Weekend Plans
Foothills Art Center is hosting an Open House at The Astor House this Sunday from 1-4pm. Staff and Volunteers will be onsite to answer questions about the upcoming renovations and gather stories from community members about their personal history and experiences with the Astor House. The event itself is free and you don’t need to register, but tour spots, led by Community Connections, LLC., are limited, and pre-registration is recommended to secure a spot. Register now at https://www.foothillsartcenter.org/calendar/astor-house-open-house
Virtual Events
10AM Call In: Mid-Morning Meditation
10-10:55AM Awareness Through Movement
11-11:55AM HIIT & Sculpt
3-5PM Hard Times Writing Workshop
Real World Events
9:15-9:45AM Baby Time @ Golden Library
10:15-10:45AM Toddler Time @ Golden Library
11AM-12:30PM Golden Community Table @ First United Methodist Church
11:30AM-1PM Library for All @ Golden Library
6PM Planning Commission – Continuation of the CoorsTek Rezoning Case @ City Hall
The Planning Commission continues to evaluate CoorsTek’s rezoning application. If you want to review the relevant documents, check the meeting packets from April 6th, April 18th, and tonight.
6-9PM Mini Paint Night @ Golden Game Guild
6PM Run Club @ Runners Roost
7-9PM Don’t Blow It – Wind Power’s Legal Perils @ Jefferson Unitarian Church
7PM The Importance of Being Earnest @ Golden High School
7:30PM Blue Ridge @ Miners Alley Playhouse
Live Music
5-8PM Uncle Jay & Michael Nunnik @ Goosetown Station
6-9PM Jon Ridnell @ Buffalo Rose (Sky Bar Stage)
6-9PM Ghost Town Drifters @ New Terrain Brewing
6PM Open Pick Night @ Over Yonder Brewing
8PM Karaoke @ Rock Rest Lodge
Golden History Moment
118 Years Ago
The April 28, 1904 Colorado Transcript announced a new business in the Clear Creek valley. A company intended to do placer mining in the creek bed, about where Mcintyre street now crosses the creek (map). The plan was to pull out every square yard of dirt from the bottom of the creek and run it through a floating dredging machine. Any gold they found would be extracted and the waste rock and dirt would be cast aside. They proposed doing this until they reached bedrock below the creek.
Two of these boats are to be built here, each to be 110 feet long and 38 feet wide. A large force of carpenters is now at work on the ways from which the boats will be launched…. The bars along Clear creek yield all the way from 50 cents to six and eight dollars per yard, so that it is easily seen that this company has a big thing.
Colorado Transcript – April 28, 1904
It took several months to build the boats (which were christened “Eleanor No. 2” and “Eleanor No. 3”), but they were launched with some ceremony in August of that year. It took two more months to install the dredging equipment, which was powered by electricity.
Eleanor No. 2 one of the big dredges located at Placer, two miles down the creek from Golden, started up yesterday, the initial scooping having been done about noon. Eleanor No. 3 is not quite so far advanced, but will be ready for operation shortly. We learn that a third dredge of the same capacity as the other two has been contracted for and will be located in the near vicinity.
Colorado Transcript – October 27, 1904
The Silverton Standard wrote about Golden’s dredges in May of 1905, remarking that the process was not open to the public, because it was a trade secret. The editors speculated that the dredges would produce a “five-figure” return in 1905. The Mining Investor (a Colorado Springs-based newspaper) reported that Golden’s dredges averaged “as high as 50 cents per cubic yard” in 1905.
The dredges operated for a couple of years. They were disassembled and removed in September of 1907.
I’ve always found these dredges puzzling. Did they really float? In Clear Creek? In October?
Thanks to the Golden History Museum for providing the online cache of historic Transcripts, and to the Golden Transcript for documenting our history since 1866!
