University of Colorado - Coloradan Yearbook (Boulder, CO)

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,,. -. . I ,V 'if :':,w,Ajj fi, f f 'wwf , r ' ' J . ' -fi V' 5' r 5 GOLD RUN : GOLD HILL IN TI-IE BEGINNING The first white settlers came in 1858, encamping at the mouth of Boulder Canon Sunday evening, October seventeenth. From the solemn spires of sandstone that guarded their canvas home on the north they called the place Red Rock. It was a beautiful spot in which to rest. To the east lay the fertile valley they had just traversed, so agreeable to the eye after the long journey over the thirsty plains. The stream, with its cottonwoods and sparse box-elders, marked with an intermittent silver thread the luxuriant meadowlands 5 herds of antelope, buffalo and elk were grazing peacefully as on the first Sabbath in Eden. The 'tips of the great southern foothills, then without a name, caught the last rays and turned them into the emerald and rich reds that were after- wards known as Green Mountain and Sunset Rock. But the dark shadows of the canons impressed the Easterners with some- thing more than mountain gloom. Their apprehensions were realized when, before their first sleep, Ni Wot, an Arapahoe chief, came into camp and warned them off. ' U This band of men had not loft the Pikeps Peak Trail at St. Vrain with 11 View of enjoying the scenery and then departing, they, too, were after gold. By wheedling they got the better of Ni W ot, and when a more sturdy chief, 13 -.........-,, V. -4.-Wh .--4 - 4 'ff

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.MM , .P .. -,,f. A RED ROCK The first camp of thc whitc men was in thc forcgrouml nuzu' thc mill with :1 snmkcstuc

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Bear Head, ordered them off within' three days, they felled trees, which were then more abundant, and built a strongly fortified house and protected themselves so well that the intended attack was abandoned. ' The first winter was warm and sunny. January fifteenth, 1859, the first gold dust in Boulder County was discovered about twelve miles back in the foothills at Gold Bun, this occasionally netted as high as eighty dollars a day to the man. .In the spring, A. A. Brookfield discovered the first gold lode on Horsfal Hill, which overlooks Gold Bun and Gold Hill. Colorado gold in combina.- tion' with tellurium was found first at Gold Hill in 1872. From Horsfal Hill is a magnificent view 3 to the east, ten miles of foothills, the plains, and the University of Colo- rado in plain sight 5 to the west, Gold Run, Gold Hill, Arapahoe, Audubon and Long's Peak. Every student should visit the spot once a year while in col- lege. A ' The fame of gold brought men. Within a month after the discovery at Gold Run the Boulder City town organ- ization was effected. This was Febru- ary tenth, 1859. There were fifty-six shareholders, and they platted twelve 'hundred and forty acres, extending two miles along the creek. Lots were held at 351,009 In 1859 there were two thousand men in and about Boulder- and seventeen women. G Glass, nails and sawed boards did not appear till late in. the year. The first city consisted of tents along the creek and log cabins built on Pearl Street and about the public square where the court house now stands. The roofs and doors were of pine splints, the iioors were of earth. 14 D