The Golden Years

The foothills town of Golden is full of historical lore: Coors Brewery, Foss Drug, Jolly Rancher, Lookout Mountain and the Colorado School of Mines are just a few of its landmarks, come and (some) gone. Town officials have done a great job of preserving the physical remains of all that...

By Susan Froyd

March 25, 2010

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The foothills town of Golden is full of historical lore: Coors Brewery, Foss Drug, Jolly Rancher, Lookout Mountain and the Colorado School of Mines are just a few of its landmarks, come and (some) gone. Town officials have done a great job of preserving the physical remains of all that history in a collection of more than 15,000 artifacts, ranging from the eighteen-foot-long Foss Drug sign (now all that’s left of the downtown fountain and drugstore) to such minutiae as dental tools used in the 1920s by Golden dentist “Doc” Crawford. Those items and a mother lode of other old stuff — eighty or so items including a galvanized bathtub used by one of Golden’s first African-Americans, a nineteenth-century melodeon and a Wells Fargo stagecoach treasure box — are featured in the Golden History Museum’s new Show & Tell exhibition.

View the steamer trunks and Civil War uniforms of Golden’s founding families and other, less reputable figures when the show opens with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight, with standards by George Gershwin, Cole Porter and the like performed by Golden favorites Dave Rucker, Ed Stephen and Dave Powers. Or just visit the museum, 923 Tenth Street, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, when admission is $4 (or $6 with combined admission to the Astor House Museum); for more information, call 303-278-3557 or go to http://goldenhistorymuseums.org.
Starts: March 25. Daily, 2010

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Susan Froyd started writing for Westword as the "Thrills" editor in 1992 and never quite left the fold. These days she still freelances for the paper in addition to walking her dogs, enjoying cheap ethnic food and reading voraciously. Sometimes she writes poetry.

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