Frank and Harry Woods paid $1,000 in 1893 for a 136-acre placer claim and laid out the town of Victor. The name came from Victor Adams, one of the original homesteaders.
Since the town was built on a placer deposit, the Woods brothers advertised that every lot was a gold mine. Certainly each lot had that potential, and the lots sold well. The brothers decided that the growing town needed a first class hotel. While Frank Woods was grading the foundation, he probably was not thinking that every lot was truly a gold mine. However, he struck a 20-inch vein of rich gold ore on a claim called the Gold Coin. Frank filed the claim and soon the Gold Coin was bringing in a respectable $50,000 a month.
Mine: Gold Coin Mine.
Where: Teller County.
What: Remains of hoist house near the Victor town center. Mine closed to the public.
Although Victor was founded two years later than Cripple Creek, it soon grew almost as large. The two towns were not at all alike, however, as Cripple Creek became the business and entertainment center of the region. Victor became "The City of Mines" with the richest mining area, Battle Mountain, immediately above town and the Gold Coin in the middle of town.
The Woods brother's Gold Coin Mine dominated Victor's business district. Its head frame and hoist house gave Victor a rough and tumble appearance. Railroad tracks cut through town at odd angles, and a trolley car line ran down its main street. The streets were dirt with wooden boardwalks on either side in the business district. Water was in short supply and sold for five cents a bucket from a horse-drawn tank wagon. However, these primitive conditions failed to keep Victor from growing to nearly 8,000 by 1896.
In August 1899, Victor suffered a disastrous fire. It started in a shack behind a dance hall and destroyed 200 buildings leaving 3,000 people homeless. The firemen were hopelessly understaffed and lacked sufficient fire-fighting equipment. Also, there wasn't enough water to put out the blaze. The fire also consumed the surface structures of the Gold Coin Mine and the elegant Gold Coin Club, built by the Woods brothers for the entertainment of Victor's residents.
The hoist house for the Gold Coin was rebuilt of brick and stone. Sporting stained glass windows, it was the most elaborate mining structure of its type in the American West. A bath and lockers were included for the miners along with a reading room complete with tables, the latest periodicals and the best books. No money was spared rebuilding the Gold Coin Club either, also constructed of more durable brick. The new building contained a gymnasium, bowling alleys, ballroom, indoor pool and game room. For the intellectual it also had a 700-volume library.
The ruins of the Gold Coin Mine sit only a half block above Victor's main street. The only equipment that remains are the twin hoist drums.
Kenneth Jessen has been a Loveland resident since 1965. He is an author of 18 books and more than 1,300 articles. He was an engineer for Hewlett-Packard for 33 years and now works as a full-time author, lecturer and guide.