Vegas-style casino ups the stakes in tiny Cripple Creek
New ventures put town at crossroad
By Joanne Kelley, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published July 3, 2008 at 9:05 p.m.
Photo by Barry Gutierrez / The Rocky
Cripple Creek's main drag sits below a picturesque view of aspen that are in the way of operations planned by the Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Co. The company says it will disturb about "30 percent of the vegetation" in its efforts to extract an estimated 1.7 million ounces of additional gold.
Photo by Barry Gutierrez / The Rocky
Patrons tackle a game of Texas hold 'em at the new $80 million Wildwood Casino in Cripple Creek. It's hoped that the Wildwood will draw more gamblers to town.
Photo by Barry Gutierrez / The Rocky
Engineer Nathan Bielz waits for passengers to board the Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad. In the background is Cripple Creek's Double Eagle Hotel and Casino.
Placing bets and taking chances has been a way of life in this historic mining and gambling mecca for more than a century.
But the stakes have gone up with a new casino shelling out $80 million to open its doors amid a prolonged downturn in the fortunes of the gambling industry. Some of its rivals are locked in a legal battle as they try to boost business by skirting the statewide smoking ban.
Controversy seems to have a way of finding this once-flourishing mining camp, said to be the fourth-richest gold mining district in the world - one that's about to become a whole lot richer now that the price of the precious metal has reached nearly $1,000 for an ounce.
The local mining giant has caused a flap with plans to rip through much of a picturesque stand of aspen trees in a bid to get to more than $1 billion of gold from the rocky terrain it owns at the edge of the tourist town.
"I thought I'd be dealing with a few little ordinance changes when I took this job," said Mayor Dan Baader, who served as construction manager of the controversial new casino at the same time that he managed to unseat the mayoral incumbent last fall. "It's been more (involved) than I figured."
With soaring ceilings, polished stone and a swank steakhouse, the new Wildwood Casino stands out. It more closely resembles the Vegas-style casinos now commonly found in the much busier gambling haven of Black Hawk.
The Cripple Creek newcomer sits on the outskirts of a town of just 2,000 residents, dwarfing most of the nearby gaming establishments tucked inside restored brick storefronts along Bennett Avenue.
"This business is all about customer loyalty," said Kevin Werner, who as general manager hopes he can lure gamblers to the Wildwood partly because it's the first casino that visitors see when they arrive in Cripple Creek.
It's a strategy an executive at Wildwood's parent company tried - and failed at - in Central City, where the prominently located Scarlet's Casino was bankrupt and out of business within months of opening in 2006.
Some in the industry still have high hopes that Wildwood can make a go of it and also lift business at the other casinos in town.
"The market down there has been flat for the past few years," said Lois Rice, executive director of the Denver- based Colorado Gaming Association. "Everyone is hoping a new project will generate a lot more visitation."
But the struggling economy, which also has hit Las Vegas and most other gambling venues, has raised questions about whether there's enough business to go around right now.
"It makes no sense . . . spending $80 million to come into a market like this," said Marc Murphy, co-owner of Bronco Billy's, a casino that has operated on the town's historic main street since Colorado began allowing limited-stakes gaming in 1990.
He's among those pushing for a statewide ballot initiative that aims to let gambling towns vote on whether they want to raise bet limits to $100 from the current $5.
In the meantime, there's another cause for concern: gasoline prices that have exceeded $4 a gallon.
"It cost me about $20 just to drive here," said Richard Deeds, as he chewed on a toothpick while playing a slot machine recently.
The retiree, who lives about 35 miles away in Cascade, said he and his wife plan to cut back soon on their casino visits because of fuel costs.
A 6-month-old smoking ban also has been a sore point. Since it was imposed in January, casinos have posted five straight months of revenue declines.
"I'm a smoker, so I come up here less," said Colorado Springs resident Mark Kendrick, who stepped onto the sidewalk to have a cigarette. "I used to come up a dozen times a year."
State officials see no evidence that the prohibition has had any "unintended consequences" for casinos, at least "not that we've seen so far," said Carsten Baumann, an evaluator for Colorado's Health Department. "We've also seen revenue declines in other states that still allow smoking."
But a court showdown looms this month, when a Teller County judge will rule on a move by several gambling parlors to avoid the smoking ban by claiming a "cigar bar" exemption.
"I just hope it's decided one way or the other," Mayor Baader said.
The cowboy-boot-wearing, Marlboro-smoking Baader ran for office largely because of his opposition to a taxpayer-funded welcome center that sits high above town, providing visitors with sweeping views of the Sangre de Cristo range and the Continental Divide.
Its $5 million dollar price tag forced the delay of basic street maintenance and other infrastructure. The parking lot alone cost almost $400,000, even though its hundreds of spaces stand empty on most days.
The entrance from the highway can't accommodate tour buses or motor homes. The exit forbids left-hand turns.
"To me it was ill-conceived," Baader said.
But he acknowledges that the town benefits from a relatively diverse tourist economy, compared with Central City and Black Hawk.
While casinos dominate the available Cripple Creek entertainment, families also come for the vintage narrow-gauge train ride and the gold mine tour that descends 1,000 feet underground. They come for special events such as last weekend's Donkey Derby Days, named for the local herd of wild donkeys.
They also come to admire the colorful fall display provided by a huge stand of aspen trees visible from all over town.
The Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Co., the county's largest private employer, plans to extract 1.7 million more ounces of gold from the area in coming years. That will involve disturbing about "30 percent of the vegetation in that view shed" above town, said company spokesman Jane Mannon.
In response to the uproar, the company is revising its plans so that it can at least "backfill" the area once it takes out all the available gold, she said.
That's small comfort for some nearby homeowners.
"Their stance is everyone wants to see an operating mine and (that) it's a beautiful thing," said Denverite Cathy Johnson, who bought a home in town three years ago in hopes of retiring there with her husband. "But it would be a shame to open up that whole view of the pit mine to Cripple Creek. I don't know there's anybody to stop them."
kelleyj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5068
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July 4, 2008
5:23 a.m.
Suggest removal
roger44 writes:
If you move into a mining town, have to expect some mining to go on, like moving next to a hog farm and then complaining about the smell. Up the limits on the joints, if you're going to have gambling, at least do it right.
July 4, 2008
10:02 a.m.
Suggest removal
JimmyTheSaint writes:
Yeah, and get the casino owners to quit whining about smoking. No one has the right to give anyone else cancer. I don't give a rat's a-- about your profit margins.
And I'm a smoker. My choice, my body, but I wouldn't want someone giving me hepatitis or some chronic ailment by, say, sitting next to me.
July 5, 2008
5:07 p.m.
Suggest removal
freedomandchoice writes:
How about a smoking section and a non-smoking section. This way everybody can have an option and the Casinos can maximize profits.......and the state can maximize tax revenues.
July 5, 2008
9:36 p.m.
Suggest removal
Wolfsfire writes:
Good points above, all of them. It's not surprising that the gold mining company is going to trash those aspens. It's there land which certainly gives them the right to do so. Hopefully for the town of Cripple Creek they won't leave huge scars like the miner's did so long ago for Colorado Springs on the mountain side for everyone to stare at. I agree with the mayor of Cripple Creek about the visitors center. Why would you waste 5 million of taxpayer money when you didn't even need one in the first place??? Somebody must of got some sweet kickback money on that deal. Hopefully the new mayor up there can get some folks straightened out for the betterment of the town and her citizens.
July 7, 2008
7:34 a.m.
Suggest removal
DiggerPat writes:
Regarding the comment about leaving visible evidence like the miners of old: simply put, they can't. Current regulation requires reclamation of vegetation and approximate restoration of the hill's original slope to be included in the designs for any mining; you have to have detailed plans for putting it back the way you found it even as you're presenting your idea to mine somewhere specifically to keep "scars on the hillside" from sticking around. They'll need to monitor the results of that reclamation for a number of years after the mine closes. They can also be held accountable for environmental violations that occur whether during the mine's duration or after its closure, meaning that they'll be much more careful to ensure that such events don't happen.
July 21, 2008
7:51 a.m.
Suggest removal
tralrdr writes:
So far the mines track record of reclamation is dismal at best. Naturally, it has fallen to the EPA, a FEDERAL government agency, to monitor the reclamation, and what do we see? Choppy mounts of decomposed crushed rock that grass might take hold, maybe. Come on, if the mine is going to reclaim then get with it and put some effort forth not just lip service. Sure we all live in a mining community but precious little of those resources trickle back to the community although yea, they say they do a lot. They really don't. They take and take and take and leave us with a big ugly scar that cannot grow a thing. It took mother nature thousands of years to produce that natural beauty, a mine that is gathering 2 huge buttons a week of natural resources should be giving back and paying forward and not raping an pilaging. Folks still live here, and will long after this mine has turned this mountain into a mole hill. Take steps now to restore the natural beauty that we all love and respect. No one else rips on the earth like this mine around here. Its high time the put it back, better than before.