Colorado's golden beginnings
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Your reporter, hard at work. Photo: Morgan Brown
Colorado's 150th birthday is next month, but I don't need a beard or a pickaxe to connect with stories that helped put our Centennial State on the map.
Flashback: An 1858 gold discovery near Arapahoe County's South Platte River and Little Dry Creek confluence was a major moment in the rush that drew fortune-seekers West.
Why it matters: Me + gold = former journalist.
The intrigue: I called Morgan Brown — better known to his YouTube followers as Gold Putz — who knows there's gold in them thar creeks.
I can't tell you where we went — Brown swore me to secrecy.
- But it was a 10-minute walk from a major Arapahoe County intersection and there were lots of runners.
Reality check: Our adventure was legal — something you should research if you go.
- One careless prospector can ruin access for everyone.
Behind the scenes: We padded down to the creek bed around 6pm. Brown carried buckets and a colander.
- I carried a shovel and a metal sluice box.
Brown pointed me to a spot in the water.
- "Dig there," he said.
- In the creek, the water went past my ankles. Then my knees.
Catch up quick: Over the next hour, I dug cobbles caked in muck. Larger rocks often signal better ground because gold settles with heavier material.
- Shotgun pellets and bullets also offer clues.
I shoveled about 40 pounds total, and Brown worked the material through his colander inside a bucket to separate larger rocks from finer sediment.
- He spread the tailings behind us.
How it works: Brown poured our sediment into the sluice box and let the creek's water — and something called a "Dream Mat" — do the separating.
- A glinty V formed near the box's top.
Wait, is that...?
- "Oh, beautiful!" Brown hollered. "That's all gold!"
In Brown's kitchen later, we panned.
Follow the money: Every swish revealed more glints, and he eventually poured dried flecks into a metal dish.
- They made a tinkling sound.
"My gosh, that's a good pile," my hype man said.
Caveat: It was 90 milligrams — about $11 worth.
The bottom line: It's not what's in the pan that matters.
- The gold's in a bottle on my bookshelf.
- I've told this story five times.
Best of all, somewhere in Arapahoe County, Colorado's beginnings aren't so distant after all.