56 Years Ago
The January 21, 1969 Colorado Transcript reported that one of the high tension electrical towers at W. 10th Avenue and Johnson Road had been destroyed with explosives. Dynamite was placed at the base of each of the four legs.

“Officials stated that the methods employed indicated that the person who set the charge had military training in demolition. The force of the blast was such that pieces of the tower were thrown for a great distance. One large piece was found embedded in a mobile home…more than 1-1/2 miles from the blast.”
By mid-February, the FBI had identified a suspect. Cameron David Bishop was already wanted for an attempted takeover of a building on the CSU campus, and the Golden bombing put him on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list.
Why was he bombing Golden? It was an attempt to undermine the Viet Nam War effort. Coors Porcelain was making nose cones for missiles at that time, and the tower that was bombed supplied power to the Coors plant.
The blast may not have been as disruptive as the bomber had hoped. While a large part of Jefferson County lost power, Public Service was able to route around the problem and had service partially restored within 15 minutes and fully restored in about an hour.
Canadian police found him in Vancouver in June of 1970 and began extradition procedures. He apparently slipped away, and was next seen in New York in June of 1971. He again evaded capture, but was arrested in Rhode Island in 1975. Local police had approached him in his car and found it contained “a small arsenal of weapons.” At that point, he was identified and brought back to Colorado. He was released on $277,500 bond, which was guaranteed by his mother.
Bishop was convicted of three counts of sabotage and sentenced to seven years in prison, but remained free on bond, pending appeal. The ruling was overturned on appeal, so he remained free.
His attorney later defended Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber.
