Coronavirus/COVID-19
Public Health References
CDC * Colorado * Jefferson County * City of Golden
Jefferson County is at Level Red, “Severe Risk.” New stats will be posted on the Jeffco Public Health website this afternoon.
Mines COVID Testing | Jeffco Fairgrounds COVID Testing | School of Mines COVID-19 case page. | City and County fire restrictions | Sign up for exposure notifications.
Letters to Santa
The Golden Visitors Center is accepting letters to Santa. If they are received by December 15th, they will receive a response!
You can drop off the letters in person when the Center is open–Mon, Thurs, Fri, and Saturday from 10AM-4PM. Alternatively, you can mail them to
Golden Visitors Center
Attn: Santa Claus
1010 Washington Avenue
Golden, CO 80401
In either case, be sure to include a return address, so Santa can mail his response.
Virtual Golden
6-6:55AM Virtual Dynamic Circuit
8:30-9:30AM Virtual Power Training
10AM-5PM Holiday Art Market
10:15AM Spanish Story Time with the Library
2PM Active Minds – Putin’s Russia – JCPL
4PM Kids Martial Arts Class – JCPL
4:30PM Young Readers Book Club – Mythology – JCPL
6:30PM Historic Preservation Board Study Session
HPB will discuss the South Neighborhoods Plan, which is currently under revision and open for public comment. They will also discuss their plans and goals for 2021.
7PM QSS Nav: Ski Touring – Colorado Mountain Club
Golden History Moment
50 Years Ago
The December 7, 1970 Golden Transcript featured an article about the always-newsworthy G.H. Stuart salvage yard on Ford Street. At that time, he had a World War I German German artillery piece in front of the office. The article also mentioned his treasure trove of old hubcaps, stove grates, and vintage hardware. He also sold firewood and coal. (“Some of the mountain people still use it for heating,” Stuart said.) (Every time I read about that place, I want to shop there.)
In a sign of the times, the paper told of a Golden restaurant (unnamed) which had been forced by the health department to remove their Shell No Pest Strips. These were yellow plastic strips impregnated with pesticide, marketed for indoor use. The restaurant had “at least 10” hanging over the tables, but since they contained a DDT derivative, the Food and Drug Administration had ruled that they were not suitable for use in restaurants.
The same issue included an editorial regarding the Golden Post Office. For the past five Decembers, the Post Office had been renting the Golden Recreation Center (the building that now houses the library) as a parcel post center. The Transcript opined that the Recreation Center was particularly needed for recreation at that time of year, since kids were out of school for the winter break.
Golden’s Post Office, which had been built in 1941, was too small to accommodate our post-World War II growth. The town’s population had grown from 3,175 in 1940 to 9,817 in 1970. The volume of parcel post business increased every December, as a result of holiday gift-giving.
The postal service had tried to solve this problem by building a new post office on Jackson Street. The building had collapsed, mid-construction, in September of 1969, killing one worker. This is the property across from Safeway, which now holds the new sophomore apartments for the School of Mines. A year later, the Postal Service had lost interest in expanding Golden’s Post Office, so the local postmaster continued to rent the rec center during December.
This arrangement lasted for one more year, but City Council then chose not to renew the contract, and by 1972 the Post Office was renting temporary space in Pleasant View. The “new” post office on Johnson road, built in 1998, finally alleviated the problem.
Many 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!
