Cripple Creek

Nobody knows which creek the title means. In 19th century American speech a "cripple" could be a swampy thicket or a rocky shallow in a stream. Folklorist Alan Jabbour found that the oldest fiddlers he met could remember first hearing the tune, and wondered whether it came from the gold rush and labor fights at Cripple Creek, Colorado, in the 1890s and early 1900s.

Fiddlin' Cowan Powers recorded it for Victor in 1924 and for Edison in 1925. Fiddlers and banjo players have played it ever since, in several keys and tunings.