Established during the
Pike's Peak Gold Rush, Golden City quickly became a leading economic and political center of the region. Its geographic location made it a center of trade between the gold fields to the west and settlements to the east. Golden City was established on June 16, 1859, along Clear Creek west of Denver. The city is named after
Thomas L. Golden. Other important businessmen and prospectors like
William A.H. Loveland and George West were among the first people to settle in Golden. By the end of 1860, Golden City had been popularly elected the seat of Jefferson County and was capital of the provisional
Jefferson Territory. As drafted in the territorial constitution, the capital of the Jefferson Territory was initially proposed to be Golden, then with a population of 700, as a result of its proximity to mountain mining towns, and greater ability to hold a congressional quorum than had Denver. Golden City was temporarily removed from the status of territory capital as a result of an act passed on November 5, 1861, by the territorial government.
Colorado City, a small town to the south of Denver, became the new temporary territorial capital, but saw only one short event at this location. This status was quickly revoked, however, as on August 4, 1862, the territorial government voted formally to move back to Golden. While the town lost much of its populace and leading citizenry during the
Civil War for several reasons (ranging from military to economic), Golden City became capital of the federally recognized
Colorado Territory on August 2, 1862, continuing as such until 1867. Between 1862 and the early 1870s a fierce railroad competition developed between Denver, to the east, and Golden. By the mid-1860s, Golden held a functionally honorific status as the territorial capital, rather than serving as the primary source of territorial power. Denver, the increasingly larger and more-developed city, was the focused core of important territorial occasions, with the Governor residing in Denver, and territorial legislative meetings occurring there as well. The Territorial Supreme Court, however, met in Golden throughout its tenure as the capital due to the Justices' decision in
Bruce v. House whereby the court struck down a special law passed by the legislature directing the court to meet at Denver on the basis that the superseding Organic Act creating Colorado Territory directed the court to meet at the legal capital. From late 1866 through 1867 the legislative and executive branches did return to Golden in part due to the falling out of newcomer
Alexander Cummings with Denver, and the Territorial Library resided in Golden from 1867-1868. However, the citizens and supporters of Golden realized that a spur from Golden to the new transcontinental railroad, running through
Cheyenne,
Wyoming, to the north, was ultimately the only possibility for Golden to reemerge as the dominant heart of commerce in the territory. W.A.H. Loveland founded the
Colorado Central Railroad on February 9, 1865, to do just this. The residents of Denver voted for the bonds, spurring construction of the
Denver Pacific Railway. By 1869, the railroad race to Cheyenne was becoming less and less of a race, as the Denver Pacific Railway pulled ahead of the struggling Colorado Central Railroad. Realizing they were going to lose the race to Cheyenne, the Colorado Central began expanding west into mountain communities such as
Georgetown,
Black Hawk, and
Central City, all areas founded on and focused in silver mining. Golden, having then sidetracked into servicing various close by mountain communities, continued to fall behind the pace set by the Denver railroad, and by 1870, officially lost the race to Cheyenne. However, The Colorado Central Railroad connected directly with Cheyenne seven years later, in 1877, but by that point, the race with Denver had been lost. Golden became home to the Solar Energy Research Institute (now
National Laboratory of the Rockies) in 1977. The city's central business sector weathered a recession in the 1980s, after the decline in the price of petroleum and near-simultaneous failure of several downtown anchors. The 1990s saw the revitalization of the downtown through various initiatives, including its second streetscaping project in 1992. In 1993, the old Golden High School building was converted into the American Mountaineering Center, making Golden a research and education hub for mountaineering. The Coors Brewery had become the largest single-site brewery in the world, with its
porcelain subsidiary noted for its innovation in
patented technology. ==Geography==