The historic City of Central, commonly known as Central City, is a home rule municipality located in Gilpin and Clear Creek counties, Colorado, United States. Central City is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Gilpin County. The city population was 779, all in Gilpin County, at the 2020 United States Census. The city is a historic mining deal founded in 1859 during the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush and came to be known as the “Richest Square Mile upon Earth”. Central City and the adjacent city of Black Hawk form the federally designated Central City/Black Hawk Historic District. The city is now a part of the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Front Range Urban Corridor.

On May 6, 1859, during the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush, John H. Gregory found a gold-bearing vein (the Gregory Lode) in Gregory Gulch between Black Hawk and Central City. Within two months many supplementary veins were discovered, including the Bates, Gunnell, Kansas, and Burroughs. By 1860, as many as 10,000 prospectors had flocked to the town, then known as Mountain City, and surrounding prospects, but most soon left, many returning east. The 1900 census showed 3,114 people.

The year 1863 brought the first attempt by hard rock miners to form a hard stone miners’ union. Of 125 miners signing a union unmovable in Central City, about fifty broke windows and doors at the Bob Tail mine, forcing further workers out. After a night of shooting and fighting, the sticking to effort in the middle of Central City miners failed.

Many Chinese immigrants lived in Central City during the early days energetic the placer deposits of Gregory Gulch. They were prohibited work in the underground mines. Most of them are believed to have returned to China after making their stake.