93 Years Ago
The August 20, 1931 Colorado Transcript included unpleasant memories of the grasshopper infestations that plagued early Golden farmers.
The years 1875 and 1876 will be remembered by the pioneers as “the grasshopper years.” Great clouds of grasshoppers, so thick that they obscured the sun as they flew and drifted with the wind, devastated all the country around Golden. When the pests finally moved on there was no green thing left behind–even the trees were stripped of their leaves.
R. Broad Jr. was a boy on his father’s ranch on Ralston creek at that time. “The hoppers descended upon a field of 160 acres of corn so thickly that they made a thick, squirming blanket,” he said. “When they left the field was a desert, even the corn stalks had been eaten down to the ground. We did not raise a single thing on our farm that year.
“The hoppers were bad in 1875 but worse in 1876. In both years Ralston and Clear Creek valleys were virtually denuded by the pests.“
Richard Broad decided to get away from farming. He owned a dry goods store and a bank in Golden from 1887 to 1930. He served as City Councilor, Mayor, and State Senator and published many Golden history articles in the Transcript. He is buried in the Golden cemetery.
