Junction US 40—Golden—Lookout Mountain—Junction US 40; 11.5 miles, State 68.

Concrete-paved between Junction US 40 and Golden; oil-processed remainder of distance.        

This is one of the most interesting and popular scenic drives in the vicinity of Denver. The route passes through Golden, one of the oldest of Colorado cities, and winds up and over Lookout Mountain, offering far-ranging views of foothills and plains.

State 68 branches west from US 40, 0 miles (see Tour 7b), 10.1 miles west of Denver (see Denver).

West of the junction the route passes through CAMP GEORGE WEST (open 9-4 daily), 0.2 miles, where the Colorado National Guard holds annual June encampments. The AMPHITHEATER, built against the hillside north (R) of the camp, seats 2,500.

The highway skirts the southern edge of (R) SOUTH TABLE MOUNTAIN (6,215 alt.), 0.7 miles, a mesa rising 400 feet. Stone quarried on it was used in building Camp George West, and for rip-rapping the channel of the South Platte River in Denver. Beyond, to the north, is the twin mass of NORTH TABLE MOUNTAIN (6,500 alt.). These small basaltic plateaus, divided by the valley of Clear Creek, were created by volcanic eruptions.

The COLORADO INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL FOR BOYS (open daily by permission), 2.1 miles, established in 1881 for juvenile delinquents between the ages of 6 and 16, is a school for vocational training. Boys work in the large fields that surround the red-roofed sandstone buildings. Windows are not barred, and the grounds are inclosed within an ordinary wire fence. The average number of inmates is 200.

GOLDEN, 2.5 miles (5,680 alt., 2,426 pop.), seat of Jefferson County, lies in a pocket of the foothills at the mouth of Clear Creek Canyon. Townsmen's livelihoods depend largely upon the Coors' industries—a large brewery and a pottery plant—and the Colorado School of Mines. Booted and corduroy-trousered students of the institution are regarded almost as adopted sons.

Founded in 1859 by the Boston Company and named for Tom Golden, an early miner, the town soon supplanted Arapahoe Bar, a placer camp farther east on Clear Creek. Because of its proximity to the mountain mining camps, it rivaled Denver for several years as the chief settlement of the Territory. The legislature of the Provisional Territory of Jefferson met here in the winter of 1860, and in 1862 the town was named the capital of Colorado Territory, remaining so until 1867 when Denver was made the permanent seat of government. Golden's distinction was more or less an empty one, for officials insisted upon transacting their business in Denver. Governor Alexander Cummings, however, loaded his executive records into a wagon and brought them to Golden in 1866, but remained only a month. The Fifth and Sixth Legislatures of the Territory held their meetings in what is now the two-story KOENIG BUILDING, Washington Ave. and 12th St.

During the hard-rock mining days of the 1870's, Golden was one of the busiest towns in Colorado, having three flour mills, two breweries, a paper mill, and three brick kilns; five smelters refined gold and silver ores valued in excess of $1,200,000 annually.

The COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES, its main entrance at Illinois Ave. and 15th St., lies at the base of Lookout Mountain. High up on the steep slope a giant "M" is defined in white-painted boulders. Next to Columbia University, New York City, it is the oldest institution of its kind in the United States and one of the foremost mining schools in the world, attracting students from many foreign countries. The school was founded as Jarvis College in 1869 by the Right Reverend George M. Randall of Boston, missionary bishop of the Episcopal Church of Colorado. Bishop Randall was interested in providing technical training in mining, and in 1870 the Territorial legislature aided him by appropriating $3,872 for a building at Golden. Its first courses, offered in 1871, included assaying and simple chemical tests for ores; in 1874 the school became a State institution. It had an enrollment of 650 in 1939. Graduates receive diplomas of silver, signed by the president with an electric needle.

The 25-acre campus, between Maple and Arapaho Aves. and 13th and 16th Sts., contains 10 modern buildings. In addition, the school operates the Edgar Experimental Mine near Idaho Springs (see Tour 7b) and a geological and petroleum field camp near Pueblo.

The three oldest buildings, two-story red brick structures erected between 1880 and 1890, at the northeast corner of the campus, constitute the HALL OF CHEMISTRY. A large lecture hall has an enclosed room equipped for chemical demonstrations. Adjoining on the east is the red brick HALL OF ADVANCED CHEMISTRY.

STRATTON HALL, a three-story granite and red sandstone building west of the Hall of Chemistry, contains class rooms and laboratories of the departments of metallurgy and petroleum, mechanical, electrical, and civil engineering. On the first floor are models of metallurgical furnaces. In the ASSAY BUILDING, a low red brick structure adjoining on the west, are 39 gas-fired muffle furnaces. The balance room here is especially designed to keep dust, changes of temperature, and sunlight from affecting delicate instruments.

Southwest of Stratton Hall the two-story gray sandstone GUGGENHEIM HALL houses the library, administration offices, assembly hall, and lecture rooms. The library contains 36,000 volumes and 9,000 pamphlets and bulletins, being perhaps the largest and most complete technical library in the Rocky Mountain region. More than 700 current technical periodicals and serials are received.

The MINING BUILDING, south of Guggenheim Hall, a red brick structure remodeled in 1936, contains laboratories and class rooms.

Northwest of the campus is the BROOKS ATHLETIC FIELD, its steel and concrete grandstand seating 4,000, as well as the EXPERIMENTAL PLANT, with laboratories for practical instruction in ore dressing, hydro-metallurgy, and ore testing.

Right from Golden on graveled State 58, an old route to the mines of Gilpin County (see Tour 6) into GOLDEN GATE CANYON, 1.5 miles In May 1859, Albert D. Richardson, author of Beyond the Mississippi, traveled this route with Horace Greeley and wrote, "We found Clear Creek greatly swollen, so we left our coach, saddled the mules and rode them through the stream amid a crowd of immigrants who sent up three hearty cheers for Horace Greeley. The road was swarming with travelers; in the distance they were clambering right up a hill as abrupt as the roof of a cabin. . . . This road, only five weeks old, was beaten like a turnpike; and far above toiled men, mules, and cattle. Wagons carrying less than half a ton were drawn by 20 oxen, while those descending dragged huge trees in full leaf and branch behind them, as brakes." Upon his return three weeks later Richardson was amazed to find the hill road abandoned and a newly cut thoroughfare threading the canyon.

The road leaves the canyon and ascends GUY HILL, 8 miles, its western slope so steep that stage coaches were once raised and lowered by means of ropes and pulleys attached to a huge tree. West of the hill the route follows Guy Gulch to the junction with a dirt road, 172 miles, known as the Dory Hill Short Cut.

Left on this road 8.5 miles, to BLACKHAWK, (see Tour 6).

At 17.6 miles on State 58 is the junction with a dirt road.

Left here 4 miles to DORY HILL CEMETERY, with graves of many early settlers of Blackhawk and Central City.

At 18.1 miles is the junction with State 119 (see Tour 6), 6.2 miles north of Blackhawk.

South of Golden, 4 miles, State 68 passes through ornamental FINLAY L. MACFARLAND MEMORIAL GATEWAY, supported by salmon-colored sandstone towers. MacFarland was a leader in the development of the Denver Mountain Park System (see Tour 15A). The road begins the ascent of LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN along a series of hairpin curves; the grade is fairly easy and the roadway wide. Golden and Clear Creek Canyon, with its thread of water, drop away far below;

Denver and miles of hazy blue-and-silver plains appear to the east; at night this great expanse sparkles with electric lights.

At the crest of Lookout Mountain, 9.3 miles, is the junction with a short circular drive.

Right on this drive to the GRAVE OF BUFFALO BILL (William F. Cody), 02 miles, on the highest point of the mountain (7,375 alt.). The body rests under a concrete slab inclosed within an iron railing. Visitors toss coins into the inclosure for luck, the money being used for maintenance of PAHASKA TEPEE, a rustic lodge built on the drive just below the grave. The lodge houses a collection of relics, including ornaments, early photographs, and clothing worn by scouts and Indians.

William Frederick Cody, hunter, Indian fighter, showman, and hero of dozens of dime novels, was born in Scott County, Iowa, on Feb. 26, 1846. Orphaned at an early age, he turned to the adventurous life of the plains. According to his niece, Helen Cody Wetmore, who with Zane Grey wrote The Last of the Great Scouts, Cody was a Pony Express rider through the Indian country in 1859-60 when only 13 years old. Later, he became a scout for the Army, serving in the Indian campaigns of 1867. He attracted the attention of General Phil Sheridan, who made him chief of scouts. Cody's Indian name, Pahaska, or Long Hair, was given him at this time by Pawnee scouts in the Army. The nickname "Buffalo Bill," by which he was known to millions throughout the world, came from his prowess as a hunter; he is credited with having killed as many as seventy bison a day when under contract to supply meat to railroad construction gangs. Probably the most publicized of Cody's exploits was his duel with the Cheyenne Chief, Yellow Hand, during the Sioux War of 1876. The most popular of several versions of this affair has Cody slaying the chief in a hand-to-hand encounter between opposing ranks of Indians and soldiers. Tall, striking in appearance, Cody was the beau ideal of a frontiersman. In the early 1880's he capitalized on his appearance and reputation by organizing a Wild West Show, hiring cowboys, Indians, and trick riders, with whom he toured the world for 20 years. Profits from this venture he invested in lands in Nebraska and Wyoming. Subsequently he served in the Nebraska Legislature and as judge advocate general of Wyoming. At the time of his death in Denver, Jan. 10, 1917, financial reverses had wiped out his fortune.

At 11.5 miles is the junction with US 40 (see Tour 7b), 18.7 miles west of Denver.