Hair, Western Night, and Parfet Clay

*Golden Eye Candy – Richard Luckins – Morning at the Guy Hill Schoolhouse – enlarge*

Virtual Events

9-9:55AM Silver Sneakers Classic
9-10AM Zumba
10-10:30AM Call In: Mid-Morning Meditation
11-11:55AM HIIT & Sculpt

Real World Events

8-10AM DeLong Park Weedbusters @ DeLong Park
9:15-9:45AM Baby Time @ Golden Library
4-5PM Wild West Short Tour
10:15-10:45AM Toddler Time @ Golden Library
11AM-12:30PM Golden Community Table @ First United Methodist Church

5:30-7:30PM Women’s Clothing Swap – Drop Off @ 1st Baptist Church (map)
Free clothing swap! Women’s clothing, maternity, shoes, bras, and accessories!

Step 1 (optional): Drop off new or gently used donations on Thurs/Fri evening: Sept 8th or 9th, 5:30-7:30PM

Step 2: Return Saturday morning to choose your free, “new” clothes: Sept 10th, 9:30AM-12PM

Invite your friends – the more the merrier! More information. Questions? Email goldenwomensclothingswap@gmail.com (All monetary donations will benefit MOPS of Golden.)

6PM Run Club @ Runners Roost

6:15-7:15PM Belly Dance @ PranaTonic

6:30PM Economic Development Commission Meeting @ City Hall
Staff will report on their business retention, economic development initiatives, and prospect activity, as well as their efforts to hire an economic development specialist.

7:30PM HAIR @ Miners Alley Playhouse

Live Music

5-8PM Kory Montgomery @ Golden Mill
5-8PM Soul School @ Goosetown Station
5PM Josh Blackburn @ Wrigley’s
5:30PM Poor Till Payday @ Dirty Dogs Roadhouse

6-9PM Johnny O @ Buffalo Rose (Sky Bar Stage)
6-9PM Dave A’Bear & Friends @ New Terrain Brewing
6:30-8:30PM Live Music @ Tributary Food Hall
8PM Karaoke @ Rock Rest Lodge

Upcoming Fun!

*Plan to attend on September 24th – tickets*

The Friends of the Golden History Museum & Park (GHMP) will hold their annual fundraiser September 24, 2022, at the Golden History Museum on 10th Street.

Western Night at the Museum will feature chuckwagon bar-be-que from Seasoned Swine food truck, Coors beer, live western music from Golden’s own Derek Hall and great doorprizes from local merchants including Baby Doe’s, Barrels & Bottles, and Natural Grocers.

Wear your dusty boots, your favorite jeans and your cowboy hat and join the fun.

Can’t make it that night? Consider buying a ticket as a donation and have your name entered in the doorprize drawings. Buy Tickets Now!

Golden Geology Moment

George (G.W.) Parfet and Family – Golden History Museum collection

The Parfet Connection
Brick-clay mining was the domain of the Parfet family for 124 years beginning with George (G.W.) Parfet (1859-1924) in 1877 and ending with his heirs in 2002. At the ripe age of 19 years old, G.W. Parfet, Sr. took his knowledge of underground coal mining and applied it to clay mining on land in the Laramie Formation at the end of today’s 12th Street. Initially called the Parfet #1 or the White Ash Clay Mine, it eventually became known as the Rubey Mine due to financing from H.M. Rubey and W.S. Woods on land leased from the Colorado Limited Company owned by W.A.H. Loveland.

*Fig. 79. Historic clay mines in the Golden area. Locations compiled from Geijsbeek (1901), Patton (1904), Van Sant (1959), Amuedo et al. (1978), old topographic maps, and aerial photographs.*

After mining coal for others as a teen, Parfet now had a clay mine of his own.²¹⁶ Not limiting himself to brick-clay, G.W. Parfet’s “empire” soon included fire-clay mines. He operated the Santa Fe Mine in the Dakota Formation along Eagle Ridge, and the Apex 10, South Golden, and Parfet mines on the Dakota Hogback between Lena Gulch and south of I-70 (Fig. 79). Principal customers were the Cambria Brick and Tile Company in Golden (13th and East Street) and the Denver Sewer Pipe and Brick Company. Continuing his legacy, his son (G.W. Parfet, Jr., 1889-1940), grandson (William “Bill” G. Parfet, 1918-1998), and great-grandson (William “Chip” G. Parfet, Jr. 1946-present) operated four Laramie brick-clay mines in addition to the Rubey Mine: the Rockwell, Rubey Standard, Apex and North Apex, and Green Mountain Mines (Fig. 79).

Fig. 82. Laramie clay mines in central Golden showing the active Rockwell and Rubey Standard Mines in September 1990. The Rubey Mine ended operation in 1964 when it was transferred to Colorado School of Mines. The Hoyt Mine ended operations around 1901. Aerial photograph from Colorado Aerial Service, used with permission.

While clay from the Parfet-family mines in south Golden was mined out by 1953 ²¹⁷, the family continued clay mining in the Laramie Formation in central Golden until August 2002, a mining legacy of 125 years (1877-2002)!

Fig. 85. Plaque at the 11th Hole on Fossil Trace Golf Course commemorating Parfet and partners’ donation of the clay pits to the City of Golden. – enlarge

Over time, the many Parfet-family mine-sites were developed for housing and government buildings or reclaimed for recreation and open space. The worked-out Rubey Mine was deeded to the School of Mines in 1964 in exchange for clay-bearing acreage further south. The Rockwell Mine was donated to the City of Golden in 2002 to be used for part of the Fossil Trace Golf Course (Fig. 85). Part of the Rubey Standard Mine was sold to Jefferson County as the site for the Laramie Building, completed in 2005. Another worked-out part of the Rubey Standard Mine became The Splash Water Park, owned by the City of Golden. The North Apex Mine was developed as a mobile-home park, whereas the Apex Mine became a Jefferson County landfill, operated from 1958 to 1980. In 2007 the landfill was reclaimed for the Rooney Road Athletic Complex.

*This photo of the Kiwanis hauling junk away from the future Parfet Park was taken in the mid-1920s and published in the 6/22/72 Golden Transcript – enlarge*

²¹⁶ The Golden Kiwanis Club established Parfet Park in 1929 on the southeast corner of Washington Avenue and 10th Street in honor of its first president George W. Parfet, Sr. Parfet Park is the oldest park in Golden and is also the site of the Boston Company’s 1859 first log building in Golden. Also, as a major environmental and olfactory improvement, the Park replaced the town dump.

²¹⁷ Bill (William G.) Parfet recounted the post-1940 clay operations in a 1977 interview by Bill Ryder of the Colorado Railroad Museum (Parfet and Ryder, 1977).

This was an excerpt from Golden Rocks: The Geology and Mining History of Golden, Colorado by Donna Anderson and Paul Haseman.

The authors have granted me permission to reprint excerpts, but I recommend that you read the whole book. You can buy a copy from the Lulu website, borrow one from the library (there’s a waiting list!), or read it online for free, courtesy of the School of Mines library.