Golden and the Hogback
Photo by Scott Wilson
What's happening in Golden today?
Events for Wednesday, Jun. 12th
- All day - CURRENT EXHIBITS AT THE MUSEUMS
- All day - Live Workouts with Community Center Pros
- All day - Golden History Tours
- 8:30AM-12PM - Senior Wildflower Walk along Clear Creek
- 9-10:15AM - Golden Walks
- 9AM - Golden Startup Coffee
- 10AM-4PM - Funky Friends Workshop
- 10:15-11:15AM - Discovery Play
- 10:15-10:45AM - Toddler Time
- 1-4:30PM - Public Historic District Walking Tour
- 3-5PM - Virtual/Call In: Hard Times Writing Workshop
- 4-6PM - Triangle Park Pop-up Event
- 5-7PM - VIBE@Five
- 6-7:30PM - Bingo Night
- 6:30PM - Trivia Night
- 6:30PM - Historic Preservation Board Meeting
- 6:30-7:30PM - Adventures in Travel: Tips and Tricks from a Travel Expert
For more information, click the item above or visit the Golden Today Calendar
6:30PM Historic Preservation Board Meeting
8th & 9th Street Historic District
Board members will discuss this afternoon's tours of the three Historic Districts. and will be introduced to the Historic Preservation Policy and Engagement Study.
They will consider a second set of options for repainting the sign on the side of the Astor House. (This case was continued from last month.)
They will consider a request for a Certificate of Appropriateness for demolition of a house at 817 14th Street. Habitat for Humanity and Calvary Church hope to build a 40 unit affordable housing complex on that property.
See the meeting packet for more information on any of these topics.
Meeting will be broadcast on this page and takes place at Golden City Hall - 911 10th Street (map)
8:30AM Senior Wildflower Walk along Clear Creek
Physocarpus montanus aka "Mountain Ninebark" - Photo by Tom Schweich
Join botanist Tom Schweich for a senior wildflower walk on the Clear Creek trail. Tom will answer your questions about plants. This is an out and back so you can turn around at any point. Meet at the Golden Community Center front door.
For more information and to register for this event, click here and then "register for online classes." (2nd-to-last sentence on the page.)
Golden Community Center
1470 10th Street (map)
Special Notice About Tonight's VIBE @ Five @ The Golden Mill
VIBE@FIVE is Golden's Happy Hour! Come join other members of the Golden Chamber of Commerce for this "Very Important Business Event" - VIBE!
This month's VIBE@Five is a collaborative event with the Golden Chamber of Commerce, the Asian Chamber of Commerce and the French American Chamber of Commerce.
Food will be prepared by Sushi Sora.
Registration fee includes $10 beverage card (or can be put toward food if you don't want sushi). Networking area will be in the lower level on the south side of the building.
Space at this special event is very limited. If you haven't registered, call the Chamber and see if a space has opened up.
Golden Mill
1012 Ford Street (map)
4-6PM Triangle Park Pop-Up Event
The City of Golden would like your feedback on a new design for Triangle Park located at the intersection of South Golden Rd and East Street.
Funds from a Colorado Water Conservation Board’s Turf Replacement program grant will be used to redesign the park to reduce water waste and beautify the park!
Students, families, neighbors: stop by to learn more and give your insight! Please come join us at the event to participate in a design survey or check out Guiding Golden on event day to participate online.
Triangle Park, South Golden Road and East Street (map)
1-4:30PM Tours of Golden's Historic Districts
The City’s Historic Preservation Policy and Engagement Study begins with a tour of the City’s three historic districts with the Historic Preservation Board, staff, and the City’s consultant, Logan Simpson. Later that evening, the Board will receive a formal introduction to the Study and the consultant at their scheduled meeting at 6:30 p.m.
The tours are open to the public!
Walking Tour Schedule
1PM - 8th and 9th Street District - meet at the corner of 9th St and Cheyenne St.
2:15PM - 12th Street District - meet at the corner 12th St and Arapahoe St.
3:30PM - East Street District - meet at the corner of 16th St and East St
Golden Startup Coffee @ Morris & Mae
Caffeine and connection at this community event! There will be two presentations, an audience Q&A, and local entrepreneurs sharing ideas. This event features Amy Beckley from Proov and Schuyler Van Sickle from 3MERA.
Morris & Mae
18475 W. Colfax Avenue (map)
Live Music for Wednesday, Jun. 12th
- 6-9PM Chris Koltak @ Miners Saloon @ Miners Saloon
Miners Saloon - More Live Music
4-8PM Chrispy @ Mountain Toad
6PM Live Music @ Rock Rest Lodge
For more information, visit the Golden Today Calendar
Golden History: From Good Clay to CoorsTek
The light area reveals a clay seam--one of several that have been mined in the Golden area. Photo by Nancy Torpey
by Guest Historian Paul Haseman
The good clay in Golden was early recognized, giving birth initially to a robust brick industry as early as 1864. This good clay from the nearby “claystone” became well known nationally and attracted not only brickmakers but also potential makers of fine pottery to include porcelain.
One person attracted to Golden was John Herold. Herold was a German emigrant who had been trained in the fine ceramic business in Germany. Coming to America he was a former art superintendent at the prestigious Roseville Pottery plant in Zanesville, OH. He spent some years in Ohio and then moved to Colorado in 1909 because of health reasons and needed Colorado’s drier air. Once here, he determined that local clay deposits fulfilled their growing reputation and promise for use in high temperature cookware and began experimenting with local clays.
For more than a year, Herold was a one-man operation until May 1910 , when he caught Adolph Coors’ attention after winning recognition at the Denver Keramic Club exhibition at the Brown Palace Hotel. Coors offered to go into business with Herold and offered Herold China a no-cost lease of a part of the former Coors Golden Glass Co. bottling plant located at 600 9th Street (map), which had been closed for 22 years following a union strike in 1888. The Colorado Transcript noted the following on 26 May 1910.
John J. Herold, who has been making extensive experiments with Golden clays, has secured the ground upon which the glass works formerly stood and will begin work at once upon a small factory for the manufacture of high class art goods. He expects to be in operation within six weeks. Mr. Herold was for many years superintendent of the art department and the entire plants of big potteries at Zanesville, Ohio. He does not intend to erect a large plant at first, but is confident that it will not be many years before his works will grow into a most extensive affair. Last week at the exhibit of the Denver Keramic club Mr. Herold was a special exhibitor, showing a number of pieces which he made here in Golden from local product, as well as a number of pieces which he created in the East. The result was that he received a number of orders for ware as well as an abundance of compliments and assurance of success.
Catching Coors’ eye for quality and opportunity, Coors offered Herold the use of a portion of his defunct bottling plant at 610 9th Street and convinced other Golden businessmen such as Harry Rubey and Joseph Linder to invest in the Herold China and Pottery Co. But this was not magnanimity by Coors. As a good businessman, Coors saw a troubling future for beer brewing in Colorado. In 1907, a “Local Option” law was passed by the Legislature, leading several Colorado counties to go “dry.” And on 3 November 1914, the voters in Colorado enacted Statewide prohibition effective, 1 January 1916. With this “hand writing on the wall,” Coors early began diversification to include his entry into the ceramic business in 1910.
However, even with a new plant, the pottery did not do well with time dedicated to the hand painted novelties at which John Herold excelled. In any event, in 1912 Herold decided to give it up and join a Denver pottery business. Coors again stepped in and help raise additional capital, including his own funds and John Herold stayed on as manager. The plant was expanded and additional items were manufactured. However, with this investment by Coors he was elected President of the pottery on 6 Feb 1913 and his son, Adolph, Jr., Vice President. By 1914, with his normal style, Coors had bought out the other investors such as John Linder and Harry Rubey and owned Herold Pottery, which was run by his son, Adolph Coors, Jr.
Meanwhile, after initial success, a schism arose between Herold and Coors, perhaps over Herold’s business acumen or continued penchant for hand painted pottery. In any event, Herold and his family departed Golden in 1915 to return to Ohio, working at the Guernsey Pottery in Cambridge, OH, near Zanesville. That same year Coors successfully gained a preliminary injunction in Federal District Court to prevent Herold from disclosing Coors’s porcelain trade secrets to Guernsey Pottery. The injunction was later overturned, likely due to needed production for WWI.
Ah, yes, WWI. In literature, a plot device that unexpectedly “saves the day” is known as a deus ex machina and such an event was provided by Coors’ homeland, Germany, in the form of World War I. Prior to WWI scientific laboratories across the U.S. relied on German producers to meet their needs for high purity porcelain “chemical lab ware” such as crucibles, mortars and pestles. With the breakout of war in 1914, came an embargo on German goods. U.S. labs were forced to use inferior products then produced by American manufacturers which created serious issues with the quality and reliability of scientific results at a critical time in American history.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and perhaps the Government appealed to all American pottery manufacturers to develop the technology necessary to manufacture chemical porcelain ware to meet the demands of the Scientific Community. While 17 manufacturers responded to the call, only two, Herold China and Pottery and the Champion Sparkplug Company were able to meet the specifications.
By 1916 Herold China and Pottery was supplying the needs of the U.S. scientific community and the company had grown significantly in size and revenue. As noted above, in that same year sale of alcoholic beverages was made illegal in Colorado and the Coors Brewery was forced to transform primarily into a supplier of malted milk and chemical lab ware. The success of the efforts in chemical porcelain manufacture were critical to the financial survival of the Coors business holdings during 16 years of Prohibition.
With the end of WWI the company began making high quality, durable service ware for hotels and restaurants. In 1922, the Federal Government again approached Coors to develop special products to support early research in atomic energy.
During the remaining years until the repeal of Prohibition, Coors ceramic and porcelain operations grew and was ever more critical to the financial health of the Coors businesses – especially during the depression years in the 1930’s. During WWII Coors Porcelain was a contributor of high purity ceramic technology critical to the success of the Manhattan Project – though at the time the project was so secret that the company had no idea where the products they made went or how they were used.
In its evolution of name changes, Herold China and Pottery became Coors Porcelain in 1920. Coors Porcelain became Coors Ceramics in 1986. In 2000, Coors Ceramics was renamed to CoorsTek, which flourishes today as a $1.3B leader in the technical ceramics business. And it all started with good Golden clay from the Golden’s geologic claystone beds in the Laramie and Dakota Formations tipped up by the rise of the Rockies on the west side of Golden.
Many thanks to Paul Haseman for researching and writing this article!
Weather
Overnight: Mostly clear, with a low around 61. West wind around 8 mph.
Wednesday: Sunny. High near 92, with temperatures falling to around 90 in the afternoon. West northwest wind 6 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 16 mph.
Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 65. West southwest wind 6 to 9 mph.
Wednesday Night: Partly Cloudy, 65°F
Thursday: Sunny then Slight Chance Showers And Thunderstorms, 92°F
Thursday Night: Partly Cloudy, 64°F
Friday: Partly Sunny then Showers And Thunderstorms Likely, 86°F
Friday Night: Chance Showers And Thunderstorms then Mostly Cloudy, 62°F
Saturday: Partly Sunny then Chance Showers And Thunderstorms, 86°F
Saturday Night: Mostly Clear, 62°F
Sunday: Sunny then Slight Chance Showers And Thunderstorms, 89°F
Sunday Night: Partly Cloudy, 61°F
Monday: Sunny then Slight Chance Showers And Thunderstorms, 86°F
Monday Night: Slight Chance Showers And Thunderstorms then Partly Cloudy, 59°F
Tuesday: Mostly Sunny then Slight Chance Showers And Thunderstorms, 84°F
News Relating to Golden - June 12, 2024
Deputies looking for person who vandalized flags in Golden
By Richard Cole
9News
GOLDEN, Colo. — Deputies with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office are looking for a person responsible for damaging flags at the sheriff's headquarters in Golden... Read more...
Artsweek Golden celebrates city’s thriving arts scene
By Joy Meadows
Your Hub
Artsweek Golden, scheduled for June 17 through 23, is a week-long celebration of the arts in Golden. This year has been a banner year for the arts in Golden, with multimillion dollar arts investments and the opening of new downtown arts venues... Read more...
Living tracks of history: Locomotives that built Colorado mining towns continue to steam after 150-years
By Chris Koeberl
Golden Transcript
Inside the mechanic shop of the Colorado Railroad Museum, the air is thick with smoke and the smell of burning wood and diesel fuel as locomotive #20 prepares to fire up its steam engine to burn coal as it first did in 1899... Read more...
U.S. 6 in Clear Creek Canyon closed overnight for 6 days in June
By Lauren Penington
Denver Post
U.S. 6 in Clear Creek Canyon will close overnight for six days in June, transportation officials announced Monday... Read more...
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($100/month and up)
Buffalo Rose, Buglet Solar, Foothills Art Center, Golden City Brewery, Golden Cultural Alliance, Golden History Museum, Miners Alley Performing Arts Center, The Golden Mill, Golden Chamber of Commerce, Golden History Tours, Morris & Mae Market, Miners Saloon, Colorado Railroad Museum, Golden Hayride Outpost, Kona Bowls, Tom Reiley, Michael Mason
Friends:
($50-99.99/month or $500/yr)
Tall Pines Painting, Baby Doe’s Clothing, Goozell Yogurt & Coffee 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, Stephen Pero, Meg Van Ness & Steve Kalasz
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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, Heather Duncan, and the Golden Transcript
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Golden Community Garden, Lora Haimes, Mariane Erickson
