150 Golden Years
A TIMELINE FOR GOLDEN, COLORADO

"When a society or a civilization perishes, one condition can always be found.
They forgot where they came from." Carl Sandburg

Pre-1800

In Golden

320 – 270 Million Years Ago – The Ancestral Rockies dominate the landscape. Remnants of these mountains are found at Red Rocks Mountain Park and at Roxborough State Park.
72-40 Million Years Ago – The 14 mile long Dakota Hogback (Dinosaur Ridge) is formed as the current Rockies begin to rise and push up the horizontal layers that were deposited by an earlier inland sea
70 Million Years Ago - Dinosaur tracks / palm frond impressions left at what is now the Fossil Trace Golf Course.
70 – 50 Million Years Ago – The stress from drifting continental plates causes massive uplift of the land.
66 Million Years Ago – The Front Range of the Rocky Mountains is formed.
65.5 Million Years Ago – An asteroid hits the earth, probably near the Yucatan Peninsula, causing a worldwide catastrophic event and killing off the majority of the plant and animal species (including dinosaurs).
63 Million Years Ago - Lava flows out of fissures near Ralston Reservoir to form the cap rock of North and South Table Mountains.
130,000 – 14,000 Years Ago – Several ice ages sculpt the Colorado landscape.
3,000 B.C. - A.D. 1,000 - Native peoples occupy the Magic Mt. Site along Apex Creek near Heritage Square.
Historic Period - Native peoples, including the Ute, Cheyenne, Apache, Pawnee, Comanches and Arapaho, inhabit the region.

In Colorado

2.3 Billion years ago - Age of the oldest dated rocks in Colorado.
20,000 years ago - Most of the current topography of Colorado is established.
11,000 B.C. - First archaeological evidence of humans in Colorado.
A.D. 1 - 1300 - The Anasazi culture flourishes in southwestern Colorado.
1541 - Coronado reaches the southwestern borders of Colorado.
1682 - Explorer La Salle appropriates for France the area now known as Colorado’s eastern plains.
1763 - All of Colorado claimed by Spain.
1775 - 1776 – Friars Dominguez and Escalante visit southwestern Colorado.

In General

2200 - 1750 B.C. – The First Chinese Dynasty, Xia, is established.
1352 B.C. - King Tutankhamen (a.k.a. Tut) becomes Pharaoh.
44 B.C. - Julius Caesar is murdered.
A.D. 79 - Pompeii is buried by lava and ash from Mt. Vesuvius.
1096 - 1221 - The Crusades spread throughout Europe and Asia.
1492 - Christopher Columbus lands on a Caribbean island.
1525 - Europeans are introduced to the potato, a plant cultivated in the Andes.
1541 - De Soto explores the southeastern United States.
1680 - Pueblo revolt against Spanish control in northern New Mexico.
1776 - The American Declaration of Independence is signed.
1800 - United States population is 5,308,000. 

Quotes

He saw the cities of many men and knew their manners.   Homer

I always considered the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design and providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.   John Adams, 1765 

Young men, there is America, which at this day serves for little more than to amuse you with stories of savage men and uncouth manners.   Edmund Burke, 1775

Sir, they are a race of convicts and ought to be grateful for anything we allow them short of hanging.   Samuel Johnson, 1776 

Next Page:  1800 - 1849

References

This time-line was originally created by the Golden Historic Preservation Board for the 1995 Golden community meetings concerning growth. It is intended to illustrate some of the events and thoughts that helped shape Golden. Major historical events and common day-to-day happenings that influenced the lives of the people of Golden are included. Corrections, additions, and suggestions are welcome and may be relayed to either the Historic Preservation Board or the Planning Department at 384-8097.

The information concerning events in Golden was gathered from a variety of sources. Among those used were:

• The Colorado Transcript 
• The Golden Transcript 
• The Rocky Mountain News 
• The Denver Post 

State of Colorado Web pages, in particular the Colorado State Archives

The League of Women Voters annual reports

Golden, The 19th Century: A Colorado Chronicle.
Lorraine Wagenbach and Jo Ann Thistlewood. Harbinger House, Littleton, 1987

The Shining Mountains.
Georgina Brown. B & B Printers, Gunnison. 1976

The 1989 Survey of Historic Buildings in Downtown Golden.
R. Laurie Simmons and Christine Whitacre, Front Range Research Associates, Inc. Report on file at the City of Golden Planning and Development Department. 

Survey of Golden Historic Buildings.
by R. Laurie Simmons and Christine Whitacre, Front Range Research Associates, Inc.
Report on file at the City of Golden Planning and Development Department.

Golden Survey of Historic Buildings, 1991.
R. Laurie Simmons and Thomas H. Simmons. Front Range Research Associates, Inc.
Report on file at the City of Golden Planning and Development Department.

Denver: Mining Camp to Metropolis
Stephen J. Leonard and Thomas J. Noel, University Press of Colorado, Niwot. 1990 

Golden Branch of the Jefferson County Public Library. Clipping Files

Meg Van Ness 1995 / 2003