Famous Wild West Brothel

Cripple Creek, Colorado

The Old Homestead was once one of the world's fanciest brothels, serving the wealthiest men in the gold boom town of Cripple Creek, Colorado.

Turned into a museum in 1958, the Old Homestead is Cripple Creek's last standing cathouse -- famous for its ghosts and its "viewing room," where clients would peek through an indoor window to make their selection of unclothed women.

Charlotte Bumgarner, one of a group of local ladies who runs the museum, said that the Old Homestead has been owned by a half-dozen of different banks and casinos in the past few years. At one point its landlord even shut the museum down. "They were gettin' ready to take the furniture out of here," she said. "They even took some of the rooms away and turned them into office space."

Fortunately, not the viewing room.