Road Trip (Sparta - 2014)
Taliesin (Spring Green - 2011)
The Concrete Park (Phillips - 2004)
Eight Pounds of Beads (Couderay - 2004)
John-John Slept Here (Bayfield - 2004)
Mama Gets Folk (Bayfield - 2004)
Bayfield (1984)
Hippies Redux (Iola - 1970)
Hippies (Iola - 1970)
Luella Busch (Algoma - 1910-1915 )

Cripple Creek - Thursday

It had been quite a while, the last time I was here I won $80 in 5 minutes in a small casino in an old building on the main drag:



This time, not so lucky. Most of the casinos were new, in faux old-time buildings. Most of the older casinos were out of business. I managed to lose $40 almost instantly in one of the new ones, I took that as an omen and spent the rest of the time there strolling around the back streets and alleys, lots of apparently abandoned properties:



The air was cold, but the sun was warm, a few solitary figures made use of the benches:



Cripple Creek started as a gold rush town. There are still plenty of folks trying to “strike it rich” here, but the house always wins in the end.

Postcards from the Road - V

Cripple Creek, Colorado: