Founding of Boulder, February 10, 1859

From the City of Boulder web site.

Gold seekers established the first non-native settlement in Boulder County on October 17, 1858 at Red Rocks near the entrance to Boulder Canyon. Less than a year later, on February 10, 1859, the Boulder City Town Company was organized by A.A. Brookfield, the first president, and 56 shareholders. Four thousand forty-four lots were laid out at a purchase price of $1,000 each, a price that was later lowered in order to attract more residents.

At this time, Boulder was apart of Nebraska Territory and remained so until February 28, 1861, when Colorado became a territory.

Flatirons Photo - 1950's

One of the most photographed areas in Boulder include the Flatirons. I was born in Boulder and could not begin to count how many photos of these beautiful rocks in our Rocky Mountain foothills that I have seen. Yet, there are no two photos of the Flatirons alike. Send me your photos of the flatirons and we will post them on our blog. This photo is a post card that my mother had purchased in the 1950's. She loved sending postcards of Boulder to our family from out of town. So send a post card to your loved ones and invite them to Boulder for our Sesquicentennial Celebration!

How did Pearl Street get it's name?

Positively Pearl St. Sylvia Pettem 2007
From "Introduction: Who was Pearl?"

For as long as anyone can remember, residents and visitors in Boulder, Colorado have asked, Who was Pearl? In 1859 when Boulder's main thoroughfare was named, a collection of a few log cabins was a frontier town for gold prospectors in the mountains to the west - not a likely place to find a gem from the sea.

The prospectors were all men. At the time, the wives of the original party remained in the East or Midwest. In February of 1859, prospector A. A. Brookfield wrote a letter home to his wife Emma. He stated, "We thought that as the weather would not permit us to mine, we would lay out and commence to build what may be an important town."

Pearl Street is the heart of our very important town, Boulder, Colorado. To date, it is unknown who Pearl Street is named for. Do you know? Please e-mail us if you do.

Bouder's Beginnings 1858

Boulder, Evolution of a city. (Revised Ed.) Silvia Pettem. 2006
From the forward by Liston E. Leyendecker, 1994.

Boulder received it's start in the late fall of 1858 when gold rush participants erected log cabins for shelter just below the mouth of Boulder Canyon. In January of 1859, these newcomers ventured 12 miles further west and 3,000 miles higher up to locate the mining camp of Gold Hill. Their tiny settlement at the canyon's entrance served as a supply point for people entering or leaving the newly found gold region.

Posted by Donlyn A. Arbuthnot, descendant of Carson Arbuthnot, 1859 Gold Hill Miner

Boulder's First Officials

From the Boulder Daily Camera, 28 June 1933:
County Judge 1861 - 1863, P M Housel
County Clerk and Recorder 1861 - 1863, Amander Barker
County Treasurer, 1861 - 1862, G W Chambers
County Sheriff, 1861 - 1862, William A Corson
County Assessor, 1861, E S Glotfelter
County Superintendant of Schools, 1863 - 1864, Amos Widner
County Commissioner, took office 13 Dec 1861, Darius P Walling
County Commissioner, took office 18 Dec 1861, H N Coffey
County Commissioner, took office 21 Dec 1861, T J Graham

1867 Petition to move the County Seat to Boulder

From the Colorado State Archives, in 1867 hundreds of Boulder citizens petitioned the County Clerk to move the county seat to Boulder. Among the petitions was a request to create a polling place in Valmont as the current polling place at John H Hughes' place was nearly 3 miles away.

Coal Discovered in Marshall in 1859

From "Walking Through History on Marshall Mesa," by Joanna Sampson, City of Boulder Open Space Department:

"In 1859 William Kitchens discovered coal in the area. He named his discovery the Washington Lode, and it was used as a wagon mine by early settlers. A wagon mine was just what the name implied: clients drove their teams and wagons to the mine, loaded the coal they needed for domestic use, and hauled it home to burn in heating stoves and kitchen ranges.
Joseph Marshall and wealthy associates saw the potential in developing a lucrative mining operation. Marshall purchased the Washington Lode from William and Nancy Kitchens in 1866 and then applied for ownership of the remaining coal lands. In 1868 he obtained a United States Land Grant, signed by President Andrew Johnson, that gave him legal rights to all coal lands around Marshall."

In 1873, Arch Marvine, geologist with the Hayden survey team wrote: "Marshall Mine on the east side of the valley of the South Bowlder (sic) Creek about 5 miles SE of Bowlder City was amont the earliest worked in Colorado."