140 Years Ago
The March 18, 1885 Colorado Transcript included an article about Arbor Day. The author praises the work done on the previous Arbor Day to plant hundreds of trees in city park (“where scarce a tree that was planted has died”). The general plan for 1885 was to continue the work of planting in the park.
This article had a different suggestion. He thought the townsfolk should focus on our principal streets
…so that the town may be embowered with trees, contributing a refreshing green and a cool shade for the summer months. Washington Avenue, our most prominent street, is singularly the one with fewest trees on it. Picture to yourself what it would look like if from the railroad to the courthouse it was lined with a real avenue of trees.
The railroad crossed Washington Avenue at 8th Street and the courthouse topped the hill at 15th and Washington, so the author was envisioning seven blocks of trees. He suggested that the city install a ditch running down from the courthouse to keep the trees watered.
Washington Avenue certainly has more trees now than it did in 1885, with Parfet Park providing a particularly welcome oasis at 10th Street. It will probably never be the overarching canopy that the author envisioned. The commercial buildings in the 11th-14th Streets span are too close to the street to allow for big trees through that section. Besides–the merchants want their stores to be clearly visible from the street, not obscured by trees.
The article is signed “A. L.”–no full name given. The final paragraph provides some good clues.
We often wish we could restore to Golden the foliage sealed up in stone on Table Mountains where we find in a fossil state the leaves of a rich tropical vegetation ages ago passed away, such as the feathery palm trees… If we could call a resurrection of all these that would be an arbor day that would astonish our Goldenites. You can see these leaves in stone at any time at the School of Mines Museum.
My guess would be that “A. L.” was Arthur Lakes, pioneering archaeologist, professor of geology, and keeper of the School of Mines Museum at that time!
Golden will celebrate Arbor Day on April 26th (11AM-1PM) by planting trees and giving away seedlings at the Golden Cemetery.
