Open Writing

Jessie and Dean drove me to their home. The weather in Colorado is glorious. The summers really are summers and when June comes you can put your winter clothes away until late September or early October. So this was a typically lovely July day.

On the outskirts of Golden had been built about four or five rows of white wooden chicken coops. At least they'd been intended to hold chickens, but had been converted to homes, not expensive to rent, and most of the occupants were young married couples. Jessie and Dean lived in one of these - always referred to as 'the chicken coops'. Actually they were nice little homes; Jessie's had two bedrooms so there was no problem in accommodating me. All the occupants were very friendly, and in no time I'd made friends with an army of children.

Golden was a quiet pleasant town with a population of about 6,500. It had a very wide main street with shops on either side and spanning it was a big archway with the words 'HOWDY FOLKS! WELCOME TO GOLDEN WHERE THE WEST REMAINS'. Meyer Hardware, Joe and Ruby's store, was at the foot of the arch. The town is situated in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Overlooking it is Lookout Mountain, and a five-mile drive on the Lariat Trail takes you to the top, where Buffalo Bill is buried. He died in Denver in 1917 and his wife is buried there too. Near the graves is a museum containing many of Buffalo Bill's personal effects, and a shop selling gifts, mementoes and postcards. So it was to the top of Lookout Mountain that we took our first trip. It is a wonderful drive. Next to Lookout Mountain is Mount Zion and near its summit is a big white letter M, for Golden, besides being the home of Coors brewery, is also the home of the Colorado School of Mines. At night the M is lit by hundreds of white light bulbs which at Christmas are replaced by red ones. The drive up Lookout Mountain in the daylight is spectacular. Driving down at night it is even more so, with the lights of Golden at the foot of the mountain and the blaze of light which is Denver a few miles away.

When I was in my teens I remember my grandfather who was an excellent storyteller saying that he had seen Buffalo Bill when he came to England with his Wild West Show in 1903. So I sent him a postcard from the souvenir shop which started with the words 'I've stood at the grave of Buffalo Bill....'

I was introduced to Ruby and Joe and their teenage daughter Mari-lyn and we got on well together. Joe was interested in politics so I had a kindred spirit, and we had some lively and interesting discussions. I also met Doris, Dean's other sister, who lived with her husband Paul in Denver.

Golden hadn't always been a quiet little town. In 1849 gold had been found in California, giving rise to probably the most famous gold rush of all time. In 1859 Colorado had a gold rush, started by prospectors finding gold in Clear Creek, a rushing mountain stream that forced its way out of the mountains through Clear Creek Canyon. Where the stream emerged from the canyon some of the prospectors made a small settlement. Tom Golden came here and set up a store and the settlement became the town of Golden. It could not have had a more appropriate name, for soon the area was teeming with prospectors all set on making their fortunes. They followed Clear Creek up into the mountains to its source, in Russell Gulch, for it was from here that it was washing out the gold. Opportunists flocked here in their thousands, not just from other parts of the USA but from all over the world, lured by the magic word 'gold' - and in six years Golden City became the capital of the state of Colorado. More towns sprang up in the mountains, and the hillsides were swarming with men stricken with gold fever. Most impor¬tant of these was Central City, and later as it grew it had aspirations to become the capital of Colorado instead of Golden City. But eventually the honour of capital was bestowed on Denver. Now, 150 years later, the mountains are littered for miles around with abandoned mine shafts.

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To read Jack's vivid account of his wartime experiences To War With The Bays please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/to_war_with_the_bays/