Denver West land rich with ranching history
November 15, 1996

By Richard Gardner
Golden historian

Recently construction has begun on the new Denver West shopping complex, which brings a new use to an area of land whose history is among the oldest in Colorado.

At its eastern end stands a historic white house and barns, which are the final remains of the historic Green Mountain Ranch, which has been here longer than Lakewood, Golden or in any civilization around it.  Today the remains await an apparently uncertain fate, but have a history of great value to the area around them.

Green Mountain Ranch originally was 320 acres claimed by A.R. Chaffee and Rogers in 1859, when the gold rush to Colorado was in full force. The founders strategically located it on the north side of what is now West Colfax Avenue/Wide Acres Road/South Golden Road, one of the earliest routes blazed to the gold in the mountains, with forks leading to the famous Jackson and Gregory lodes.

According to Transcript founder George West, this was the route the Boston Co. took June 12, 1859, to the Clear Creek Valley below, where four days later they founded Golden City. A day later William A.H. Loveland rode down this route to the new city. The road has had several small realignments over the years, but remains mostly intact.

The purpose of the Green Mountain Ranch was to serve as a way station for the travelers to and from the gold fields. The proprietors built the Green Mountain House for this purpose. It was a sizable log (and eventually brick) structure that is known to have included several sleeping rooms, a bar and sizable dining room. The earliest known legal description of the ranch comes from 1862:

"Commencing at a certain stake on the north side of the Golden City & Denver road and 82 links east from the southeast corner of Fox's enclosed field thence one mile north to a stone corner north 16 degrees 24 minutes east thence east one-half mile to a stone thence west to place of beginning."

Best put, the early Green Mountain Ranch was a way station straight out the Wild West of fiction. Among its favorite events were prize fights, which drew large crowds from the Golden-Denver area during the proprietorship of the Jones brothers in the 1860s.

The ranch also was responsible for how Dead Man's Gulch on Lookout Mountain received its name.

Often enough, quarrels between ranch tenants ended in the body of one being stashed in this gulch, accounts of which even reached the earliest editions of the Transcript.

However, the ranch had lighter moments as well, hosting several dinners and balls for Golden area residents. As such it came to be closely associated with Golden and its people over time.

Undoubtedly several Jefferson territorial delegates and legislators stayed at the ranch while Golden was seat of its government in 1860 as Golden had few hotels at that time. The delegates, known for being belligerent in their own right, would have been right at home on the ranch.

Most tenants camped on the acreage of the ranch and went to the Green Mountain House to drink, dance or see a fine event.

Among the ranch's proprietors was Seth Lake, future owner of the Astor House Hotel in Golden, who bought it in 1862. He dumped it like a hot potato to Wimberly and T.H.B. Bowman in October of the same year, probably because its rowdy nature was diametrically opposed to his life of temperance.

By the 1890s the character of the Green Mountain Ranch had mellowed, and it was owned by 3 women: Mrs. Francis F. Struby, Ms. Olivia Ruth and Mrs. T.H. Woodleton. They converted it into a successful farm, encompassing much of what is now Stevenson land north to North Table Mountain, west to what is now Camp George West (the eastern border of the Cold Springs Ranch), south to the area West Sixth Avenue and east to the Welchester area. Under the ladies' proprietorship, in 1891 the ranch boasted 270 acres of alfalfa, 2500 bushels of oats and 500 bushels of wheat, as well as orchard stock and small fruits.

Around the turn of the century the Green Mountain Ranch was sold to Fred T. Henry, who in 1915 sold it to Dr. William A. Bell, a Colorado Springs capitalist.

He decided to subdivide it into an attractive subdivision along the lines of noted country home districts around Colorado Springs, which coincided with the State renovating South Golden Road into a concrete highway. He built stone gateway arches and a small bell tower to greet new homeowners, which included Golden's own future governor John C. Vivian. By original description it was to include boulevards, walks and a central community park, also served by the nearby tramway line. A tiny eastern sliver of land was sold to the Hill section of the Golden Hill Cemetery, now listed on the National Historic Register.

In 1916 Henry J. Arnold, former Denver mayor and president of the Altitude Oil Company, purchased 100 acres to convert into a dairy farm.

He built a large colonial style country home there in 1917, which is still standing there at the northwest corner of the Wide Acres and Hawthorne roads, a long with a couple large barns, an investment of more than $25,000. The Golden Globe described the house as "a beautiful country mansion, which will be equipped with its own lighting and water systems and all modern improvements." The barns housed Arnold's prize winning herd of Ayrshires in his successful effort to convert Green Mountain Ranch to a model dairy farm of Colorado. The herd was fortunately untouched when the barns burned down in the latter part of the decade.

Eventually, Green Mountain Ranch came into the hands of the Stevenson family and gradually has been developed. Much of its area is now annexed to Lakewood, making a peculiarity considering its strong historical ties to Golden.

Today all that remains is a small parcel bounded by Wide Acres Road, West Colfax Avenue and Hawthorne Road, along with the old mansion and replacement barns.

What is to become of them is unknown, but they still stand witness to 137 years of colorful history.

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