Gold mining has played an integral role in shaping the history of Colorado, going back to before it officially became a state 150 years ago.

The Pikes Peak Gold Rush, started in 1858, brought tens of thousands of prospectors to the region, inspired by dreams of striking it rich. The mining boom led to the development of the Colorado Territory and its eventual naming as the 38th U.S. state in 1876.

It’s a history that Lowe Billingsley knows well, having spent nearly four decades in the mining industry.

“Mining was the foundation for the development of civilization in a lot of places around our great state,” said Billingsley, general manager of the Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mine.

“Places that most people think of as ski towns today — Aspen, Crested Butte, Ouray, Silverton, Breckenridge — these were all originally mining towns.”

A fifth-generation Coloradan who grew up in Colorado Springs, Billingsley and his family are themselves part of the state’s mining history. His great-great-grandfather mined in Cripple Creek during the boom years after gold was discovered there in 1891 and was there around the same time as Winfield Scott Stratton, Cripple Creek’s first millionaire.

Billingsley joined the profession almost by accident. He graduated from Colorado College with a geology degree but no real plan. A job posting on a bulletin board — “Anyone remember bulletin boards?” he joked — led to an entry-level job as a field geologist in southern Colorado. He worked at the Cripple Creek mine 1989–2009 before joining the company’s executive team out of Denver. He then returned to CC&V as general manager, which he views as a homecoming of sorts.

“That kind of opportunity doesn’t often come up in one’s career — the chance to return to a place that helped mold and shape who you are,” Billingsley said. “It’s funny how life plays out.”

For some people, the mining industry conjures an old-timey image of a prospector with a pickax and a donkey, Billingsley said.

“When I tell people what I do for a living, they wonder if I have a donkey,” he joked.

The reality, he said, is an industry that relies on a number of different disciplines and uses state-of-the art technology nearly every day. Computer software helps geologists tell ore from waste. GPS helps guide equipment around the mine. Survey crews use drones nearly every day, making operations safer and more efficient.

“The old-school survey teams of 12-16 people have been replaced with a crew of four, three of whom are licensed drone pilots,” Billingsley said. “With the incorporation of technology into what we do, we’re able to make better decisions.”

Technology has streamlined the process, and the mining operation incorporates a wide variety of disciplines, including geologists engineers, accountants, welders, emergency medical technicians, geologists and other skills that might surprise people outside the industry, Billingsley said.

But the heavy work of extracting and transporting gold is still done by machines. The Cripple Creek and Victor mine operates a fleet of 18 haul trucks, each capable of hauling 250 tons.

A typical “monster truck” is about 12 feet tall. So is each tire on CC&V’s haul trucks. A single tire costs about $35,000, Billingsley said.

The mine is a major economic driver for Teller County, he said. Between the 450 people directly employed by the company, and the jobs the mine creates, the operation generates more than $600 million annually for the economy of Teller County alone. Across Teller, Fremont and El Paso counties, the impact exceeds $700 million annually while supporting roughly 650 direct and indirect jobs, officials said.

For 150 years, gold mining has been a part of Colorado’s identity, from the Cripple Creek gold that covers the state Capitol dome, to the naming of the state’s NBA team, the Denver Nuggets. Billingsley said he is proud to be a part of that legacy.

“We have fathers and sons who have worked this mine, and families whose livelihoods have been sustained by this mine for decades,” he said. “The best thing about this industry is its people. They are good, hardworking people with a real passion for what they do. ”