Gold Crater Mining Company

Gold Crater Mining Company, Cripple Creek Gold Mining District, Colorado

Signed by W. S. Stratton, Cripple Creek’s first gold baron, discoverer of the Independence Mine.

Company owned the properties of the Summit Mining & Milling Co. and the Premium Gold Mining Co.; including the Lady Stith, Close Shave, Deer Horn, Deer Horn No. 2, Pride of the Rockies; 35 acres on Globe Hill; and the Callie claim, 5 acres on.

Stratton believed that by consolidating these properties he could pursue his hypothesis that there were several geologic vents from which all the gold in the Cripple Creek District was deposited.