Black Hawk (Colorado)

Gilpin County

08-07025

Black Hawk is a small town in the central part of the U.S. state of Colorado, located approximately 50 km west of Denver in Gilpin County. As the center of the Colorado Gold Rush, the mining town was involved from 1859 together with the adjacent Central City instrumental in the development of Denver and the State of Colorado. With the gambling legalization in Colorado in 1991 was Black Hawk one of the major players paradise of Colorado.

History

The news of gold discoveries in the Front Range in 1859 led thousands of prospectors and miners in the Gregory Gulch, a canyon in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. In the months before, yet proved the nearby region at the confluence of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek, Denver today, to be quite unproductive. The Colorado Central Railroad extended in the early 1870s its railway network up to Black Hawk and caused quite another growth spurt of young mountain settlement. The neighboring Central City was opened; a tram that went from Black Hawk to the mines, joined those two towns. Today remind east of the city center, a restored freight station and a locomotive on the early history of the city.

Before the insignificance Black Hawk kept a referendum in 1990 to legalize gambling in Colorado. After the majority of the population agreed with the proposal to Black Hawk and Central City, developed in the 1990s among the most important players paradises of the state. The historic facades of the city have been restored and up to the millennium, driven many businesses forward with the construction of casinos, hotels and entertainment complexes. It broke out between two neighboring cities a fierce competition. In particular, Central City suffered from the situation that was reached on Highway 119 from Denver and Golden Black Hawk first. Central City pushed for a direct development of the city by highway I-70 and opened on 19 November 2004 a 13 km long freeway ( Central City Parkway ), is avoided via the Black Hawk.