30 years ago – November 9, 1990
By the time the polls closed on Tuesday night, the Gold Coin Saloon and the Black Forest Inn were packed with folks anxiously following the progress of Amendment 4. Locals, herds of television cameramen, downstream newspaper reporters and other interested observers were all caught up in the festive atmosphere. The mood was fueled by early returns indicated that the limited gambling proposal was favored by slightly more than half of Colorado voters. It became more and more giddy as more and more precincts reported favorable results. By 9:30 it was all over but the shouting—and that had just begun. Champagne corks flew at the Coin, and the crowd toasted what many see as the new prosperity for Gilpin County. “The boom is back!” heralded one banner. Even while the change was being toasted, a few voiced the fear that perhaps all the changes would not be for the better. As the camera crews packed up to leave and the crowd thinned, one local said, “Look around you. How many faces do you recognize?” And, indeed, by that time roughly half the celebrants were obviously not who you’d expect to encounter on a November night in Central City. Not only were their faces unfamiliar, many were dressed in styles perhaps more amenable to wheeling and dealing in metropolitan social circles. “Live here!” exclaimed one fellow who recently bought three properties in Black Hawk’s commercial district—the sale contingent on passage of Amendment 4. “I own half of Black Hawk!”
Letter to the Editor: A lot of people get The Little Kingdom Come, but it seems that not everybody “gets it.” Take our article about the Register-Call v. Advocate plagiarism thing. Please. It appears that both papers—and many readers—took it seriously. It was supposed to be just a joke, but one paper is damning us, and the other is thanking us. Both, in our view, are wrong. We would like to make this clear: The lawsuit between the two papers is real. And serious. The LKC is neither—and we are not taking sides. Sincerely, Lew Cady, Editor, The Little Kingdom Come.
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