Events
Programs and Events
Did you miss any of our live programs?
Some recordings are available to the general public at no cost, while some are only available to members. Now is a great time to join, as we’re constantly releasing new and exclusive material. Call 303-278-3557 if you have any questions or if you want to join by phone. You can also reach us electronically.
Golden Cemetery Tour 2021
Register now on eventbrite
Visit the graves of legendary Golden characters. Hear stories about their lives from famous storyteller, Dennis Potter, Museum volunteer since 2008 and retired Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department Captain. Read Dennis’s profile.
Tours begin and end at the Golden Cemetery. This program sells out every year, so get your tickets early. This is a rain-or-shine event; weather will not force a cancellation.
You will select your tour time on the Eventbrite page.
Two tours are available:
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10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
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12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Registration is required. Program will be canceled if minimum attendance number is not reached 24 hours prior to start time.
Register on eventbrite.
Pricing
$5 members; $10 non-members, plus online registration fee
Membership pays for itself with just a few programs for your family. Join us.
About Golden Cemetery
The City of Golden owns and operates the Golden Cemetery. Among the historic notables buried here is George West. West, a Golden founder, started the Colorado Transcript newspaper in 1866.
Additionally, Seth Lake, builder of Astor House in 1867, is buried in the Golden Cemetery. Many other pioneers and characters of the early west are at rest here.
Membership
Membership pays for itself with just a few programs for your family. Join us.
Autumn Fest 2021
Ever wonder what makes Golden so special? Well, it’s you of course! At Golden History Museum & Park, we feel grateful to have such a wonderful community to serve. Come join us at our first Autumn Fest to celebrate all of the things that make Golden a bright and shining community.
Rush down to the Golden History Museum (923 10th St.) from 11 – 4 for a packed afternoon of fun, proudly sponsored by:
Golden Downtown Development Authority
Golden Kids Dental and Orthodontics
Free Family Activities
- incredible chalk art
- hourly puppet shows (plus hands-on stations to make your own show)
- silent movie viewing
- 4-H petting zoo
- craft stations
- BIG TRUCKS (Streets, Fire, and Police Departments)
- costumed Civil War interpretation
- karate demonstration
- hands-on paper-making station
Other Fun
- Westernaires pony rides ($3 per ride)
- CODA Brewing Company beer garden
The best part? It’s fun for the whole family and a great way to welcome the fall season. Now that is just pure gold.
Partners
- Colorado Volunteer Infantry Group
- Westernaires
- 4-H
- GoFarm
- Mines Museum of Earth Science
- Coda Brewing Company
- Golden Library
- Foothills Art Center
- Golden Street, Police, and Fire Departments
- Public Art Commission
- Lane Academy of Martial Arts
Sponsors
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Location and Pricing
Golden History Museum and Golden History Park
Free
Registration
Unlike most GHM&P programs, there is no registration for Autumn Fest.
Membership
Membership pays for itself with just a few programs for your family. Join us.
More Golden history
Check out the Golden History Museum & Park blog for the latest behind the scenes videos and stories, personal memoirs, and history tidbits about Golden.
Women & Children at Work & Play
Artist’s 
talk and reception
A friendly snowball fight during the blizzard of 1913; Berry pickers at the Truelson Berry Farm; Riding burros beneath South Table Mountain. These are some of the historic images that inspired artist Melinda Laz’s current series of ceramic tiles on view at the Golden History Museum’s gallery Oct 16, 2021 – Feb 6, 2022. Using the museum’s online photograph collection as inspiration, Melinda translated the vintage photographs into ceramic tile portraits. The faces are left blank, allowing the figures to remain anonymous yet universal. The original photographs that inspired her ceramic works will also be on view.
Join Melinda on Saturday, November 6, from 2 – 4 pm for an artist’s talk and reception. She’ll discuss her inspiration and process for creating these works. Refreshments will be served.
Melinda Laz holds a BFA in printmaking from Washington University in St. Louis, MO; a MA in Arts Administration from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; and a MA in Curriculum & Instruction from the University of Denver. Melinda has mounted several critically acclaimed solo exhibitions and has appeared in numerous national juried and invitational shows. She works as the Outreach Education Manager at Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art and teaches art in the Denver Public Schools. She lives in Golden, CO with her husband and daughter.
Location and Pricing
Golden History Museum
2 – 4 pm; drop in anytime
Free for all; no registration
Membership
Membership pays for itself with just a few programs for your family. Join us.
More Golden history
Check out the Golden History Museum & Park blog for the latest behind the scenes videos and stories, personal memoirs, and history tidbits about Golden.
Seesaw: How November ’42 Shaped the Future
This is a hybrid event: virtual + in-person. Register on eventbrite.
Partially completed airstrip on the island of Guadalcanal, Aug. 11, 1942. Half a year of fighting took place over this tiny bit of acreage in the South Pacific.
By late 1942 the world had been fighting for years, with no end in sight. The five weeks from late October to early December saw campaigns, battles and developments which decisively turned the war to the Allies’ favor. Author and returning presenter, Stan Moore takes a fresh look at the personalities and events that led up to this critical period. He then examines five campaigns around the world through the month of November. Moore also discusses how the campaigns and events are inter-related in new and interesting ways. His sources are interviews, oral histories and previously unavailable diaries, photos, and letters.
About the presenter: Stan Moore
Stan Moore is a husband, father, and grandfather; a third generation Coloradan; a graduate of the University of Colorado; an author and historian; a Vietnam veteran; a retired small business owner; an amateur blacksmith, and an avid mountaineer, backpacker and desert rat. Moore and his wife make their home near Denver with a cat that lets them stay there. More information can be found at stanmoorewriter.com.
Pricing
Free for members; $10 plus online registration fee for non-members
Membership
Membership pays for itself with just a few programs for your family. Join us.
More Golden history
Check out the Golden History Museum & Park blog for the latest behind the scenes videos and stories, personal memoirs, and history tidbits about Golden.
Homestead for the Holidays
Advance registration via eventbrite is required.
Join us at the Golden History Park to experience holidays the pioneer way. This family event allows you to stroll through the Golden History Park, take in the colorful lights, try a craft, and bask in the season. It’s time to go home(stead) for the holidays!
Details
All event revenue goes to the Golden History Museum & Park. We appreciate your support!
Members (ages 5 years old and above): $5
Non-members (ages 5 years old and above): $10
Kids (ages 4 years old and below): Free
Membership
Membership pays for itself with just a few programs for your family. Join us.
More Golden history
Check out the Golden History Museum & Park blog for the latest behind the scenes videos and stories, personal memoirs, and history tidbits about Golden.
Golden: Then & Now
In-person event. Register on eventbrite.
“Then,” for the most part, is the last quarter of the 19th Century; “now” is the first half of 2021. While perusing historical photos of Golden online, Stuart Sipkin came across a collection of photos that were mostly taken during the last quarter of the 19th Century. The variety and number of photos were perfect for a project he had been thinking about for a while – trying to recreate historical photos as precisely as possible in the modern day. Given the changes in the urban landscape, finding the exact location that the original photographer stood to take each photo was sometimes easy, but sometimes quite challenging. Join us at the museum to learn how Stuart used modern mapping and Geographic Information Systems to determine some of these locations and see the finished images of Golden’s changing landscape.
About the presenter: Stuart Sipkin
After working for the U.S. Geological Survey as a Research Geophysicist for 30+ years, Stuart retired to pursue a second career in photography. For the last dozen years, he has worked as a freelance photojournalist representing several European news agencies. While many of his photos have been licensed for use in print and online publications around the world, his likely most viewed photo appeared in Hillary Clinton’s book “What Happened.” Since the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic, he has been scaling back professional activities to devote more time to personal projects.
Pricing
Free for members; $10 plus online registration fee for non-members
Membership
Membership pays for itself with just a few programs for your family. Join us.
More Golden history
Check out the Golden History Museum & Park blog for the latest behind the scenes videos and stories, personal memoirs, and history tidbits about Golden.
Getting Started – Tracing Your Family Tree
In-person event. Register on eventbrite.
Overwhelmed by all of the tools that are available to do genealogy research? Can’t get your brain wrapped around how to get started and wish someone would explain the basics and help? Join genealogy research enthusiast Lora Knowlton as she presents all of the basics to get started. She will review Ancestry, Family Search and other helpful tools. Bring your laptop and be prepared to start your family tree. If you don’t have a laptop, no worries! Lora will still help you get started.
About the presenter: Lora Knowlton
Lora Knowlton is owner of Current Events LLC, an event management business specializing in outdoor festivals and events. She’s also the Programs & Events Manager for the Golden Chamber of Commerce. Lora’s mom caught the genealogy bug when Lora was in high school and ever since, Lora has heard all of the many stories about their family members. About 5 years ago, Lora caught the bug – and now spends whatever time in between events looking for long lost ancestors for family and friends. During COVID, she completed the Boston University’s Genealogical Principles online course. Lora is a founding member of the Columbine Memorial Foundation, is the chair of the Meetings Industry Council and serves on the board of directors for her radio-controlled airplane club – the Jefco Aeromod’lers RC Club at Chatfield State Park.
Pricing
Free for members; $10 plus online registration fee for non-members
Membership
Membership pays for itself with just a few programs for your family. Join us.
More Golden history
Check out the Golden History Museum & Park blog for the latest behind the scenes videos and stories, personal memoirs, and history tidbits about Golden.
Cannon Ball Creek, Coors, and Kayaks: A History of Water in Golden, Colorado
“Golden, Colorado, and Entrance to Clear Creek Canon [sic], from Castle Rock Mountain Scenic Incline Railway. Denver Mountain Parks.”
In-person event. Register on eventbrite.
Even people from Tonapah, Nevada know that Golden, Colorado is home to Coors Brewery, and that Coors is so good because it is brewed with “Rocky Mountain water.” In the American popular mind Golden is linked to fresh, clean water. Our job, over the course of an evening together, will be to try and trace the history of water in Golden from the earliest days of native use to Euro-American trapping, irrigation farming, and eventually the creation of a kayak park and tubers’ paradise. The conversation will be set against the larger backdrop of the present drought in the American West that underscores the importance of Clear Creek and fresh water for the future of Golden.
About the presenter: Matthew S. Makley
Matthew S. Makley, PhD, is a Professor of History at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He is the author of two books. His most recent, The Small Shall be Strong: A History of Lake Tahoe’s Washoe Indians (2018), won an American Library Association’s award for “Outstanding Academic Title.” Born and raised at Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Makley has lived in Golden since 2007. While his heart is in the canyons and valleys of the Sierra Nevada, he has come to call Colorado and the Rockies home.
Pricing
Free for members; $10 plus online registration fee for non-members
Membership
Membership pays for itself with just a few programs for your family. Join us.
More Golden history
Check out the Golden History Museum & Park blog for the latest behind the scenes videos and stories, personal memoirs, and history tidbits about Golden.
Golden – Colorado’s Territorial Capital
In-person event. Register on eventbrite.
Join returning presenter Randi Samuelson-Brown to uncover the stories of the Golden of yesteryear when the west was wild and the population was scarce. We examine some of the famous/infamous that passed through the town with an eye toward the off-kilter inhabitants.
About the presenter: Randi Samuelson-Brown
Randi Samuelson-Brown is the author of The Beaten Territory (Colorado Historical Fiction) and The Bad Old Days of Colorado: Untold Stories of the Wild West (finalist of the Colorado Book Awards 2021 – History). Originally from Golden, Colorado, Randi has always been passionately interested in Colorado history. A C-SPAN author, she now lives in Denver. One of the best parts about publishing books for her is sharing Colorado’s little-known history and speaking at museums, libraries, and book clubs.
Pricing
Free for members; $10 plus online registration fee for non-members
Membership
Membership pays for itself with just a few programs for your family. Join us.
More Golden history
Check out the Golden History Museum & Park blog for the latest behind the scenes videos and stories, personal memoirs, and history tidbits about Golden.
Isabella Bird’s Visit to Colorado
In-person event with costumed interpretation. Register on eventbrite.
Isabella Bird was a traveler and a writer with a wonderful ability to describe her surroundings in great detail so that one feels as if they were there. Come hear about Isabella’s lively adventures on her first trip to Estes Park in 1873 and of her arduous climb of Longs Peak (she was the third woman ever to climb Longs Peak) as well as of her romance with the rogue, Rocky Mountain Jim. She was dazzled by the Rocky Mountains and enthralled by the “blue hollow at the foot of Longs Peak” – Estes Park – which is written about in her book, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains.
Costumed Interpretation
About the presenter: Linda Batlin
Linda Batlin is a storyteller and author from Boulder, Colorado where she has lived for over half of her life. She enjoys sharing her love of the mountains and of Colorado with audiences. She tells stories filled with wisdom and mirth for all ages in schools, libraries, festivals, museums, senior centers, campfires and other events. Her entertaining and educational living history presentations of important women characters from Colorado history such as Isabella Bird bring them to life and are often requested. Her repertoire is also filled with multicultural folktales from around the world such as nature stories, Asian stories, animal stories, ghost stories, Jewish folktales, puppets, etc. She is a member of the National Storytelling Network.
Pricing
$5 for members; $10 plus online registration fee for non-members
Membership
Membership pays for itself with just a few programs for your family. Join us.
More Golden history
Check out the Golden History Museum & Park blog for the latest behind the scenes videos and stories, personal memoirs, and history tidbits about Golden.
How to register
Click the green ticket button in the upper left of each event to buy tickets online. 
Click “read more” in the lower right of each event for details. 
Event and Program Ticketing Policies at Golden History Museum & Park
(updated 11-20-18).
Please note: Tickets will only be available at the door if the program reaches its preregistration minimum.
Weather: All events are rain or shine. Tickets will not be refunded for any inclement weather including but not limited to snow, wind, rain or extreme temperatures.
Cancellation: GHM&P reserves the right to cancel a program for any reason. A full refund will occur automatically and notification sent if GHM&P cancels a program for any reason.
Refunds: Participants will not receive a refund except in the event that GHM&P cancels the program.
Facilities: Restrooms are not available on-site at the Golden History Park or Golden Cemetery. If at the Golden History Park, participants may use public restrooms located on 12th Street. Please call ahead to ask about accessibility concerns and mobility recommendations.
Additional details: Please note the minimum age requirements of some of our programs. Excessive disruptive behavior and any safety risks may result in a participant being asked to leave a program at the instructor’s discretion. Pets are not permitted at programs; service animals are permitted.
To purchase tickets, cancel your registration, or learn more about our events and ticketing policy, please call the Golden History Museum front desk during business hours at 303-278-3557.