WHAT’S HAPPENING IN GOLDEN TODAY?
9AM-4PM Rummage Sale @ Golden Gate Grange
9:30-10:30AM Rooftop Yoga @ The Golden Mill
10AM-3PM Train Rides @ Colorado Railroad Museum
10AM-2PM Money Mingle @ On Tap Credit Union
10:15-10:45AM Toddler Time @ Golden Library
10:30AM Friday Tour @ Colorado Railroad Museum
12-12:55PM All Levels Yoga (Virtual)
1-1:45PM Silver Sneakers Yoga (Virtual)
1:30PM The Friday Tour @ Colorado Railroad Museum
3PM Vaccine, License & Microchip Clinic @ Foothills Animal Shelter
4PM Wild West Short Tour
4PM 2023 Colorado Day Whiskey Release @ State 38 Distilling
5PM Live Lavender Distillation & Cocktail Party @ Earth Sweet Botanicals
6:30PM Wagon Ride Through Golden’s History
7PM Golden Ghosts and Spirits Tour
The glimmer of gold lured a slew of fortune seekers to the Golden Valley. Precious few struck it rich. Most skedaddled with empty pockets. Some…well, they’re still here, as the good Lord would have it!
7-8:30PM Colorado Rails and Cocktails @ Colorado Railroad Museum
This month’s topic is Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg, who also happen to be the subjects of the Museum’s current double exhibit! Join photographer and railroad historian John Ryan as he discusses the lives of this larger-than-life railroading duo.
7PM Movies & Music in the Park @ Parfet Park
Tonight’s Music: blankslate Movie: Strange World
SEE THE COMPLETE CALENDAR OF EVENTS.
LIVE MUSIC
5-8PM Live Music @ Eddy Taproom
5:30PM Dead Alive @ Over Yonder
5:30-8:30PM Sqwerv @ Goosetown Station
6PM Jake Law and the Banned @ Dirty Dogs Roadhouse
6-10PM Jewel & the Rough @ Wrigley’s
7-10PM Conal Rosanbalm @ Buffalo Rose (Sky Bar Stage)
7-9PM Derek Hall @ Morris & Mae
9PM Karaoke @ Ace Hi Tavern
GOLDEN HISTORY MOMENT
Prohibition took effect in Colorado in 1916. Often called “the noble experiment,” it had unintended consequences, such as the rise of organized crime. Many also felt that Prohibition encouraged over-zealous policing against small-time offenders.
By 1932, the Transcript fell into that camp. In 1930, Jefferson County had elected as sheriff James Biggins, who had no experience in law enforcement. His sole campaign promise had been to enforce Prohibition laws. By 1932, the Transcript had had enough. They published an editorial slamming the sheriff’s tactics.
As a snooper and raider the present sheriff has been unexcelled. People with a few pints of home brew in their cellars have lived in mortal fear of the local officers. Men with a drink or two on their hips have been pursued and prosecuted relentlessly. Business men have been harassed to a point which amounts almost to persecution.
Sheriff Biggins and his deputies have seemingly devoted all their energies to the enforcement of one law and no one can say they have not been efficient.
How about the other side of the picture? How about the enforcement of other laws? How about the discharge of the ordinary duties of the sheriff’s office? Here the record is not so outstanding.
The editorial went on to decry the mounting expenses of the sheriff’s office in their “fanatical attempt to make Jefferson county a prohibition Sahara…not only to pay dozens of breathsmelling deputies but to prosecute minor violators and support them while in jail.”
More importantly, two men had died under Biggins’ administration. One man had been shot by officers while resisting arrest and the other had smuggled a weapon into jail and taken his own life.
The Transcript was encouraging reelection of the previous sheriff, Democrat Walter Johnson. They said he would “keep his feet on the ground, his nose out of people’s cellars and his finger off the trigger.”
Prohibition had passed with bi-partisan support, but by 1932, the Democrats–led by Franklin Delano Roosevelt–were showing more support for ending it.
The following November, Biggins won re-election by a narrow margin, but nationwide, the tide was turning against Prohibition. Congress repealed Prohibition on December 5, 1933.
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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