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Boulder, Colorado

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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A city and the county-seat of Boulder county, Colorado, U.S.A., about 30 m. N.W. of Denver. Pop. (1890) 333 o; (Igloo) 6150, of whom 693 were foreign-born. It is served by the Union Pacific, the Colorado & Southern, and the Colorado & North-western railways; the last connects with the neighbouring mining camps, and affords fine views of mountain scenery. Boulder lies about 5300 ft. above the sea on Middle Boulder Creek, a branch of the St Vrain river about 30 m. from its confluence with the Platte, and has a beautiful situation in the valley at the foot of the mountains. The state university of Colorado, established at Boulder by an act of 1861, was opened in 1877; it includes a college of liberal arts, school of medicine (1883), school of law (1892), college of engineering (1893), graduate school, college of commerce (1906), college of education (1908), and a summer school (1904), and has a library of about 42,000 volumes. There are a fine park of 2840 acres, the property of the city, and three beautiful canons near Boulder. At the southern limits, in a beautiful situation 400 ft. above the city, are the grounds of an annual summer school, the Colorado Chautauqua. The climate is beneficial for those afflicted with bronchial and pulmonary troubles; the average mean annual temperature for eleven years ending with 1907 was 51° F. There are medicinal springs in the vicinity. The water-works are owned and operated by the city, the water being obtained from lakes at the foot of the Arapahoe Peak glacier in the Snowy Range, 20 m. from the city. The surrounding country is irrigated, and successfully combines agriculture and mining. There are ore sampling works and brick-making establishments. Oil and natural gas abound in the vicinity; there are oil refineries in the city; and in Boulder county, especially at Nederland, 18 m. south-west, and at Eldora, about 22 m. south-west of the city, has been obtained since 1900 most of the tungsten mined in the United States; the output in 1907 was valued at about $520,000. The first settlement near the site of Boulder was made in the autumn of 1858. Placer gold was discovered on an affluent of Boulder Creek in January 1859. The town was laid out and organized in February 1859, and a city charter was secured in 1871 and another in 1882.