Loading map...

1904 Map of Boulder

Name: 1904 Topographic Map of Boulder
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1936
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1936

About this map

Gold-mining districts dominate the drainages of the South St. Vrain Creek and James Creek, where numerous small settlements like Jamestown, Sunshine, and Gold Hill are nestled among the steep gulches. This survey, based on 1902 fieldwork by Frank Tweedy, captures the intense mineral development of the Front Range during the early twentieth century. The industrial infrastructure is particularly evident along the Colorado and Northwestern RR, which snakes through the canyons to serve mining camps like Wallstreet and Sunset.

Further east, the settlement of Boulder occupies the transition from the plains to the foothills, while the northern extent of the map shows Lyons at the confluence of several branches of St. Vrain Creek. The landscape is a network of water rights and resource extraction, exemplified by the Golden Rule Mining Co. Ditch and numerous named peaks such as Porphyry Mt. and Nugget Hill that signal the era's primary economy.