Colorado Experience: Creede – The Last Boom Town

Colorado Experience: Creede – The Last Boom Town

In so many ways, the story of Colorado is the story of mining. And Creede stands as one of the last mining towns of its kind. So many mines and their legacies were abandoned over the years – and nearly lost forever. But a handful of heroes have staked a claim on history by preserving these sites. From mining boom towns to ghost towns – it’s all here.

50 Comments

  1. Christian Dekker on May 12, 2023 at 9:42 am

    The last time I was in Creede, Colorado, the entire town was taken over by a Satanist colony! It must have been about 1970 or so. It was a mountain treasure hunt and about 10 of us were looking for a buried $5 million in gold bricks that several French miners left behind and traveled south to buy supplies and food and never made it back to get their gold cache and somehow my brother got a hold of a treasure map with lots of riddles and symbols that pointed you to the secret location where the gold was buried in the ground. We never did find that gold, even though we dug up half of the mountainside it seemed. I wonder if the Satanist compound is still there in Creede 50 years later in 2022AD? If anyone commenting here knows, please let me know by a reply. I am now 85 but I will never forget that crazy adventure!

  2. Mark Morris on May 12, 2023 at 9:43 am

    Fantastic little town with great mining history….the Bachelor loop is a revelation and offers great views of town towards the end at the Bulldog mine….trying to match up the town of Bachelor from a photo of what it used to look like with the field that is there now is really interesting!

  3. Michael Tang on May 12, 2023 at 9:44 am

    The abstracted cellar intralysosomally whisper because patricia karyologically remain failing a special zone. dependent, grateful gratis tail

  4. Shannon Cowling on May 12, 2023 at 9:45 am

    I loved this video, such a Cool place, love the History

  5. northerniltree on May 12, 2023 at 9:47 am

    Holy Moses, what a yarn.

  6. Bad grampa Gramps on May 12, 2023 at 9:48 am

    That guys homeland security t shirt is crazy and I’m pretty sure is a hate crime charge just horrible

  7. MELON en SURPRISE on May 12, 2023 at 9:49 am

    Thieves of native peoples land …its roberry not mining that your "legacy" is based on …native Indians did not destroy or pollute Earth… you’ve Got nothing to be proud of

  8. Kevan Stafne on May 12, 2023 at 9:49 am

    As an old miner. Thank for preserving an old mine

  9. Brian Nave on May 12, 2023 at 9:51 am

    After watching this great documentary, I’ve decided to visit Creede someday.

  10. TailorMadeCrypto on May 12, 2023 at 9:51 am

    in other words, the Indians were doing fine until the white man came along..got it

  11. lunar Skies on May 12, 2023 at 9:52 am

    Love my beautiful colorful Colorado! The most beautiful state in the US.

  12. Tron on May 12, 2023 at 9:52 am

    I am a colorado resident and recently learned from some family stories that my family were some of the original settlers on Del Norte and Creede Colorado, which has led me to discover more about the history of these areas. Thanks for the video

  13. Burnt Tranny Garage on May 12, 2023 at 9:53 am

    Jack rocks! (no pun intended). I really hope to meet him and tour his mine someday. From Aurora with love, Creede is gorgeous with an amazing history.

  14. Robert Moll on May 12, 2023 at 9:53 am

    I get people are proud of the area they live but 130yrs ago you can’t say "we did this and we did that" just cause you research don’t mean you were there …….Johanna

  15. Marianne Helvey on May 12, 2023 at 9:53 am

    nice
    to the mine

  16. George Fulton on May 12, 2023 at 9:54 am

    Visited for a couple of days last September. Loved it.

  17. TJ on May 12, 2023 at 9:56 am

    I lived in Colorado Springs for years. Twice a year, when I wanted to get away from the city, I’d take a trip to Creede. However both trips would be in the winter, to avoid the tourists. 😂 I would always stay in the showshoe lodge, and by pure luck, I’d typically get the same room. You truly get a feel for the town in the dead of winter. The tourist shops are closed, and there isn’t a whole lot to do. And that was perfect for me. I miss that place.

  18. Arlen Margolin on May 12, 2023 at 9:57 am

    Back in the early eighties a friend and I were looking to find some real good snow and back in the four corners region there was a ton of snow falling at Wolf Creek pass and all the other areas so we decided we would check out Wolf Creek which ended up being tons of snow but nothing of a mountain but after we found out our skiing experience was to be minimal we decided to do a tour again being middle of winter we stumble into a town called Creed and wow talk about a ghost town that really was a ghost town there was probably four people in the whole town at that time from what I could see the only thing that we were able to do I think was take a tour of the fire department which had not only a fire department in there but the darkest place one could find anywhere I don’t know there was something about how dark it was I’m not sure anyway after a big blizzard blew through and we were camping in my van we woke up pretty Frozen and proceeded to drive to del Norte and we had two little holes scraped in the windshield through the ice and our guns on the dashboard cuz we were trying to practice shoot and we get pulled over by a cop who just looked at us and said you got to be kidding me and let us go I thought that was the coolest thing

  19. Fred Rossman on May 12, 2023 at 9:59 am

    I remember Creede. My step dad took us there on a vacation. It was 1953. He had an uncle who still lived there. While there my brothers and I took a hike up to Bachler. All the buildings were down flat, we wandered through an old saloon and my next older brother found a dice under the edge of a board. It remained in our family untill 1994 when my mom died, I don’t know where it got to. It aways reminded me of Creede. Thanks for all those old memories.

  20. Chriss Taylor on May 12, 2023 at 10:01 am

    A great film ,hope to visit later this year

  21. E180 TEKNO on May 12, 2023 at 10:03 am

    I live in France I am therefore French but it irritates me when I hear that the usa has no history "lol" whereas the history is very rich for us in 100 years it is to unroll the equivalent of 200/300 years in the USA compare to Europe.
    in short !!! the documentary is nice very nice really i like this channel i watch very often this channel.
    I have often noticed that in the old period photos of the farwest you very very rarely see revolvers on the belt like in the movies? I notice in relation to Hollywood film (although I know that in fact Hollywood has greatly degraded the facts of the farwest)

  22. christopher miller on May 12, 2023 at 10:04 am

    I am speaking from North Wales UK. Every time I watch these history channels in whatever State it is, there are always surnames I can find in any phone directory in the UK,including some which are very old in the UK, and that is before they emigrated to the States.
    I wish Creede all the best.

  23. mohv on May 12, 2023 at 10:06 am

    can we talk about the slow-mo clips of the mining days

  24. Robert Cloninger on May 12, 2023 at 10:07 am

    I have a cousin and his wife and children live in creede co his name was Tom p and I think he’s still a hunting guide,hello from NC Tom and I sure do miss F crowe from suit.🙂

  25. . K on May 12, 2023 at 10:08 am

    That was beautiful, thank you!

  26. Melanie Brantner on May 12, 2023 at 10:08 am

    I agree the channel is
    EXCELLENT .😊

  27. Ninja-Sachi on May 12, 2023 at 10:09 am

    This was so long ago, but when I went to Creede in the early 2010s with my family, the views were just pretty. The cabin we were in was right by the Rio and I can remember picking up a smooth black stone while I was wading near the shore. I gave that stone to my grandparents and they still have it to this day. I would like to go back there again sometime.

  28. John Cordova on May 12, 2023 at 10:09 am

    My family received acts of geocide and were force off this area after having occupied it for thousands of years and never rose to the destruction demonstrated by the immigrants.

  29. Chriss Taylor on May 12, 2023 at 10:10 am

    Is there a memorial to miners killed

  30. Joyce Talbot on May 12, 2023 at 10:10 am

    The brief may aetiologically suffer because airship continuously decorate except a cowardly sky. useful, unnatural street

  31. Allan Davis on May 12, 2023 at 10:13 am

    I really love the PBS system in the United States, the history of a state in one place from the Declaration of Independence to recent events, extremely well made documentaries and topics that to most viewers would be dry and uninteresting but hearing that history from the descendants of the original story and the local experts make it fresh, interesting and informative, however, one thing that I have noticed in all the documentaries that involve the indigenous peoples is that the acquisition of their lands, when and why, are well documented, but how those lands were obtained is very very rarely mentioned, and I wonder why that is???, obviously that subject can be a sticky issue to address given that most historians say that sometimes the land was purchased for a pittance or they were just taken, hence the Indian wars, I appreciate that some don’t want to address that issue, but history is not just about the good events but the bad as well, and by ignoring that history it distorts that history until it isn’t truly accurate.
    If my opinion has offended anyone all I can say is that it wasn’t my intention to offend, but to express my personal opinion.
    Thanks for sharing this interesting and informative film 🎥😀👍🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

  32. Harrison Funderburk on May 12, 2023 at 10:13 am

    This documentary is what really made me fall in love with the mining history in Colorado. I always grew up coming out to Colorado in the summer but just recently started traveling the country out of my camper and I just can’t seem to drag myself away from Colorado and all it’s beautiful nature and rich history

  33. d jack on May 12, 2023 at 10:14 am

    Where were the houses of ill repute ? lol

  34. Topher on May 12, 2023 at 10:14 am

    Thank you for making and sharing this video! Creede is now on my bucket list of places to visit on my next trip out West.

  35. Blastman 8888 on May 12, 2023 at 10:15 am

    Some of the best mine tours are in Colorado because they never closed them kept the 19th century equipment going preserved it so well.

  36. Bob Chauncey on May 12, 2023 at 10:16 am

    Our family has enjoyed Creede many times

  37. victor flores on May 12, 2023 at 10:16 am

    Just love Creede. First visited in about ’73 as an 8 yo kids, been back many times, and on up to Little Squaw, and through the mntns to Silverton. Even hiked a few 100 mile loops all around the San Juans. Only place that’s come close to that beauty (for me) was up Machu Pichu, in Peruvian Andes,… and I have been up and down the Rockies, SN, Chile, Switzerland, France, and Austria ! That’s how pretty that amazing place is – So glad it has been preserved for my grandkids (someday)

  38. Dennis Young on May 12, 2023 at 10:17 am

    “It’s day all day in the daytime,
    And there is no night in Creede.”

  39. Mark Morris on May 12, 2023 at 10:18 am

    It’s a fantastic town I recommend anybody that hasn’t been there go up and see the place and do the bachelor loop and when you get to the town of bachelor there’s one old cabin that’s falling down there but you can see in the summer the lilies that are growing out of the ground that are descendants from the lilies that they had back in the 1800s and they still grow…!

  40. Robert Marino on May 12, 2023 at 10:19 am

    In the 70 ‘s I met family members of the hustlecuss & a man named burger red a miner , special people ! Memories !

  41. nmelkhunter1 on May 12, 2023 at 10:23 am

    My paternal great granddad was a silver miner in New Mexico and Colorado. According to my grandmother, he was tough as nails, but a teddy bear with his grandkids. Much respect to an important part of the backbone of the country.

  42. X VSJ on May 12, 2023 at 10:23 am

    Excellent story, I will definitely visit “Creede” 2021 👍🚒 xx Jesse

  43. Allen Sherrill on May 12, 2023 at 10:30 am

    I’m not from Colorado, but my horse is!

  44. shrekcbo on May 12, 2023 at 10:31 am

    This guy won the lottery man that would be my dream.

  45. mark brinton on May 12, 2023 at 10:31 am

    Simply amazing. Great documentary.

  46. Michelle Boyes on May 12, 2023 at 10:33 am

    I totally agree with you, that should be all cultures.Thanks for sharing.

  47. RTLichable on May 12, 2023 at 10:33 am

    While prospecting the area nearby, I ran into Jack, a few years after he acquired the Last Chance. Had a fascinating conversation, telling me about the history and his plans to reopen the mine for tours. The documentary doesn’t mention how some of the silver ore from the Last Chance was among the highest grade ever found anywhere in North America.

  48. Kent Courtney on May 12, 2023 at 10:33 am

    I have the 1988 “Trails Among the Columbine” ,which includes a section on the Denver and Rio Grande Creede Branch. This video filled in some gaps in my knowledge of Creeed. I am so grateful that you did this segment.

  49. Katherine A. Williams, M.A. on May 12, 2023 at 10:40 am

    Edward O’ Kelly, anyone?

  50. Todd Corl on May 12, 2023 at 10:41 am

    This was a great video!! Meaning someday I want to get to creeds! Looks wonderful!! Thank you for a great video!

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