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Prospector at the Central City Opera House

Arthur Lakes Library
Colorado Digitization Project
Russell L. and Lyn Wood Mining History Archive
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1941
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Abstract
Postcard showing a prospector and burro at the Central City Opera House. The caption on photograph NMHFM-231 identifies this person as Frank Gimlet, the hermit of Arbor Villa. Gimlet, aka Frank E. Gimlett, lived on the site of the abandoned mining town of Arbourville, Chaffee County. He authored “Over Trails of Yesterday,” a series of tales and poems, and entertained tourists in the 1940s.This photograph was taken in 1941, and the productions at the Opera House that year were The Barber of Seville and Orpheus. The Central City Opera House opened on March 4, 1878. It was built at a cost of $32,000, of granite with interior brick fire walls, and seated 500 with an additional 250 seats in the gallery. The Opera House helped make Central City the cultural capital of the state, but this was short-lived. By the early 1880s, Central City had begun to decline economically and socially. In 1881 the Opera House was purchased by Gilpin County for $8,000.
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