Lost Lafayette, Colorado

by Doug Conarroe

Overview

The gold rush of the 1850s turned Colorado's treeless prairie into platted towns with thriving centers of commerce. Lafayette's early Main Street on East Simpson Street was once bustling with blacksmiths, jewelers, retailers and grocers. It included the Lafayette Bank, the Goodhue Building and a movie theater. The epicenter of organized labor's struggle for fair wages and a safe workplace, Lafayette expanded to include Japanese and Latino laborers in the 1920s. For fifteen years, the Ku Klux Klan dominated local politics, spreading fear and hate. From 1888 until 1956, the coal mining industry sustained the town. But dangerous work conditions in the fourteen coal mines took a toll. Flour mills, brick factories and electrical generating stations faded quickly. Author Doug Conarroe recounts inspiring tales of a diverse, austere and doggedly self-sufficient townspeople who challenged the status quo and survived trying and tumultuous times.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781540246127
Publisher:	History PR
Publication date:	02/01/2021
Series:	Lost
Pages:	162
Product dimensions:	8.25(w) x 10.75(h) x 0.44(d)

About the Author

Doug Conarroe is a fourth-generation Coloradan who grew up in Louisville and moved to Lafayette in 1995. With a journalism degree and MBA from the University of Colorado, Doug started with the family newspaper before joining the Denver Post and then the (Tacoma) News Tribune. He published the North Forty News from 2011 to 2017. A lifetime member of Lafayette Historical Society, Doug has served on the Lafayette Historic Preservation Board and as past president and board member of Historic Boulder.

Table of Contents

Introduction 7

1 A Peoples Erased 11

2 Cultivating the Wide-Open Spaces 20

3 A Town Takes Shape 26

4 A Town Built on Coal Mining 34

5 The Liquor Clause 54

6 Notable Places Lost and Found 61

7 Ancient Trails and Steel Rails 71

8 A Union Town 86

9 Breaking the Barrier 103

10 Remnants of Industry 109

11 A Dark Period Comes to Light 120

12 Sustaining a Community 134

Bibliography 139

Index 151

About the Author 157