Castle Rock, an outcropping of South Table Mountain east of Golden, became a frequently used symbol of the city, appearing on the city flag and serving for many years as an icon of the Coors Brewery. Its summit was a popular tourist destination in the early 1900s, and in 1908 a cafe and dance hall were built there overlooking the city. Guests originally rented burros to ride up the hill, but in 1913 a funicular railway began carrying visitors to the summit in comfort. The funicular and pavilion closed in 1919 as automobile travel became popular, and the scar of the track remains visible below Castle Rock. In 1874, Peter Dobson, a student at Jarvis Hall, later part of the Colorado School of Mines, found a strange fossilized tooth on South Table Mountain. His geology teacher, Arthur Lakes, had it sent to O. A. Marsh of Yale University, where it was forgotten in the collection until 2000, when it was identified as a Tyrannosaurus rex tooth, even though T-rex was not discovered and identified elsewhere until 1905.

Photo: Alan M. Perrie

Fairmount, Colorado · USA