Jefferson County's 1st Town
150 years ago Jefferson County was a wilderness, home to wildlife, mountaineers and American Indians, but never having a permanent settlement of any kind. In September of 1858 the Doniphan Party of gold prospectors arrived in this region and looked for gold in the area of Vasquez Fork, as Clear Creek was then known. They were there to see what leads could be found, and proceeded to prospect upon the sand bar of the Vasquez just east of the Table Mountains along the northern banks west of today’s McIntyre Street. Finding gold, they and others formed a mining district there and founded our first town, Arapahoe City, on November 29, 1858. Although not long lived, the town would play an important role in the future of Jefferson County and Colorado.