page_title: Clear Creek (Colorado)
section_title: Colorado gold rush
hierarchical_section_title: Clear Creek (Colorado) / Colorado gold rush
context_page_description: Clear Creek is a tributary of the South Platte River, approximately 66 miles long, in north central Colorado in the United States. The creek flows through Clear Creek Canyon in the Rocky Mountains directly west of Denver, descending through a long gorge to emerge on the Colorado Eastern Plains where it joins the South Platte. Clear Creek is unusual in that it is a stream named "creek" fed by a stream named "river"; typically "rivers" are fed by "creeks", and are larger bodies of water, although the nomenclature is ambiguous and there is no clear system. Fall River empties into Clear Creek along I-70 west of Idaho Springs, Colorado.
context_section_description: The creek is famous as the location of the most intense early mining activity during the Colorado Gold Rush of 1859. Mountain man Jim Baker had a cabin on the creek from 1873 until his death in 1898.  The creek provided the route of the Colorado Central Railroad, and later for U.S. Highway 6 and Interstate 70 as they ascend to the Continental Divide west of Denver.
caption: Stereoscopic view - Silver ore train, Clear Creek Canyon - about 1868?
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