Madam De Vere and the working girls of Cripple Creek.
One of the richest gold strikes in the West occurred in Cripple Creek, Colorado in the 1890s. Naturally it attracted an army of working girls to “Mine the Miners.”
Among them was Pearl De Vere. She first became a prostitute in Denver when she was 14 or 15, around 1873. By 1893, she moved to Cripple Creek and opened the “Homestead,” which catered to the wealthiest clientele. Pearl reportedly got a thousand dollars for her “personal service.” But her life ended tragically; she accidentally overdosed on opium in 1897.