Waiting for Stats, Easy Links to Carryout, and Jailing Hogs, Shoats, and Pigs

November 23, 2020

Golden Eye Candy – Chris Davell – A Good Day to Play in the Creek – click to enlarge

Coronavirus/COVID-19


Jefferson County is at Level Red, “Severe Risk.” Learn more….

Jefferson County Public Health’s COVID Stats will be updated this afternoon.

Mines COVID Testing | Jeffco Fairgrounds COVID Testing | School of Mines COVID-19 case page. | Masks are required. | City and County fire restrictions are in place. | Sign up for exposure notifications.


Virtual Golden

6-6:55AM Virtual Dynamic Circuit
8:30-9:30AM Virtual Power Training
10AM Suicide Prevention Training
10:15AM Spanish Story Time with the Library


Real World Golden

10AM-5PM Holiday Art Market at Foothills Art Center – reserve a time


Golden Business News

Golden’s restaurants are in a bad situation: current public health restrictions prevent them from serving enough customers to stay financially afloat. You can help them by ordering take-out food.

To help you do that, we’ve added menu links to our Dining page. These will take you directly to the restaurants’ menus.

A few of our restaurants are temporarily closed, and we’ve “grayed them out.” When they reopen, we’ll put them back in regular black type.

Get some take out tonight!


Golden History Moment


Anthony Tripp Feeding His Hog – Golden History Museum – click to enlarge

The Genesis of Golden’s Police Force
Golden was settled in 1859, but wasn’t incorporated until January of 1871. The governing body of the nascent town was called the Board of Trustees (rather than City Council) and the leader of that Board was the President (rather than Mayor).

The first Ordinance that this new Board approved (in January of 1871) concerned liquor licenses. A liquor license cost $50 and was good for three months. A beer license cost $25 and was likewise good for 3 months at a time.

The second Ordinance concerned loose livestock: “all hogs, shoats and pigs running at large within the Town of Golden are hereby severally declared to be nuisances, and any person being the owner of any such animals, who shall suffer the same to run or be at large or to be found at large, shall, be deemed the author of a nuisance and shall on conviction , be fined in a sum not less than two nor more than twenty dollars in each case.”

Now here’s where Golden’s law enforcement agency is created: “It is hereby made the duty of the Town Constable to take up and confine in a secure pen, pound, or other place to be by him provided for that purpose every hog, shoat or pig found running at large within said Town of Golden.” The Constable was assigned to keep the animals confined until the owner claimed them and paid a fine. If no owner claimed an animal, the Constable was to sell it and provide the money to the Town.

The Town’s third ordinance called for the Constable to arrest anyone in a state of public intoxication.

That early Board of Trustees gave much more attention to loose “hogs, shoats and pigs” than it gave to drunkenness or other crimes. We must have had quite an infestation of livestock.


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!