History of Golden, CO

After World War II Golden boomed, rapidly gaining population, size and economy. In 1959 the town nearly tripled in geographic size overnight when it annexed large properties to the south including the new Magic Mountain theme park, one of the earliest entertainment attractions of its kind. A number of new subdivisions were built and public infrastructure was modernized including new buildings for the senior high school, city hall, recreation center, library, museum and central fire and police stations. Also built were new downtown anchors including department stores and grocery stores, several new church buildings, new county offices, and the Horizon Plan which transformed the School of Mines.

The decline in the price of petroleum and near simultaneous failure of several downtown anchors placed the central business district into recession in the 1980s, and the downtown was revitalized again 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, its Porcelain subsidiary among the foremost of its kind in the world, and Golden became home to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Today Golden has a population of over 18,000 people and is home to more people and businesses of national and international influence than ever before, yet maintains a small-town historic identity. A Golden mailing address may also represent one of several communities in unincorporated Jefferson County to the north and west of Golden, communities undergoing continual residential development of former farm, ranch and mining land and which possess a considerable