Gold Was Discovered

The party the bronze calls Cherokees was a wagon train out of the Cherokee Nation, most of it Cherokee, bound for California on what became the Cherokee Trail. One member, John Lowery Brown, wrote in his journal for June 22, 1850, that they had laid by and found gold, and noted in the margin that the creek was named for the finder. Lewis Ralston, whom the bronze calls Louis, came back with the 1858 Beck and Russell party; most of it gave up within days. The site is in Arvada's Gold Strike Park, recognized by the state in 1995.

What the plaque says

This tablet is the property of the State of Colorado One mile north of this point Gold Was Discovered on June 22, 1850, by a party of California-bound Cherokees. The discovery was made by Louis Ralston, whose name was given the creek (a branch of Clear Creek). Reports of the find brought the prospecting parties of 1858, whose discoveries caused the Pike's Peak gold rush of 1859, which resulted in the permanent settlement of Colorado. Erected by the State Historical Society of Colorado from the Mrs. J. N. Hall Foundation and by the City and County of Denver 1941

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Colorado State Capitol — 5.2 mi
  A capitol of Colorado granite, marble, onyx and gold, with three different steps claiming to stand exactly a mile high.
• Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge — 9.7 mi
  Mustard gas, nerve agent and pesticides for forty years, then bald eagles, bison and black-footed ferrets on the same ground.
• Dinosaur Ridge — 9.7 mi
  A hogback near Morrison with the bones of 1877 on one flank and the footprints a road crew blasted open in 1937 on the other.
• Red Rocks Amphitheatre — 11 mi
  Walker's Garden of the Titans, finished by the CCC between Ship Rock and Creation Rock and dedicated on June 15, 1941.

More markers nearby

• Manhattan Beach — 2.5 mi
• Elephant Corral — 4.0 mi
• The Rocky Mountain News — 4.1 mi
• Silas S. Soule — 4.3 mi