Skip to content

Search the site
Sign In Subscribe

What's Happening in Golden - Tuesday, Mar. 19th

News and events in Golden, Colorado. {$date}

,   and  Barb Warden
7 min read
Click to enlarge

First Day of Spring

Photo by Chris Davell

What's happening in Golden today?

Golden History Tours
What's Brewing Golden
Golden Seniors - Coffee Klatch
Baby Time
Story Time and Craft
Preschool Time
Golden Library Discussion Book Group
Trivia Tuesdays
Golden Beer Talks
Team Trivia Tuesday
  • 6:30 PM-8:30 PM: Team Trivia Tuesday @ Buffalo Rose
  • 6:30 PM-8:30 PM: Bar Bingo Night @ VFW Post 4171

For more information, visit the Golden Today Calendar

Kaffee Klatsch at the Visitors Center

Hey, Golden Seniors! Join your friends at the Visitors Center for coffee every Tuesday morning at 9AM!

Sponsored by Golden Pond Retirement Community and Golden Visitors & Information Center

Golden Visitors Center, 1010 Washington Avenue, Golden, CO (map)

Golden Beer Talks: Rex Rideout

Come to the Buffalo Rose tonight as we welcome Musician and Storyteller of the American West Rex Rideout for his second appearance at Golden Beer Talks!

SONGS AND STORIES OF BEER

Rex Rideout of Time Travel Music will regale the crowd with songs of beer and stories of this essential drink in the United States and Europe. With the date so close to St. Patrick’s Day, he may throw in a wee bit about the Irish as well!

How This Works
The Buffalo Rose will open at 6:00 p.m. Food and drink service will begin at 6:00 p.m. and the program will begin around 6:30 p.m. Following the presentation, we’ll take a brief intermission for Q + A. We’ll wrap up around 7:45 p.m., but people interested in staying a bit longer to socialize will be able to do so. There is no cover charge and no purchase is necessary.

Learn more about Golden Beer Talks and The Buffalo Rose.
Tonight's featured brewery is Call to Arms Brewing.

Speaker Bio:

Bearded man in a cowboy hat sits on a bench in front of a stone building, playing a violin.

Rex Rideout sings of the American West, from the times of the early explorers, the fur trade, the Civil War and the cattle drive era to the end of the 19th Century.

Rex has performed at countless historic sites and museums across the West playing fiddle, banjo, mandolin and other instruments. His music has been featured on television and radio such as CBS Sunday Morning, museums like the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, the Western American Art collection at the Denver Art Museum and the American Museum of Western Art.

His work is also part of the soundtracks of the four National Park Service visitor center films, the PBS film Badger Clark: Poet Among the Pines and the blockbuster Dreamworks film Cowboys & Aliens.

Rex has studied trades and skills of the 19th Century for more than 30 years, with his strongest interests in woodworking and metalwork with axes and other edge tools. He has been involved in restoring and stabilizing many log buildings and other historic structures.

Library Book Group: The Ride of Her Life

Book time to discuss some great reads! Join fellow readers once a month for engaging discussions on these compelling titles. No registration is required, and new members are always welcome. 6-7PM at the Golden Library - learn more.

Today’s Title: The Ride of Her Life by Elizabeth Letts

Live Music for Tuesday, Mar. 19th

6PM Karaoke with Linda @ Dirty Dogs Roadhouse
6PM Open Bluegrass Pick Night @ Over Yonder Brewing

Golden History: A History of Hazing

Berthoud Hall, Guggenheim, and the Arthur Lakes Library on the CSM campus


In its earlier years, the School of Mines had a strong tradition of hazing underclassmen. Rocky Mountains to the World: A History of the Colorado School of Mines quotes a 1949 graduate:

Hazing started when we set foot on campus and continued through the all-school gauntlet just before Christmas vacation. Fraternity pledges received additional hazing that culminated in Hell Week at the end of the first semester….

Sophomores ran us through two gauntlets a week, one when the class emerged from Doc Ward’s chemistry lecture and another when we left the Armory after stacking our rifles following ROTC drill. There was only one exit from each of these. Buttocks were to be swatted with belts; however, some sadists used the buckle end.

One of the school's “cherished traditions” held that only seniors were allowed to wear beards. Underclassmen who violated the tradition were seized, held down, and shaved by roving bands of seniors.

Several men wearing gray hats sit on bleachers. Three men in barber's smocks examine them.
The beard-growing contest was still going strong in 1965, when Bill Robie took this photo, which shows celebrity barbers judging the students’ beard-growing efforts.

65 Years Ago
Golden was celebrating its Centennial year in 1959, and the Chamber was encouraging men to grow beards, to make them look like pioneers. This created a conundrum for Mines underclassmen, who were forbidden to wear beards and subject to attack and forcible shaving if they failed to comply.

“Shooting in Defense of Beard Occurs on CSM Campus Mar. 12.”
The March 19, 1959 Colorado Transcript reported that junior classman Alexander Forbes Bissett II had shot a senior. The victim, Philip Howell, had been one of a group of seniors who had been waiting for him as he left his math class.

Bissett had received an anonymous call the night before, telling him to “shape up or ship out.” In response, he decided to come to class armed.

As the group of about 25 seniors approached Bissett, he warned them that he was armed. One claimed that his gun must be unloaded, so he shot two rounds into the ground.

He was about to enter his car, Bisset said, when the seniors moved in on him. Bisset claimed that he fired two more shots low into the group and “accidentally” hit Howell in the lower abdomen.

Bisset was arrested. “Undersheriff Lew Hawley said some of Bisset’s instructors have visited him at the jail and have encouraged him to continue his studies at Mines.” He was released on bail and suspended for the remainder of the term.

Howell went into surgery “in which his right kidney was removed and a bullet wound in his liver was closed to prevent bleeding.” Two of the other seniors (including the Senior Class President) were charged with aggravated assault and six were put on “strict probation” for the rest of the term.

Bisset’s trial took place on April 14th.

After deliberating for a very short time Wednesday afternoon the jury returned a “not guilty” verdict on all counts. – Colorado Transcript – April 16, 1959

Thanks to the Golden History Museum for providing the online cache of historic Transcripts, and to the Golden Transcript for documenting our history since 1866!

Supporters

GOLDENTODAY IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

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!

MARCH SPONSORS: Buffalo Rose, Buglet Solar, Foothills Art Center, Golden City Brewery, Golden Cultural Alliance, Golden History Museum, Golden Super Cruise, Miners Alley Playhouse, The Golden Mill, Golden Chamber of Commerce, Golden History Tours, Morris & Mae Market, Miners Saloon, Joy and Jack Brandt, Tom Reiley, ML Richardson, Mary Eiberger, Bud Rockhill, and Ruth Hund

Contributors: Greg Poulos, Vic DeMaria, Cynthia Merrill Tamny, Barry & Liz Bettis, Mel Perkins, Chris and Joyce Davell, Richard Caldwell, and Meridee & Ed Cecil

Ongoing Monthly Supporters:
Tall Pines Painting, Baby Doe’s Clothing, Golden Community Garden, Carol & Doug Harwood, Jennings & Litz, Bill Fisher, Brian Quarnstrom, Casey & Gina Brown, Cheryl & Tom Schweich, Robert Storrs, Karen Smith, Sandy Curran, Paul Haseman, Michele Sannes, Kathy Smith, Crystal Culbert, Pat Madison, Donna Anderson, Ann Pattison, Carol & Don Cameron, Tom Hughes, Emeline Paulson, Susan Gray, David Smith, Karen Oxman, Laura King & Scott Wilson, Bill Sedgeley, Mariane Erickson, Carol Abel, Dot & Eric Brownson, Ann Norton & Jonathan Storer, Deb Goeldner, Rosemary Coffman, Jim & LouAnne Dale, Francine Butler, Elaine Marolla, Dixie Termin & Ron Miller, Chris Ball, Tom Hoffman, Patrick & Lisa Vitry, Alice Madison & Jim Kalivas, Lora Haimes, Nancy & Carlos Bernal, Stephanie Painter, Holly Thomas, Julie Bartos & Brad Miller, Bobby German & Alison McNally, and Frank & Marsha Hanou

Highlights