Johnny Nolon's Casino in Cripple Creek
Johnny Nolon's Casino
301 East Bennett Avenue,
Cripple Creek, Colorado 80813-9569,
United States
Phone: (719) 689 2080
Website: johnnynolons.com/
About the Casino
Johnny Nolon’s Casino has been in business since 1991 and has and featues over 250 slot machines & video poker.
History of Johnny Nolon’s
It was in the fall of 1891 that a young Pony Express rider from St. Joseph, Missouri, came over to the top of Tenderfoot Hill and looked down on “The World’s Greatest Gold Camp,” Cripple Creek. The gold rush was just beginning, and it seemed every day a new strike was heard of. While everyone was busy reckoning a way to get up in “them thar hills” to stake their claims, Johnny Nolon was figuring it a little different. Noticing that the town lacked a good saloon and gambling house, and not being one for getting too dirty, he decided to open the Johnny Nolon Saloon & Gambling Emporium on the corner of Third and Bennett.
Because they kept their pool tables level, cleaned the spittoons regularly, and stocked only the finest liquors and cigars, the establishment was known as the “Gentlemen’s Popular Resort.” District mining magnates, the likes of Stratton, Penrose, and Tutt, frequented Johnny Nolon’s, drinking and playing games of chance such as roulette, poker, and faro.
Through the next 14 years, Johnny endeared himself to the people of Cripple Creek by always being there for them. When a man was homeless or down on his luck, he could count on Johnny for a free meal and, when winter came, a blanket and a pool table to sleep on. When no one volunteered to pay for the funeral of the infamous Cripple Creek madam, Pearl DeVere, Johnny stepped up and footed the bill. Other stories of Johnny Nolon are too many to mention here, but are recorded in the many books written about the legendary Gold Camp of Cripple Creek.
The passage of Amendment 4 in 1990 allowing limited stakes gambling in Cripple Creek represented the “Second Gold Strike”. More than a hundred years later, Johnny Nolon’s yet stands in all its glory and grandeur as a tribute to that young Pony Express rider from St. Joe.
