Golden, Colorado

We had a beautiful drive down here from Estes Park last week.  Our route took us through the Big Thompson Canyon and along the river by the same name.

We are now parked in Golden, Colorado.  Our plan was to be either in or near Denver because our niece Heather lives in Denver and our daughter was coming with son Nathan to plan with Heather the location of the next Lohrmann family reunion.  It has been a busy past few days, consequently.   However we did manage to find some time to explore Golden.  We walked the one main street in historic Golden.

There are wonderful sculptures all along the main street of the town, including that of Adolphus Herman Joseph Kuhrs (after arriving here from Germany in 1868 he changed his last name to Coors).  By 1880 he owned the Coors Brewery, along with a partner.  At the turn of the 21st century it is considered the largest single site brewery operation in the world.  During prohibition 17,391 gallons of the good brew were poured down Clear Creek.   To stay solvent at that time Coors began making near-beer and porcelain products.  It also supplied malt milk to the Mars Candy Company.  One cannot visit Golden without visiting the brewery, which we did at another time.

Running through town is Clear Creek, we walked across it on the Washington Avenue Bridge.  The creek is now flooded, a playground below the bridge is under water.  The creek must be a bane to this town, from 1859 (when the town was founded) to 1965 it flooded 25 times.  During the many times it went over its banks, crops, building and railroads were destroyed.   This, and other town historical information, is posted on plaques along the bridge.  We ate at the Capitol Grill, and discovered additional information regarding Golden.  The restaurant once was where legislative sessions were held for the Colorado Territory from 1862 to 1867.  As we walked around the town we noticed a rather striking large rock formation outside of town which makes a nice backdrop for the town.  It is called Table Mountain.