Stratton: Named for a Gold King

The little town of Stratton on Colorado's eastern plains carries the name of one of the state's most celebrated gold miners. Winfield Scott Stratton was a Colorado Springs carpenter who spent years prospecting before striking it rich on Cripple Creek in eighteen ninety-one. His Independence Mine made him the first Cripple Creek millionaire, and he spent much of his fortune endowing a home for the poor in Colorado Springs.

He died in nineteen oh two. Stratton the town was incorporated on April fifteenth, nineteen seventeen, as homesteaders settled the high plains of Kit Carson County. The town today is small and quiet, a small town surrounded by farmland and sky.