Follow
Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Boulder County, Colorado.
Official Website
Boulder County was one of the original 17 counties created by the Territory of Colorado on November 1, 1861. The county was named for Boulder City and Boulder Creek, so named because of the abundance of boulders in the creek which hampered early gold prospecting efforts. Boulder County retains essentially the same borders as in 1861, although a 27.5 square miles of its southeastern corner and its approximate population of 40,000 became part of the City and County of Broomfield in 2001.
Before the arrival of the first US settlers, the area was occupied by American Indians led by Chief Niwot on the plains and, seasonally by Utes in the mountains to the west. The first US settlers were gold prospectors led by Captain Thomas Aikins. His group of about twenty settled at the mouth of Boulder Creek Canyon on October 17, 1858. Chief Niwot told them not to stay and it is said they promised to move into the mountains to prospect in the spring. However in February 1859, they founded the town of Boulder. At about the same time, they also founded the first Gold Mining town in what would become Colorado, Gold Hill which is about 10 miles westerly from Boulder. Gold Hill was founded because of the placer gold discovered there. The area was the site of the first commercial scale placer mine in Colorado, producing over 5,500 ounces of gold in the first year of operations (1859).
In 1996, JonBenét Ramsey, a child beauty queen, was murdered in the city of Boulder. National and international media coverage of the case focused on JonBenét's brief beauty pageant career, as well as her parents' wealth and the unusual evidence found in the case. Media reports questioned how the police handled the investigation. Ramsey family members and their friends have filed defamation suits against several media organizations.
In March, 2021, A mass shooting occurred at a King Soopers grocery store in the city of Boulder. Ten people were killed, including a police officer, Eric Talley.
Adjacent Counties
Cities, Towns & Communities
- Boulder (County Seat)
- Erie (Part)
- Jamestown
- Lafayette
- Longmont (part)
- Louisville
- Lyons
- Nederland
- Superior (part)
- Ward
Cemeteries
Links
Continental Divide National Trail (part)
Colorado Chautauqua National Historic District
Rocky Mountain National Park (part)
Roosevelt National Forest (part)
Arapaho National Forest (part)
Mass Shooting Video - ABC News (March 23, 2021)
National Register of Historic Places
