Central City grew out of the 1859 discovery of the Gregory Lode by John Gregory just east of the present town, and within weeks a gold rush swelled the population to 10,000 as fortune seekers arrived. William Byers and companions camped at the center of the mining district, and the settlement soon became Colorado’s leading mining center, known as “the richest square mile on earth.” The town gained a reputation for rough amusements as well as prosperity, recording numerous fist fights, revolver fights, and Bowie knife fights in 1861 without a death, and even the 1871 Republican Convention turned chaotic when the second floor of Washington Hall collapsed onto the recorder’s office below without injuring the 200 men. The Teller House Hotel was built in 1872 and was said to be the finest hotel west of the Mississippi River, and in 1873 President Ulysses S. Grant visited Henry Teller there; mine owners laid 26 silver ingots to form a path to the entrance, but legend says Grant refused to walk on them. In 1874, fire destroyed most of Central City’s buildings, after which the business district was rebuilt in brick and stone, leaving the city with much of its historic appearance still intact. The Central City Opera House opened in 1878 and began a tradition of community theater, opera, and vaudeville, with performers including Buffalo Bill and P.T. Barnum’s circus artists. Over the years, Central City was also associated with Marie Curie’s radium studies through pitchblende mined south of the Glory Hole Mine, with public health pioneer Florence Sabin, with the first Stetson hat made by John B. Stetson, and with the first manufacture of Douglas Shoes. Much of the city’s nineteenth-century architecture survives, including Henry Teller’s Law Office and many buildings along Eureka, Lawrence, and Main streets, protected by ordinance and further preservation efforts supported by proceeds from limited gambling.