Boulder

The American Guides Project

Railroad Station: 14th and Water Sts. for Colorado & Southern R.R. and Union Pacific R.R.

Golf: Municipal Course, 1.5 miles E. on State 7, 18 holes, greens fee 50¢ week-days, $1 Sun. and holidays; Mountain View Course, 24th and Arapahoe Sts.,9 holes, greens fee 35¢; Old Country Club Course, 9 holes, greens fee 25¢.

Swimming: Hygienic Indoor Pool, 21st and Pearl Sts., open daily except Mon. 15¢-35¢.

Tennis: Boulder High School, 17th and Arapahoe Sts.; Recreation Park, 9th St. and R.R. tracks, free.

Shuffleboard, Rogue, Badminton, Horseshoe Pitching: Recreation Park, 9th St. and R.R. tracks, free.

Annual Events: Colorado Chautauqua, July and Aug.; Writers Conference, July; Pay Dirt Pow-Wow, Aug.

BOULDER (5,530 alt., 11,223 pop.), seat of the University of Colorado, lies in a protected green valley within stone's throw of the "Flatirons," an upended red rock strata on the face of the precipitous foothills. In these foothills are Boulder's 6,000 acres of mountain parks. Above them are glimpses of the snowy Continental Divide, on the breast of which is Arapahoe Glacier, largest in the Rockies, source of the city's water supply.

Boulder Creek, a clear mountain stream, comes leaping down the near-by canyon and winds through the municipal park; the creek separates the university campus from the older residential sections and the compact business district along Pearl Street, the principal thoroughfare, which extends east and west of the stone courthouse, the city's tallest structure. South of the creek are the vivid stone buildings of the university, many faculty residences, boarding and fraternity houses, and small shops frequented by students.

Upon the university, largest of the State's educational institutions, the city depends for its livelihood, its sports, and its social and cultural life. "Room to Let" signs appear in many windows, for Boulder in a sense is a large and hospitable boarding house. Young people predominate on the streets, both summer and winter, for the university has one of the Nation's most popular summer schools, attracting thousands of students, a large number from the South.

When Captain Thomas Aikens, one of a party of Argonauts moving up the South Platte River in the fall of 1858, climbed the wall of old Fort St. Vrain and looked westward through a telescope, he saw "that the mountains looked right for gold, and the valleys looked rich for grazing." This prompted him to lead a small party from the main emigrant train and to settle on the site of Boulder. Arapaho Indians were encamped near by, and Chief Left Hand asked Captain Aikens if he remembered when the stars fell. When told it was in 1832, the chief said, "That is right, it was that year white men first came." Pointing to Donati's comet in the sky, Left Hand asked, so it is said, "Do you know what that star with the tail means? The tail points back to when the stars fell as thick as the tears of our women shall fall when you come to drive us away."

Left Hand then commanded the whites to leave within three days, and when they did not, came alone to the encampment and related a dream, saying that he had seen Boulder Creek flooded, the Indians engulfed, and the whites saved. The Indians did not immediately give up the site, remaining in the vicinity for two years, but rarely gave more trouble than hooking bacon slices from prospectors' frying pans with the end of their ramrods.

During the open winter of 1858-59, the settlers worked in their shirtsleeves, building cabins, hunting and fishing, laying out the new town, and even cutting hay. Game was so plentiful that the Wellman boys, three brothers from Pennsylvania, shot elk from the door of their cabin. The town was named Boulder City for the numerous large stones in the vicinity, and a town company was formed early in 1859; G. W. Gregg and T. W. Fisher were employed to plat the town, which hoped to become an important gold center.

The Wellman brothers, Henry, Luther, and Sylvanus, began to plow the day after their arrival in August 1859. They sowed an acre of turnips, which had grown to the size of a half dollar when George Nichols came into their cabin while they were eating. "Boys," said he, "did you ever see it rain grasshoppers?" And rain grasshoppers it did; they struck the end of the cabin and fell a foot deep on the ground. The turnips were "suddenly devoured . . . and so went the first crop ever planted in Boulder County."

Until late in 1859, according to a local historian, "there was not a foot of sawed lumber, nor a square of glass, nor a pound of nails in the town. The 70 log houses were built along Pearl Street and around the public square, having doors and roofs of pine splints, with dirt floors. Bill Barney's hall had the first whip-sawed board floor, and this was duly dedicated by a dance ... on Christmas Eve. There were 200 men in attendance, and all the ladies of the city, 17 in number." In want of stores, goods were sold from wagons.

Irrigation ditches were dug in 1859 and opened the following year, providing the persistent Wellman brothers with a fine crop of wheat, and Marinus Smith and William G. Pell with excellent vegetables. Successful irrigation was thus established in this area, and as late as 1910 old irrigation ditches still ran through the city.

Jonathan Tourtellote and Fred Squires came from New England in 1860, with their wives, Maria and Miranda, twin sisters. The men kept store in the front part of a double log house, selling groceries and mining supplies, while the back part became a hotel, kept by the women, who cut willows and made brooms for sweeping the dirt floor. They delighted in the sight of antelope coming down to the creek to drink, served meals on two boards brought from New England, and covered household goods with horse blankets when it rained through the splint roof. The first schoolhouse in Colorado was erected here this year; a post office was established, and the first frame house built.

The optimistic town founders held their lots for exorbitant prices, and when gold camps to the westward quickly declined, Boulder suffered likewise. But early mining days are still celebrated at the annual Pay Dirt Pow-Wow, with its rock-drilling contests, burro races, miners' dances, and Gold Camp Carnival.

The 1860's were lean years for Boulder City. Many discouraged people departed, and those who remained were sometimes reduced to a diet of parched corn. Some financial relief came in the winter of 1861-62 when Governor Gilpin sent agents here to buy horses and arms for the army. Indian uprisings in 1864 threw Boulder City into a panic; defense trenches were begun but abandoned after the scare had subsided. Martial law was proclaimed in 1865 when Indians blocked the South Platte road; Boulder City "raised, mounted, and blanketed" a company of volunteers to go against the Indians. The Boulder Valley and Central City Wagon Road, a toll enterprise, started in 1865, was finished two years later.

The prospect of obtaining a railroad and a university brought Boulder City to life in the 1870's. On its incorporation as a town in 1871 an immigration society was organized. The first schoolhouse was replaced with a more commodious structure in 1872. The following year two railroads reached the town, the Colorado Central and the Denver & Boulder Valley, both now part of the Burlington System. The Boulder County Industrial Association was organized in 1874 to sponsor county fairs, and the same year the legislature appropriated funds to build the University of Colorado. The Phoenix Hook and Ladder Company, with 50 red-shirted volunteer firemen, was formed in 1875, at which time the cornerstone of the first university building was "laid with Masonic ceremony." A brewery was established by Frank Weisenhorn and Charles Voegtle. Boulder High School, established in 1876, graduated the first high school class in Colorado. Boulder City was reincorporated and enlarged in 1878; it was several years before the "City" in its name was dropped "as a ludicrous superfluity." In 1878 the first freshman class, of twelve members, was enrolled at the university. From a few hundred in 1870 the population had increased to 3,060 by 1880.

In subsequent years a few small industrial enterprises were established, but the university increasingly became its economic, social, and cultural center. In 1917 Boulder adopted proportional representation, the second city in America to do so, being anticipated by Ashtabula, Ohio.

The UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO (buildings open during school hours unless otherwise indicated), main entrance at Broadway and Pleasant St., on the southern edge of the city, occupies a 160-acre campus, half of which is improved. Most of the newer buildings erected since 1917 are grouped on the eastern side of the campus. Although earlier structures have little uniformity of style, the new buildings, designed by the late Charles Zeller Klauder of Philadelphia, are uniformly designed in a striking style that harmonizes well with the mountain setting. Although his original plan was to follow the traditional Collegiate Gothic lines of Macky Auditorium, Klauder visited the site and was so impressed with it and the character of local building stone that he evolved a distinctive style based upon that of Italian rural architecture. Unsymmetrical in line, with red tile roofs sloping at various heights and angles, the buildings are of local sandstone taken from a quarry owned by the university. Well suited for construction, the sandstone splits easily into large sheets not more than five inches thick and has a rich variety of tone and color, which ranges from yellow to reddish-purple.

The University of Colorado was projected in 1861 as a mining school. Goldfield and neighboring mining camps were more interested in the plan than Boulder. Residents of Golden (see Tour 7A) were similarly ambitious and moved expeditiously toward their goal. The legislature created the University of Colorado on November 7, 1861, designating Boulder as its seat, and at the same time Golden was given the Colorado School of Mines. For more than ten years the university existed only on paper. In 1870 a board of trustees was named; the next year a site was donated to the State by Marinus G. Smith, George A. Andrews, and Anthony Arnott, pioneer residents. The legislature failed to provide funds to operate the university until 1874, when $15,000 was appropriated, but with the proviso that it had to be matched by the citizens of Boulder. Captain David Nichols, member of the legislature, rode all night to bring this news from Denver, and the money was forthwith subscribed.

In authorizing Colorado to take steps toward statehood in 1875, the Congress granted the university 72 sections of land. The cornerstone of Old Main, the first building, was laid September 20, 1875; classes met in it two years later. As none of the 44 students could meet the entrance requirements established by President Joseph A. Sewall, the university established a preparatory course. The first class of seven was graduated from the university in 1883.

The university grants degrees in the arts and sciences, engineering, medicine, law, and business. Student publications include the bi-weekly Silver and Gold, named for the university colors; the quarterly Colorado Engineer; Rocky Mountain Law Review; the Window, a literary magazine; the Dodo, a humorous magazine issued six times during the school year; and the Coloradan, an annual. Most of the departments of the university are on the campus, but the School of Medicine, combined with the Colorado General Hospital and the Colorado Psychopathic Hospital, is in Denver. In 1939-40 the university had approximately 4,000 students and a faculty of 350.

The HALE SCIENCE BUILDING (open 8-5 weekdays), south of the campus entrance, an ivy-covered red brick and white sandstone structure named for Horace M. Hale, second president of the university (1887-92), houses the graduate school administrative offices, and the departments of biology and physics.

South of the Hale Science Building are the SIMON GUGGENHEIM LAW BUILDING (open 8-10 Mon.-Thur.; 8-9 Fri.-Sat.; 2-4 Sun.), a white brick structure of neo-classic design, the gift of Simon Guggenheim, former U. S. Senator from Colorado (1907-13), and the BUCKINGHAM LIBRARY (open 7:50-10 Mon.-Thur.; 7:50-6 Fri.-Sat.; 2-6 Sun.), of light brick with ornate sandstone trim. The law collection in the Guggenheim Building includes, among other valuable books, fifteenth century imprints and a copy of an evidence book used by Abraham Lincoln and bearing his autograph on the flyleaf. The Buckingham Library houses 287,930 volumes.

The two-story sandstone ARTS BUILDING (open 8-5 weekdays), south of the library, was completed in 1922, the first of the buildings designed by Klauder. Here are the departments of English literature, education, mathematics, history, political science, psychology, philosophy, German, and the fine arts. South of this is the MUSEUM BUILDING (open 8-5 weekdays; 2-5 on 1st and 3rd Sundays of month), completed in 1937 with the aid of P.W.A. funds. Exhibits include material on archeology and natural history, war and Indian relics, a model of the first Boulder schoolhouse, and a notable fossil collection assembled by Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell, former head of the Biology department.

OLD MAIN (open 8-5 weekdays), once the center of the campus, is a three-story red brick building completed in 1877, the oldest of the university structures. During construction it threatened to collapse of its own weight, and "five tons of iron bolts, nuts, anchors, etc,," were needed before it was pronounced safe. It contains units of the home economics, literature, romance languages, journalism, and recreation departments, the school of pharmacy, and the Little Theater. A rope to the bell in the south tower is pulled joyously by freshmen to celebrate athletic victories.

White water lilies bloom throughout the summer on UNIVERSITY LAKE, to the north, reaching their greatest beauty during June and July.

MACKY AUDITORIUM (open 8-5 Mon.-Fri.; 8-1 Sat.; special occasions Sun.), northeast of Old Main, a Collegiate Gothic edifice of light-colored sandstone, crowned with twin towers, was completed in 1911 and seats 2,600. Recitals on the four-manual Austin organ are given here during the summer school quarter (4 p.m. Wed. and Sun., June 10-Aug. 26), and phonographic recitals are given in the Senate Room (1-5 Tues., Wed., Thur.). The auditorium was financed largely through bequests of Andrew J. Macky, Boulder banker.

The WOMEN'S DORMITORY, the MEN'S DORMITORY, and the MEN'S GYMNASIUM AND FIELD HOUSE, toward the eastern side of the campus and among the largest of the university units, are in the Italian villa manner. East of the fieldhouse is NORLIN STADIUM, seating 26,000, constructed in 1930 in a natural bowl and named for Dr. George Norlin, president of the university (1918-1939).

CHAUTAUQUA PARK (season July 4-Aug. 31; adm. 25¢ children 10¢), entrance 11th and Baseline Sts., is the seat of the Colorado Chautauqua, founded in 1898 by a group of Texas vacationists. Park buildings include an auditorium, dining hall, community house, and 100 cottages, many for rent during the season. Entertainment consists of moving pictures, nature talks, travelogues, plays, lectures, exhibitions of magic, and concerts; automobile caravans are arranged to points of interest near Boulder.

The BOULDER COUNTY COURTHOUSE, Pearl and 10th Sts., designed by Glenn H. Huntington of Boulder and completed in 1934 is strikingly modernistic in line. The building is constructed of stone taken from the approaches of an abandoned railway bridge west of Boulder.

The SITE OF COLORADO'S FIRST SCHOOLHOUSE, 15th and Walnut Sts., is designated by a gray granite monument. Here a one-room clapboard structure was erected in 1860, within a year of the town's founding, and in it some 40 children were taught by Abner R. Brown (see The People), who had become disillusioned as a miner. The schoolhouse was built and maintained by a subscription fund; Brown contrived to build a stove from miscellaneous sheets of iron.

Boulder Canyon, 1.3 miles; Roosevelt National Forest, 6.1 miles; Flagstaff Mountain, 7.2 miles; Gold Hill and Sunshine, early gold camps, 12.5 miles; Arapahoe Glacier, 33 miles (see Tour 6).