 As growth continued in the Cripple Creek area, Smith, Moffat and two other investors began building the Florence and Cripple Creek Railroad (F&CC) in 1893.Moffat, president of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, saw the chance to expand his business as well as skim profits off the lucrative Cripple Creek mining operations.The owners decided to build a railroad from Florence to Cripple Creek to ship ore to the mills in Florence.