Albuquerque citizen., 1908-04-15
ONE DRUNK COST
MILLIONS Of
DOLLARS
DiSCOverer of Cripple Creek
Sold His Find for $500 and
Then Told Everybody.

Denver. April l5.-The man who
discovered Cripple Creek and its
countless millions in gold is poor and
probably a hopeless invalid. There
are few visitors at a cottage at 419
NORTH Nevada avenue, Colorado
Springs. But there, impatient under
the restraint Of his affiction, Bob"
Womack waits for the day that he be-
lieves he shall be made whole again
an shall be able to shoulder a min
er's pick and go into the hills to dis
cover a new Cripple Creek Womack
confidently believes he will he able to
leave his cot and tap another stream
of yellow metal that will equal Grip
pie Creek He declares that he knows
where there is u gold camp that will
do all this and more. But no one
| blames Bob" for being secretive
| about it. He was deprived by a
strange freak of fortune of that which
was rghtfully his; he made million
aires out of many poor men and
| brought luxury to hundreds of other
| homes; for years he endured the
taunts of his friends who called him
! Crazy Bob" for his persistent effort
To transform an ordinary COW pasture
into the greatest gold mining camp in
America, an effort which was success
full, but from which Crazy Bob rear
ed only poverty and affliction.
Womack's father came to Colorado
i'm the early eos and went into min
ing. The father and sons, William
land Robert, engaged in the cattle
| raising business. After a time they
| transferred their stock to the fertile
range on the present site Of Cripple
Creek. Early in the sos they dis.
posed Of their stock and land In tina
district Bob" believing that that re-
gion possessed mining possibilities re-
maincd and did prospecting for min
eral on his own account
When lie Found the Gold.
one day, after a few years of uure
w9rded search. while riding th'
range" with his brother-in-laW. Theo
dore Lowe, "Bob" found traces o.
gold in "Hoat rock" He sent his com
pauiou with a piece of the STUFF I,
"A Denver asSayer. The assay roturne.
$3.50 iu gold to the ton.
ON receipt Of this news WOmaci
built log cabin n what is nov
known as Poverty Eulrh ana utNhl''
his time To development work II
JauuIry, 1891, he dug "a hole n tn
El Paso lode II the Gold King prop
,rty. now one of the best payin
mines iu the great gold camp. Wo
mack filed a location certificate o
three or four contiguous claims, an
90 few days later fired a blast into
houaUz4 vein.
But "Bob" could not stand pros
iprri'y i'm those days. He had leI
reckless life Bob" could punish am
amount of bad whisky, 50 the old
timers say, and it was while in Colo
RADIO Springs one day u uJere-
friends i'm his new discovery that %
"tlnkcl up" and disposed Of his bo
, nanza TO strangers for $500 cash. %
course the secret was out and "F"
ou the night Of the transaction hun
lred7 Of men were making their wa
across the Pixies Peak range - tn
scene Of the new find. "Bob," craze
by drink had ridden through IN
streets AS fast as his bronco ooul
carry him, waving his slx-shooter an
, | shoutin. the facts of his discovery {
an ne moi, BE il said 20 his cred
that me has not touched a drop Of llq
, uor since those days and that his sub
sequcnJ life was exemplary even be