Cherry Creek

The town of Cherry Creek before you was part of a network of mining districts that operated in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including the Gold Canyon district in Egan Canyon, five miles to the south.

Peter Corning and John Carpenter helped start the town of Cherry Creek when they staked the Tea Cup gold claim in 1872, resulting in a boom and the development of a town.  At the town’s peak in 1882, it boasted a population of over 1,800.  While production fluctuated, Cherry Creek continued to produce gold and silver ore into the 1940s.

Egan Canyon to the south was part of the 1855 route established by Howard Egan and the Mormon Battalion, and surveyed for use in 1859 by the U.S. Army.  By 1860, the Pony Express placed a change station at the west opening of the canyon.  Between 1861 and 1869, Butterfield’s Overland Mail and Stage established a station here that grew into a small temporary town.

In 1863, soldiers from Fort Ruby discovered gold in the canyon, leading to the creation of the town of Egan and a mining district.  By 1865 there were three stamp mills in Egan processing ore from the district.  Like Cherry Creek, to the north, Egan boomed and busted into the 1920s before mining ceased.

STATE HISTORICAL MARKER No. 52

STATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICE

WHITE PINE PUBLIC MUSEUM INC.