The Florence and Cripple Creek Railroad (F&CC) was a 3-foot (917 mm) gauge (narrow gauge) railroad running northward from junctions with the Denver & Rio Grand Railroad at the mill towns of Florence and later moved to Cañon City, CO, on the banks of the Arkansas River, up steep and narrow Phantom Canyon to the Cripple Creek Mining District, west of Pikes Peak. Started in 1893, it was the first railroad to reach the new, booming mining district from the "outside world"; as a result it earned substantial profits in its first years. The railroad hauled people and goods into the mining district, and ore concentrates from the mines south for milling in Florence or transfer to the D&RG for milling in Pueblo, CO. The F&CC's first main terminal was located in Victor, the "second city" of the district; but its branch lines served many of the largest mines within the area.