Nicholas Creede discovered silver in 1890 and began the camp that would become the town of Creede. The area is rich in history - Bat Masterson ran a saloon and gambling parlor here in 1893. Robert Ford (who murdered Jesse James) moved here to open a business. He was later shot and killed to avenge Jesse's murder and is buried here as well. There are mining museums and an annual mining skills contest where men and women compete in a display of old fashioned mining techniques.

The Bachelor Historic Loop is a dirt trail starting in Creede that winds its way past numerous old mines up into the Rio Grande National Forest. At over 12,000 feet there is the meadow that used to contain the mining camp of Bachelor where no women where allowed (it was considered back luck). At the peak of the mining boom there were over 10,000 people living in this area, although today the total population of the town and county is just over 800. The town currently survives on tourism since the last active mine closed in 1985, but remains a living tribute to the mining history of the Old West.


Old mines along the Bachelor Loop trail


The meadow that used to hold the camp of Bachelor about 12,500 feet up in the Rockies.


Sign for the Robert Ford grave site. You can't actually get to the site (it's been "closed for repairs", whatever that means, for decades)