Continuing our celebration of Heart and Soul of Golden month, this is the eighth in a series of articles describing the histories of Golden Cultural Alliance members (and the third about Foothills Art Center!). Volunteers are the bedrock of Golden's cultural community, and this article describes a particularly notable one.
The July 16, 1974 Golden Transcript reported that School of Mines President Guy McBride was rejecting a request by students to build a monument to their late friend and mentor, Den Galbraith. The proposed monument would have been built of native stone, topped by a bronze plaque, and placed near Stratton Hall.
Who was Den Galbraith? He grew up in California and was “invited” to participate in World War II, serving as a tank commander in Patton’s Third Army, and participating in the Battle of the Bulge. After the war, two friends were planning to attend the School of Mines. They invited him to go with them, so he did. They asked what he wanted to study, and he said he’d take whatever they were taking. Thus, he became a mining geologist. After graduation he worked in oil exploration and uranium prospecting.
His real interests, though, lay in writing and community participation. He wrote a series of 26 articles about Golden history for the Golden Transcript. He wrote for national magazines such as True West. He wrote romantic western novels that he wouldn’t show anyone.
He volunteered so relentlessly at the fledgling Foothills Arts Center that he was named their Director for the first two years (an unpaid position). He also served on the board of the Jefferson Symphony. He was acting as a project advisor for a group of Mines student when he suddenly died of a stroke at the age of 56 on April 10, 1974.
Though the on-campus memorial was nixed, he received an even greater honor. In 1977, Tom Lyons of the Golden Landmarks Association discovered that the mountain on the north side of the mouth of Clear Creek Canyon was unnamed. He learned that the responsibility for naming mountains fell to the United States Board on Geographic Names. The guidelines stated that a mountain had to be unnamed, must be near the location where the honoree accomplished important things, and that the honoree must no longer be living. His application to name one of Golden’s mountains after Den Galbraith was approved.
Mt. Galbraith Park is now one of the most popular hiking areas in the Jefferson County Open Space system.
