WHAT’S HAPPENING IN GOLDEN TODAY?
10AM-12PM Rocky Mountain Quilt Study Group @ Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum
10AM-4PM Beginning Quilting Class @ Golden Quilt Company
10:15-10:45AM Toddler Time @ Golden Library
10:30AM and 1:30PM The Friday Tour @ Colorado Railroad Museum
12PM 11th Anniversary Celebration @ Cannonball Creek Brewing
12-12:55PM All Levels Yoga (Virtual)
1-1:45PM Silver Sneakers Yoga (Virtual)
4-7PM Family Climb Night @ American Mountaineering Center
6-8PM Country Line Dancing Class @ Morris & Mae
Celebrate Western Heritage Days in Golden with a FREE line dancing class. Morris & Mae offers six different restaurants and is family friendly.
7:30PM Misery OPENS @ Miners Alley Performing Arts Center
7:30PM Line Dancing Class @ Morris & Mae
SEE THE COMPLETE CALENDAR OF EVENTS.
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LIVE MUSIC
5-8PM Live Music @ Eddy Taproom
7-10PM Johnny O @ Buffalo Rose (Sky Bar Stage)
7PM TrainWreck @ Dirty Dogs Roadhouse
8PM Still They Ride @ Buffalo Rose (main venue)
9PM Karaoke @ Ace Hi Tavern
GOLDEN HISTORY MOMENT
Fossil Trace was not Golden’s first golf course. In 1930, a local group of golf enthusiasts decided to form a club, purchase land in or near Golden, and have a 9-hole golf course built. The membership would be limited to 100. Each member was to contribute a $25 initiation fee with annual dues to be determined later. Fifty men immediately indicated interest in joining.
Several sites were considered, including the land west of the Mines football field and a spot north of town near Golden Gate Canyon Road. They chose land at the base of Lookout Mountain, south of 19th Street.
Their timing was unfortunate: the Great Depression was bad at that time and getting worse. By the spring of 1931, the club realized they couldn’t recruit enough members and raise enough money, so they disbanded. However, three local businessmen decided to pursue the idea and built the course as a for-profit venture.
The course was popular during its first summer in business. It was rough: there was no irrigation system, so the “greens” were the natural brown of our native vegetation. The owners made improvements as time and finances allowed, but other, finer golf courses were being built in the metro area and the Golden Golf Course failed as a business.
In 1936, the 53 acre course was offered at a bankruptcy sale. There were no immediate takers. The Golden Junior Chamber of Commerce talked to the Works Progress Administration about working with them to fix up the course and make it a municipal asset. The WPA was a government program that provided federal funds to employ workers. Local governments had to provide all non-labor expenses. The Junior Chamber tried to persuade the City to buy the land, which could be had for $1,050. They continued to work on their proposal and negotiations for several months. In the meantime, Dr. Coolbaugh, the Mines President, said he would be interested in taking over the golf course.
Mines did acquire the land in 1937, but they did not use it as a golf course. Instead, they built student housing on the site. The Junior Chamber continued their efforts to build a golf course with help from the WPA, hoping to use land south of the new student housing, but the project didn’t come together.
The dream of having a municipal golf course never died. Thirty years later, the July 15, 1965 Transcript cites a conversation at City Council. One councilor remarked that the City had spent a lot for youth recreation facilities, and wasn’t it time that we built a golf course? The City Manager replied that, as a rule, a city could support one golf hole for each 3,000 residents. With our population at the time, that would justify a 3-hole golf course. They went on to discuss the tremendous amount of water that golf courses require. The conversation closed with the comment that night clubs are also recreational, and they require very little water.
Forty-five years after that–in 2000–voters approved a bond issue to finance a golf course, water park, and second recreation center. The satellite rec center was never built, but Fossil Trace and The Splash were.
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!
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JANUARY SPONSORS: Buffalo Rose, Buglet Solar, Foothills Art Center, Golden City Brewery, Golden Cultural Alliance, Golden History Museum, Golden Super Cruise, Miners Alley Playhouse, The Golden Mill, Golden Chamber of Commerce, Golden History Tours, Morris & Mae Market, Miners Saloon, Joy and Jack Brandt, Tom Reiley, Simon Maybury, ML Richardson, and Steve Hoppin
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