Quilt Class, Homestead Open House, History Tours, and Local Farming

*Golden Eye Candy – 2010 Buffalo Bill Days parade featuring Dave Powers in his 1950s-era army Jeep – Click to enlarge*

Public Health References
CDC * Colorado * Jefferson County * City of Golden

JCPHD updates these numbers Monday through Friday at about 3 PM. Here’s the most recent Coronavirus report from Jeffco Public Health’s Case Summary Page:

Amended Mask Rules:
Jefferson County has amended their mask rule: masks must now be worn both indoors and outdoors in public spaces where 6 feet distance cannot be maintained. This matches Golden’s requirement. The rest of the state requires masks only indoors.

The Safer at Home and in the Vast, Great Outdoors protocol is in effect statewide. City and County fire restrictions are in place.

Other Public Health News

Jefferson County is reporting that a bat with rabies has been found in Golden. “If you came in contact with the bat, you are at risk of being exposed to rabies.” They describe the location as “west of I-70 near 20th Ave.” From what I can tell from Google Maps, that’s east of South Table Mountain.

Virtual Golden

1PM Color and Composition Class with the Quilt Museum

Real Life Golden

*Homestead Open House Today from 10AM-2PM*

8AM-1PM Golden Farmers Market (map)
9AM Vinyasa Yoga in Lions Park (map) with Gabriela Ferrat
9AM Yoga in Parfet Park (map) with Pranatonic
10AM-2PM Homestead Open House at the Golden History Park (map)
11AM Wild West Pub Crawl Tour
5PM Wild West Walking Tour

Live Music:
4PM Midnight Vinyl at Wrigley’s
6PM One Way Traffic at Ace Hi Tavern
8PM Rick Lewis Project at Dirty Dogs Roadhouse

Golden History Moment

*The Easley Farm from the 1892 Golden Globe Industrial Edition – Click to enlarge*

Until Coors began a big growth spurt in the 1950s, the Clear Creek valley will filled with small scale farms. The July 26, 1893 Colorado Transcript featured an article titled “Our Table Mountain Gardens.” It reports on several of the farms in the Clear Creek valley.

*Easley Family eating watermelon from the Golden History Museum collection – Click to enlarge*

Charles Palmer grew apples, cherries, alfalfa, and grapes. He also had two green houses, each 18×60. In these, he grew small fruits and vegetables for the winter market. J. Smith grew “especially fine” green beans as well as turnips, beets, sweet corn, cane fruits, and tomatoes. Reese Easley had 160 acres had rich soil and most of his crops were sold in Golden.

*Clear Creek Valley, circa 1900-1920, excerpt from image X-9804 of the Denver Public Library Western History Collection – Click to enlarge*

Mrs. Smith and her two sons grew apples, small fruit, and vegetables. “They have brought a cactus and boulder covered second bottom tract to great perfection for the purpose designed. A.C. Shock had a large orchard, small fruits, and market garden tracts under cultivation. He bred livestock–especially horses–and had had bees and poultry. Mr. Shock had a two acre reservoir which provided water to his house, was stocked with fish, and became an ice pond in winter.

Oat field, circa 1919-1923, from the Denver Public Library Western History Collection MCC-2724 – note the Table Mountains in the background – Click to enlarge

Upland farms (farther from the Creek) did well with less moisture-intensive grain crops, such as wheat and oats.

Many thanks to the Golden History Museum for providing the online cache of historic Transcripts, and many thanks to the Golden Transcript for documenting our history since 1866!