Maybe you need the help of a drone
By Don Ireland
What do Bigfoot, Girl Scout cookies, soccer, Michael Jordan, police and s’mores have in common? They all have been the subject of recent news stories involving drones, technically called small Unmanned Aerial Systems by the Federal Aviation Administration. Although drone operations and sightings (more…)
Saturday, August 14 featuring the Famous Bed Races!
By Lisa Roemhildt
Join us Saturday, August 14, at noon through 8:00 pm for the 47th Annual Madam Lou Bunch Day! Madam Lou Bunch Day is a family event of fun, competition and loaded with history and facts of the area. Madam Lou Bunch owned the most successful brothel (referred to as a “sporting house”) in Central City. The annual event features the (more…)
Black Hawk homeowners participate in city house painting program
By Randy Beaudette
Black Hawk Police Chief Michelle Moriarty rang the bell to kick off the Black Hawk City Council regular meeting on May 12, 2021 to discuss a site development plan for the Golden Gilpin Mill, several construction (more…)
Georgetown and Idaho Springs Burro Races 2021
By Jaclyn Schrock
Why run a race leading a burro packed for prospecting? How did we get to the place where burro racing became Colorado’s Summer Heritage Sport? For eons of time on earth, the only way to sustain bread of life and shelter is to just do it. Living at all, took great effort and wisdom, and was most effective when working together with others in your home, (more…)
Happy 50th Gilpin Historical Society
By Randy Beaudette
Gilpin County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) faced another long agenda for a hybrid online/in-person Regular Meeting on June 1, 2021. Highlights included an extension of the County’s Emergency Declaration, a proclamation honoring Gilpin County Historical Society’s 50th Anniversary, and a Memorandum of Understanding for Gilpin County Human Services. (more…)
Street theater reenactments in Central City this summer
By Jaclyn Schrock
The Wild Bunch of Central City replays historic tales of Gilpin County coming to be, from noon to 4, when St. Mary’s Church (more…)
City Council losing a member
By David Josselyn
Regular Council Meeting
Just prior to the start of the meeting, at 6:58 pm, an impromptu conversation was had between Mayor Fey, Alderman Aiken, and Commissioner Web Sill (Alderwoman Johnson was also in the room) which constituted a quorum. However, the Zoom (more…)
With Gilpin County School Board
By Curt Halsted
To start the second Gilpin County School Board meeting in the month of May, Dr. David MacKenzie gave praise for the 2021 Gilpin Grads. The senior class graduated with a 100% graduation rate, and together earned over $463,000 in scholarships. (more…)
My life at elevation 9,640 in Gilpin County
By Brian Gibbins
When I went to Clark School in Central City, we had a huge gymnasium across the street in front of the school. This is not a story about that gymnasium. Outside the gymnasium on the uphill side was a huge gulch, or ravine depending on where you are from. In this gulch two creeks converged after they exited from large pipes. Both pipes, or culverts as my dad called them, were about six feet in diameter and the water dropped (more…)
Age of Drones
By Don Ireland
Attending college and working with drones is a reality for students enrolled at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. As the evolving, emerging field of drone technology continues to surge internationally, the CSU Drone Center offers students a flight plan into the future for the rapidly-growing, multi-billion-dollar drone industry. (more…)
November 30, 1936 – May 18, 2021
Warren Robert Smith passed away after a short illness on May 18, 2021 at the age of 84. A Colorado native, he was born in Denver in 1936 and graduated from West High School in 1954. He then followed his older brother Jerry and enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where he served from January 1955 to November 1957. He then served in the Naval Reserve until he was honorably discharged in 1962. Even from a young age, Warren was interested in technology. His first job in high school was repairing radios at a small shop. After (more…)
Outdoor graduation ceremony
By Curt Halsted
Friends and family shared in a joyous celebration of the accomplishments of Gilpin Seniors. The event was staged outdoors with a majestic expanse of mountains cradled in rolling clouds, and for Gilpin County a warm day. An air of freedom and yet caution filled the atmosphere for what was the first public gathering for many in a long time. (more…)
The life and times leading up to Dostal Alley
By Don Ireland
Phil and Ruth Schmalz took a risk in 1958 when they opened a rock shop along Main Street in Central City. At the time, Central City – once a booming gold mining town a century earlier – was mostly a summer tourist attraction and nothing much (more…)
County Health still requires masks to be worn indoors and outdoors regardless of vaccination
By Randy Beaudette
Gilpin County Board of County Commissioners faced a long agenda for the Regular Meeting on May 18, 2021. A sample of those action items include a Volunteers of America (VOA) contract renewal for senior meals on wheels and Transportation Program, a County land sale auction contract, and a request for proposals for the Community Center grant funded building improvements. Gilpin County Board of Health revised two Public Health Orders to align with the State Mask Orders. (more…)
Three year $13.75 million Gregory Street Project nearing completion
By Randy Beaudette
The Black Hawk City Council held their first in person meeting in over a year on May 12, 2021 to discuss officially adopting the State’s 2020 Model Traffic Code, to consider a motion for cost sharing of the Miner’s Mesa sewer line, and to finalize a contract for the Green Lake intake project. (more…)
