| 1858 |
Gold is discovered in Dry Creek [Englewood], stimulating the Pikes Peak Gold Rush.
First permanent Anglo-European Settlers arrived at mouth of
Boulder Canyon.
|
| 1859 |
First reported gold discovery in mountains
of Colorado at Gold Run [Gold Hill area].
Boulder City Town Company formed 10 February 1859.
The first irrigation ditch in Boulder County dug.
Coal discovered in Marshall area southeast of Boulder.
Jim Baker mined surface coal near Lafayette and sold it in Denver.
|
| 1860 |
The Wellman brothers planted the first wheat crop
in Boulder County.
The first schoolhouse in Colorado built strictly for educational
purposes was erected in Boulder on the southwest corner of 14th and Front
[Walnut].
The Ward Mining District was formed; named after Calvin Ward.
Andrew J. Macky erected the first frame building in Boulder on
the northeast corner of 14th and Pearl.
|
| 1861 |
Colorado became a Territory.
Treaty of Fort Wise signed with leaders of several bands of Arapahos
and Cheyennes "extinguishing their land title" in Colorado except for
a reserve in Southeast Colorado.
|
| 1862 |
Boulder County is formed.
Congress passed the Homestead Act.
|
| 1864 |
Joseph Marshall erected a small blast furnace and
produced pig iron from the local hematite southeast of Boulder.
Boulder and Longmont’s Company "D" of the 3rd
Colorado Volunteer Cavalry involved in the November Sand Creek Massacre.
|
| 1865 |
The town of Valmont [contraction of
"valley" and "mountain"] platted; it soon rivaled Boulder
in size and commercial activity.
|
| 1866 |
Boulder County’s first newspaper, the
Valmont Bulletin, began publication on New Years Day.
The Congregational Church in Boulder built.
Valmont Presbyterian Church built.
|
| 1867 |
Boulderites entice editor of Valmont Bulletin
to move his newspaper to Boulder where it was renamed the Boulder Valley
News. |
| 1869 |
The Boulder County Pioneer succeed the
Boulder Valley News, only to be succeeded by the Boulder County
News.
The town of Ryssby formed.
The first county fair in Colorado Territory opened in Boulder on
12 October 1869.
Silver discovered at Caribou re-igniting the mining boom.
|
| 1871 |
Boulder City is incorporated.
Longmont settled by the Chicago-Colorado Colony.
|
| 1873 |
Railroad extended to Boulder. |
| 1874 |
The first mill and smelter [Boyd Mill] erected in
Boulder
Martha Maxwell opened her Rocky Mountain Museum on Pearl Street.
Her taxidermy collection became centerpiece of Colorado’s exhibit at 1876
Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.
|
| 1875 |
Niwot platted. |
| 1876 |
The first high school graduation class in Territory
of Colorado was in Boulder.
Colorado became the 38th state 01 August 1876.
|
| 1877 |
The University of Colorado opened.
State Preparatory School founded as part of University because of
a lack of adequately prepared high school graduates.
|
| 1878 |
Mary Rippon appointed first woman professor at
CU. |
| 1880 |
The Boulder telephone exchange opened with 25
subscriptions. |
| 1882 |
The University’s first graduating class
consisted of six members.
The cornerstone for the old Boulder County Courthouse on
Boulder’s old town square was laid on 04 July 1882.
Pine Street School [Whittier School] opened.
|
| 1883 |
The Greeley, Salt Lake, and Pacific railroad completed
between Boulder and Sunset; extended service to mountain communities. |
| 1884 |
Joseph B. "Rocky Mountain Joe" Sturtevant
began to record the early history of Boulder county by taking photographs
between 1884 and 1910. |
| 1887 |
The Simpson Mine, a rich coal mine, opened in
Lafayette and was a major factor in subsequent economic development of
community. |
| 1889 |
"Old" Broomfield began to develop when
railroad depot and post office were relocated after standard gauge replaced narrow
gauge tracks one mile to the east.
Mapleton School in Boulder opened.
|
| 1890 |
New Boulder train depot dedicated at 14th and Water
St [Canyon Blvd].
The Boulder Camera founded. Became daily the next year.
|
| 1892 |
Mount Saint Gertrude Academy opened. |
| 1894 |
The Boulder Creek "100-year" flood damaged the town. |
| 1895 |
State Preparatory School moves into its own building
at 17th and Pearl. |
| 1896 |
Colorado Sanitarium, a branch of Dr. J.H.
Kellogg’s Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan, dedicated in Boulder. |
| 1898 |
Boulderites approved $20,000 bond election for
Texas-Chautauqua Auditorium opened on 04 July 1898.
The Colorado & Northwestern Railroad route between Boulder
and Ward named "The Switzerland Trail of America" by a Greeley man.
|
| 1899 |
Tungsten discovered. Boulder County became world's
leading producer of tungsten by World War I.
Boulder’s request for 1,800 acres of mountain backdrop/watershed
extending from South Boulder Creek to Sunshine Canyon approved by U.S.
Congress.
|
| 1900 |
The first automobile seen in Boulder was in June,
1900. By 1906, there were 26 registered auto cars, or "mankillers".
Summer home of John and Kate Harbeck completed; now a Boulder
landmark, present-day home of the Boulder Museum of History.
Disastrous fire destroyed central Ward.
Lafayette business district burned.
|
| 1904 |
City ordinance made it "unlawful for any
person to ride or drive within Boulder at a rate of speed in excess of 6 miles
per hour". |
| 1906 |
Carnegie library opened at 1125 Pine Street in Boulder.
Ed Tangen took the first of his 16,000 photographs capturing the
history of Boulder County from 1906 to 1951.
Curran Opera House opens at 1132-34 Pearl Street.
|
| 1907 |
Boulder passed anti-saloon ordinance.
Three were killed and the Boulder freight depot blown up when a
union brakeman set fire to burn out scab switchmen asleep in a caboose. Fire
spread to a freight car loaded with 2,400 pounds of dynamite. |
| 1908 |
First run of electric Interurban train from Denver
to Boulder.
Adolph J. Zang’s 4,000 acre ranch occupied a large
percentage of what is now the City of Broomfield and Jefferson County Airport.
World’s largest tungsten mill built north of Nederland.
Ivy Baldwin made a record breaking high wire walk on a cable
stretched 565 feet high across Eldorado Springs canyon.
Ten thousand pumpkin pies, thirty thousand sandwiches, and 75
barrels of coffee were served at Longmont’s Annual Pumpkin Pie Days.
|
| 1909 |
The Boulderado Hotel opened for business on New
Years Day.
"Baseball Billy" Sunday, the "World’s
Greatest" Evangelist, held a crusade in Boulder.
The Union Pacific Railroad introduced a self-contained forty-two
passenger rail car on the Denver-Boulder route. The 78 foot car was powered by
a six cylinder gasoline engine, had seats of "unusual width", oval
windows that could be opened for fresh air, and a compartment for smokers.
|
| 1910 |
3,000 coal miners in Boulder County go on strike;
lasted five years. |
| 1911 |
The daily stagecoach between Boulder and Nederland
replaced by Stanley Steamer.
Western States Cutlery and Manufacturing Company founded in
Boulder.
|
| 1914 |
Charles C. Buckingham family donated Boulder Falls
site to the City of Boulder.
US Army occupied Louisville during coal miner's strike.
|
| 1915 |
William F. Cody met with old friends in Boulder
while in town with the Sells-Floto Circus/Buffalo Bill’s Original Wild
West Show.
Enos Mills, Father of Rocky Mountain National Park, succeeded in
stimulating legislation that resulted in establishing Park.
|
| 1916 |
The Colorado Chautauqua Bulletin reported
"We Call it the Colorado Chautauqua, but it might as well be called the
Colorado Music Festival". |
| 1917 |
The University of Colorado faculty voted to approve
one of the first Reserve Officer Training [ROTC] programs in the nation.
The paving of Boulder streets began on 11 September 1917 when
the first concrete was poured near the corner of 18th and Pearl.
|
| 1918 |
Boulder Day Nursery founded as one of the earliest
day care centers in the nation.
Spanish influenza resulted in 41 deaths in Nederland and
a quarantine in Boulder.
|
| 1919 |
Switzerland Trail train scrapped.
Lions Club erected Panorama Park Shelter House on Flagstaff
Mountain and donated it to the City of Boulder; this began a half-century of
the Club’s providing park facilities to the city.
|
| 1920 |
Boulder Boy Scouts, led by Ralph Hubbard, performed
Indian dances before the British Royal Family, King Albert, and the Olympics in
Antwerp. |
| 1921 |
Hellems was the first building completed in the
"Rural Italian" or "Tuscan" style [sandstone and red roof
tiles] on the University of Colorado campus. |
| 1922 |
Florence C. Molloy and Mabel N. Macleay operated a
taxi and touring company in Boulder.
KKK paraded down Pearl Street.
|
| 1923 |
Construction began on the Lakeside [Valmont] Power
Plant, the "largest industrial project in the history of Boulder
County". It is still considered one of the most efficient plants in Public the Public Service Company [now EXCEL].
Police officer, Elmer Cobb, was murdered. Case remains unsolved.
Hygienic Swimming Pool [Spruce Pool] opened using warm water
produced from the manufacture of ice at adjacent Hygienic Ice Company.
|
| 1924 |
The University of Colorado Stadium [Folsom Field]
completed in time for Homecoming. |
| 1925 |
Fire destroyed Bleecker and Company plant at 3rd and
Arapahoe in Boulder. Plant manufactured luminous paint and "Zero Hour
Bombs". |
| 1927 |
Fred C. Smith of Boulder set a worlds record for
continuous automobile driving of 104 hours and 8 minutes. |
| 1930 |
Former President of the Women’s Christian
Temperance Union arrested for selling homemade intoxicants to university
students. She led movement that closed Boulder saloons in 1907. |
| 1931 |
Last run of Boulder's electric street cars |
| 1932 |
Old Boulder County Courthouse burns down. |
| 1933 |
The largest still "ever found in Northern
Colorado" uncovered on Gunbarrel Hill east of Boulder. |
| 1934 |
CCC boys finish Flagstaff Mt. amphitheater
First Pay Dirt Pow Wow celebration
|
| 1936 |
Early morning explosion in Monarch #2 kills eight
coal miners
Boulder Theater opened in renovated Curran Opera House
|
| 1937 |
First traffic light installed in Boulder at the
corner of 12th (Broadway) and Pearl.
New WPA-built Boulder High School opened. Nude sculptures of
"Wisdom and Strength" [Minnie and Jake] over entrance allowed to
remain despite controversy.
|
| 1938 |
Byron "Whizzer" White, later Rhodes
Scholar and U.S. Supreme Court Justice, became CU’s first All-American
football player. |
| 1944 |
Glenn Miller's plane went down.
Boulder Historical Society organized. History museum proposed in
new Municipal Building..
|
| 1951 |
Denver-Boulder Turnpike opened.
National Bureau of Standards broke ground for Radio Propagation
Laboratories in Boulder.
|
| 1952 |
Engine #30 of Switzerland Trail RR placed in
Central Park.
Secret Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Factory opens 8 miles south of Boulder . |
| 1957 |
Railroad passenger service to old depot in
downtown Boulder ends. |
| 1959 |
PLAN-Boulder organized and secured passage of
"Blue Line" to prevent development along mountain backdrop. |
| 1962 |
Valverdan Park renamed Scott Carpenter Park in
honor of Scott Carpenter, a NASA astronaut, from Boulder, who manned the Aurora 7. |
| 1963 |
Crossroads mall built. |
| 1965 |
The IBM plant along the Boulder-Longmont Diagonal triggered growth that is ongoing.
|
| 1967 |
Boulder voters were first in the nation to approve
a tax to purchase and preserve open space for a greenbelt around the community.
Boulder votes approved sale of intoxicating beverages after 60
years.
Regularly scheduled railroad passenger service ends in Boulder.
Denver-Boulder Turnpike became toll free; the debt was paid off early.
|
| 1969 |
Boulder's Central Park declared health hazard
because of transients.
Mount Saint Gertrude Girls School closed.
Celestial Seasonings, now a worldwide tea company, was founded by
Mo Siegel of Boulder.
|
| 1970 |
CU's Regent's Hall occupied by youthful anti-war
demonstrators. |
| 1971 |
Boulder adopted a fifty-five foot height limitation
for new buildings. |
| 1972 |
Demolition of Central School stimulated growth of
Historic Boulder, Inc. and the adoption of a City Landmark Ordinance.
Turnpike interchange at 28th Street occupied by antiwar
demonstrators.
|
| 1974 |
Boulder's Flatirons School bombed.
Bomb explodes in car at Burger King in Boulder killing three.
Bomb explodes in Chautauqua killing three.
|
| 1975 |
Red Zinger Bicycle Classic Race, started by
Celestial Seasonings, first raced through Boulder. Lasted 5 years until it
became sponsored by Adolph Coors Co. |
| 1976 |
Boulder votes approved a 2% growth limitation
referendum, know as the Danish Plan.
Pearl Street Mall closed to automobile traffic, pedestrain mall opens.
|
| 1978 |
The forty-five year old Pow Wow Days are held
for the last time in Boulder. Moved to Longmont and Louisville before its demise in
1982. |
| 1979 |
Bolder Boulder, a 10 kilometer road race on
Memorial Day, run for the first time through the streets of Boulder. |
| 1980 |
Kinetics Conveyance Race first held at the
Boulder Reservoir |
| 1989 |
Tom Czech, a CU professor, and Sidney Altman, a
CU graduate, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry |
| 1997 |
Tea House, sent from Boulder’s sister city
of Dushanbe, Tajikistan, erected on 13th Street east of Central Park, after much
discussion as to where it should be placed. |
| 1998 |
Mount Saint Gertrude Academy reopened as a
retirement community. |
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