The twin towns of Central City and Black Hawk in Clear Creek Canyon west of Denver are so close, it's hard sometimes to tell where one begins and the other ends. They do have two other things in common, though. They both have revived the history of the area and both today are known for limited-stakes gambling.
This current-day clamor for cash echoes long-ago Colorado's Gold Rush, which started here in 1859. Because of its new found riches, Central City nearly became the state capitol. It had more culture than Denver, and all that gold besides. The opera houses here sprung up by the early 1860s and the most enduring, the Central City Opera House, still holds performances today, including a summer opera festival.
The town also boasted gaming halls, saloons and brothels, as did most of the mining towns. The annual Lou Bunch Day each summer honors the memory of the town's most famous madame and gives everyone a chance to kick up their heels.
Black Hawk has more gambling casinos than Central City, and many of the historic buildings are really historic storefronts attached to modernized structures. Both towns struggled over the years to keep from becoming ghosts, and gambling seems to be the current solution.
