Rescue Team Drill in Rising Water
Photo by Sandy Curran
What's happening in Golden today?
Events for Friday, May. 24th
- All day - The Friday Tour
- All day - CURRENT EXHIBITS AT THE MUSEUMS
- All day - Live Workouts with Community Center Pros
- All day - Golden History Tours
- 10:15-10:45AM - Toddler Time
- 1:30-5:30PM - USPS Hiring Event
- 4-7PM - Family Climb Night
- 5-8PM - Foothills Art Center - Astor House Members Opening
- 7:30PM - The Full Monty
For more information, click the item above or visit the Golden Today Calendar
5-8PM Members Opening at the Astor House
Kudos to architect Angela Schwab for creating a beautiful space!
An Invitation from Foothills Art Center:
Be among the first to experience the brand-new Astor House at our Member Opening. The Astor House will proudly showcase our exhibitions, opening with three shows: The 20th Annual Mile High International Pastel Exhibition, Moose Cain-Rodenfels: Sjón – A Solar System of Vision, and John Taylor Wagner. Join us to indulge in light refreshments and explore the space ahead of everyone else!
Tonight's preview is for members only. But here's the great part: you can join right now for as little as $0.
Foothills Art Center at the Astor House
822 12th Street (map)
1:30-5:30PM Post Office Hiring Event
Starting wages range $19.33 - $22.13 per hour
Apply on site - multiple positions
No need to pre-register
- 18 years old at the time of appointment or 16 years old with a high school diploma
- United States citizen, permanent resident, or citizen of American Samoa or other U.S. territory
- Able to pass a criminal background check, drug screening, and medical assessment
- Bring your driver's license, education history with addresses, employment history for the past 7 years, and DD214 if you are a veteran
Golden Post Office
1100 Johnson Road (map)
4-7PM Family Climb Tonight
Family Climb Night @ the Mountaineering Center (map)
Bring your family for a night of indoor rock climbing at the American Mountaineering Center.
Ages 5-120
Indoor Rock Climbing for all levels, no prior experience or equipment needed
FREE for Colorado Mountain Club members, $5/person for non-members
Register
Friday Tours at the Railroad Museum
Each Friday, the Museum offers two traditional walking tours. The Highlight Tour (10:30AM) acts as a wonderful introduction to the Museum, its collections and the railroads impact on Colorado’s history. Visitors can also join us for the afternoon tour (1:30PM) where each week our trained guides delve more deeply into a different aspect of Colorado’s railroad history.
Tours are subject to change and are based on guide availability. Each week’s theme is explored using a variety of museum resources to help bring the subject to life with the understanding that guests are welcome to continue their visit on their own after their tour.
Learn more and purchase tickets
Live Music for Friday, May. 24th
- 8:00 PM-8:00 PM: Rubber Souls @ Buffalo Rose
- 7:00 PM-10:00 PM: Jonny Sterling @ Buffalo Rose
- More Live Music
5-8PM Live Music @ Eddy Taproom
6-9PM Iron Roots Band @ Goosetown Station
6PM Frisk and Friends @ Dirty Dogs Roadhouse
6-10PM Steve & The Cruisers @ Wrigley’s
9PM Karaoke @ Ace Hi Tavern
For more information, visit the Golden Today Calendar
Golden History: Astor House Retrospective - Part 2
The Astor House Over Time, with Architectural Features Coming and Going – Golden History Museum collection
In honor of this weekend's grand opening of the Astor House, I'm reprinting a three-part series that I wrote in 2022, after touring the then-disassembled interior.
Continuing yesterday’s discussion of the Astor House, past, present, and future….
The Astor House has gone through many changes in its 155 year history. As the photos above show, the balcony has come and gone over time. Balcony fans will be glad to hear that it will stay in the upcoming renovation.
Attentive viewers will notice that the roofline changed after the turn of the (19th to 20th) century. Originally, the third floor was a windowless attic. After a 1908 fire burned the roof, the owner used the insurance money to add dormers so she could rent rooms on that third floor. In the next rendition of the building, the third floor will return to its original status as an attic–unused space–because modern building codes would require an elevator if that space were to be used. (There will be an elevator in the new configuration, but it will only go to the second floor.)
I spotted something interesting when I toured the building last week. As you can see in the photo above, the Astor House was built of multi-colored local stone. The stone has been covered by paint for many years, but right now, with much of the plaster removed, some of that colorful stone is visible on interior walls. The original appearance would have been quite different from the pale, monochrome building that we’ve known for many decades.
Tomorrow, I’ll share one last quirky little discovery that I made during my tour, and tell you I think it means.
Thanks to Hassan Najjar for the tour!
Golden History: Power Passing Through Golden
Transmission lines over Lookout Mountain
Guest Historian: Pete Gotseff
If you have spent any time in Golden you would notice a transmission line making its way down Lookout Mountain, through Lakewood, to downtown Denver terminating at an old Xcel/PSCO power plant called Zuni Station. Zuni is no longer wrapped in its white plastic shroud presumably for asbestos abatement and decommissioning but its future is uncertain and it now sits on Colorado’s Most Endangered Places list as Compiled by Colorado Preservation, Inc.
Perhaps you would think this transmission line is a modern scheme to serve the tourist towns of Clear Creek and Summit county as it roughly follows I-70 to Georgetown, then again visible from Silverthorne to Copper Mountain, then over Fremont pass to Leadville and then off to points west.
Although upgraded over the years, this line predates I-70 (1960s), Buffalo Bills grave (1917) and the Lookout Mountain Road-Lariat Loop (1913). In fact, it starts near Glenwood Springs, connects Leadville, Summit County, Georgetown, Idaho Springs and Denver and then doubles back to Boulder. It is 153 miles long and connects two hydro-electric plants - one 14MW plant below Shoshone falls at the Hanging Lake turnoff in Glenwood Canyon “Shoshone hydro” (map) and the other 20MW plant near Tunnel 1 of Middle Boulder creek “Boulder hydro”.
Its original operating voltage was 100kV - one of the highest voltage transmission lines in the US, It’s common name is the “Shoshone line” and it, the power plants and storage reservoirs were built between 1907 and 1910 by the Central Colorado Power Company (CCPC) and the Eastern Colorado Power Company both backed by East Coast Capitalists generally associated with the General Electric Company with the local additions of David H. Moffat and Myron T. Herrick of Ohio to the board of directors.
The vice president and chief organizer of the primary company, the CCPC, was a man by the name of Leonard E. Curtis. Curtis had left his highly lucrative Manhattan law firm, Duncan, Curtis and Page in 1896 bound for Colorado Springs to recover from Consumption. His firm was instrumental in defending the George Westinghouse Company’s acquired lighting and Nikola Tesla’s induction motor patents in the late 1880’s. In fact, presumably by Curtis’ invitation, Tesla came to Colorado Springs in 1899-1900 to work out his Magnifying Transmitter ideas at his experimental station (near present day Memorial Park) and work with Curtis to file his related patents before returning to New York to continue that work at Wardenclyffe laboratory and tower. Curtis would also develop the Tacoma hydroelectric plant on the Animas River below Silverton between 1902 and 1906.
Today, the Shoshone Line still connects the backbone of Central Colorado at 230kV. It includes the 200MW Bureau of Reclamation owned Mount Elbert pumped hydro power plant at Twin Lakes and the 320MW PSCO/Xcel Cabin Creek pumped hydro plant above Georgetown. The old CCPC system’s legacy lives on in more ways … in February of 2024 Xcel sold the senior Shoshone hydro plant (map) water right to the Colorado River District for $99M. Effectively keeping 1400 cfs of western slope water in the Colorado river. No longer fully up for grabs by the deep pocketed cities of the Front Range.
News Relating to Golden - May 24, 2024
Colorado Arts Spotlight: Things to Know and Do Around the state May 24 – 26
By Eden Lane
CPR News
Astor House Opening in Golden
Golden, a city renowned for its outdoor recreation and craft breweries, is currently undergoing an arts and culture revival. The latest step in this revitalization is the Foothills Art Center, a $6 million project to transform two 19th-century structures into state-of-the-art facilities... Read more...
Supporters
Many thanks to the people and organizations who support What’s Happening in Golden? If you would like to support local news, please CLICK HERE!
Sponsors:
($100/month and up)
Buffalo Rose, Buglet Solar, Foothills Art Center, Golden City Brewery, Golden Cultural Alliance, Golden History Museum, Miners Alley Playhouse, The Golden Mill, Golden Chamber of Commerce, Golden History Tours, Morris & Mae Market, Miners Saloon, Colorado Railroad Museum, Golden Hayride Outpost, Tom Reiley, Bud Rockhill, Michael Mason, Lisa DeCaro and Len Matheo, John and Andi Pearson
Friends:
($50-99.99/month or $500/yr)
Tall Pines Painting, Baby Doe’s Clothing Paul Haseman, Donna Anderson, Carol & Doug Harwood, Beth Bidwell, Stephanie Painter, Greg Poulos, and Joy Brandt
Supporters:
($25-49.99/month or $250/yr)
Laura King and Scott Wilson, Bobby German and Alison McNally, Ann Norton & Jonathan Storer, Forrest Jones, Barry & Liz Bettis, Cheryl & Tom Schweich, Marjorie Sloan, Chris and Joyce Davell, Rick Flint, Forrest Jones, AC Development, Cynthia Merrill Tamny, and Stephen Pero
Members:
($10-24.99/month or $100/yr)
Brad Miller & Julie Bartos, Holly Thomas, Jim and LouAnne Dale, Ann Pattison, Thomas Hoffman, Carol Abel, Brian Quarnstrom, Sandra Curran, Bobby German and Alison McNally, Kathy Smith, Karen Smith, Carlos & Nancy Bernal, Robert Storrs, Michele Sannes, Elaine Marolla, Dixie Termin & Ron Miller, E Tom Hughes, Crystal M Culbert, Patrick A. Madison, Alice Madison & Jim Kalivas, Deb Goeldner, Christopher Ball, 6th Chair Home Services, Dot & Eric Brownson, Rosemary Coffman, Emeline Paulson, Casey & Gina Brown, Sandy Schneider, Mark and Cathy Pattridge, Cheryl G Leidich, Jen Rutter, Carol Abel, Frani R Bickart, Jennings and Litz, Bill Sedgeley, Nancy Hughes, Justin L Wade, Kathi Eggers, Traci Case, Donna Owen, Leslie D Lutz, Karen Oxman, Catherine Skokan, Ross Fraser, Lynne Haigh, Elizabeth Hilliard, Frank Young & Terre Deegan-Young, Kathy Hirons & Jack Markin, Jess & Anthony Monasterio, Ella Lyons & Jeanne Fritch, and the Golden Transcript
Followers:
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Golden Community Garden, Lora Haimes, Mariane Erickson
