From Gregory Gulch to the Gaming Floor: A Short History of Black Hawk

Most guests who walk into our lobby have no idea they're standing in a building that predates Colorado statehood by seventeen years. Black Hawk's story starts in the spring of 1859, when a prospector named John H. Gregory followed a promising vein up a narrow gulch west of what's now Denver and found gold. Word traveled fast, and by summer the gulch that took his name had turned into one of the busiest mining camps in the territory.

A Mill Town, Not Just a Mining Camp

What set Black Hawk apart from a lot of boomtowns was its role: while nearby Central City handled the actual mining, Black Hawk grew up as the milling and smelting town lower in the gulch, where the water and rail access were better suited to processing ore. By the 1870s it had brick storefronts, a narrow-gauge rail spur, and a population that at its peak rivaled early Denver's. The street grid laid down then — tight lots wedged against the canyon wall, buildings built right up to the sidewalk — is still the grid the town runs on today.

The Long Decline

Gold production in the district slowed through the late 1800s and never really recovered. By the mid-20th century, Gregory Street was a stretch of half-occupied buildings, its brick facades intact but its upper floors mostly empty. Black Hawk spent decades as a town with more history than economy, known mostly to Colorado history buffs and a handful of longtime residents.

Some of the buildings on Gregory Street sat essentially untouched from the 1930s through the early 1990s — which is part of why so much original brick survived to be built around later.

The 1991 Vote

Everything changed on a single ballot measure. In November 1991, Colorado voters approved limited-stakes gaming for three historic mining towns — Black Hawk, Central City, and Cripple Creek — as a way to fund historic preservation with gaming tax revenue. Investment arrived almost immediately. Storefronts that had sat vacant for a generation were bought, stabilized, and built up from, and Gregory Street went from a quiet historic district to one of the busiest gaming corridors in the state.

Where Imperial Peak Fits In

We opened our doors in 1999, on four adjoining lots that had been vacant since the 1970s. The brick facade guests see from the street is original 1860s construction; everything behind and above it — nine guest floors, a full gaming floor, four kitchens — was built new around those old walls. It's a slower and more expensive way to build a resort, but it's also why a piece of that original wall is still visible behind our front desk today.

The Takeaway

Black Hawk isn't a themed casino town built to look historic — it's an actual 1859 mining town that found a second use for its old buildings. Walking Gregory Street after dark, with casino neon lighting up 150-year-old brick, is about as close as Colorado gets to seeing both eras of the town's story at once.