112 Years Ago
The November 20, 1913 Colorado Transcript took umbrage at a recent Denver Post article.
In last Sunday's Denver Post there was published a long list of towns, cities, mountains and streams of Colorado, telling how each derived its name. The data purported to come from the U. S. geological survey. It is presumed that in most cases the information was correct, but the writer got pretty far off as to how Golden was named.
The Post claimed that the town of Golden was named after Golden Gate Canyon. In fact, it was named after Thomas Golden, one of our earliest settlers. The canyon was then named after the town.
In the fall of 1858 Tom Golden, George Jackson and James Saunders arrived at the spot on which Golden is now located, and made camp here. They did considerable prospecting here and in December left for the mountains, where Jackson was successful in finding gold. Meantime placer mines were opened at Arapahoe bar, just below Golden, and some seventy cabins were built there but four or five years later the last vestige settlement had disappeared. The town of Golden city was established in 1859, but Jackson or Golden, notwithstanding the fact that the town took the latter's name, had any further part in its creation except to aid in staking out the townsite.
Our town founders may not have had a long-term relationship with Tom Golden, but they recognized a good name when they heard one.
