For nearly a century after Golden was founded, the road to Boulder was infamously awful. The Transcript wrote many articles over the years, decrying the state of that road.
122 Years Ago
The October 20, 1904 Colorado Transcript described "A Disastrous Mountain Ride." It describes a large party of schoolteachers that wanted to picnic in the mountains. They took a train from Denver to Golden then hired wagons and drivers to take them to a scenic area in Golden Gate Canyon. The Dennis & Cunningham stable provided an omnibus with four horses (driven by Joe Dennis), a wagonette also drawn by four horses, and a three seat carriage.
The trip up and down the canyon went without incident, but as they approached Golden, they had to navigate the abominable valley road. Two of the women on the omnibus sat in the high, outside seat with the driver.
[The road]...was in fairly good shape until the point was reached where the accident occurred. Here was a stretch of road built along the foot of the hogback which was in bad order, it being full of deep ruts, with rocks projecting from the sides and too narrow for the passage of heavy vehicles wider than the standard gauge.
[Mr. Dennis]...found it impossible to avoid all the rocks projecting into the roadway; as the left fore-wheel passed over a rock which protruded from the bank about a foot above the road-bed the ladies both grabbed for the driver, causing him to lose his foot-hold upon the dash-board, the impact throwing all three of them forward head foremost to the ground in front of the wheels.
One of the ladies who had grabbed the driver's arm fell on top of him and was run over. After the driver was ejected, an occupant of the omnibus tried to seize the reins, but in doing so he also fell under wagon and was run over. Both injured people were loaded on the streetcars and taken to Denver hospitals, but both died.
Mr. Dennis, the driver, was "suffering severely from injuries received, the tendons of his right shoulder being badly injured and a bad cut in the right arm."
Mr. Dennis feels the result of the disaster keenly, of course, but considers the accident an unavoidable one under the circumstances, and altogether owing to the bad condition of the road where the accident occurred. It is a county road and he thinks should have been attended to long ago by the proper authorities.
