2014 Report by Steve Stevens

On the NBG Mayors Sustainability Tour for Thomas Stevens 130th Anniversary we visited the following sites:

1) The Bike Trail made from the old rail line of the Denver-Golden “Interurban” (also called the “Beer Run” in the day) more info

2) The Welch Ditch – an 1872 irrigation ditch which fed the fruit orchards on the sides of South Table Mountain more info and more

3) The Church Ditch – which feeds North Suburban towns from “Clear Creek” – a mighty Colorado River through Golden. It comes from the continental divide.

4) The USGS Earth Quake Center 

5) The Colorado School of Mines – the MIT or Cal Tech of the Mountain West…. With a very top rateing in the education world.

6) Golden City Hall – Where our progressive City Council and Outstanding City Staff – along with our lovely and wise Mayor Marjorie Sloan craft and execute policies which have brought Golden forward strongly over the last two decades.

7) The Bike Path along the Clear Creek Whitewater Park

8) The Bike Path along the Golden Community Gardens 

9) The Community Center – with gymnasiums, swimming pool etc. The pool is heated with Solar Thermal Water Panels on the Roof.

10) A set of Row Houses which exhibit Solar PV as well as Solar Thermal Water panels facing SSE for capturing the gifts of the Sun.

11) The Coors Brewery – which is the largest in the world on one site. It has several programs which optimize the second career of the materials involved in the brewing process.

12) The Golden Bike Park – a Mountain Bike training park… great addition to Golden’s Parks about 4 years ago. info | more

13) A special “in ground sustainable home” – Earth Sheltered.

14) The greenhouse, headquarters, and Growing Fields of Agriburbia…. A lawn transformation company – organically turning lawns to veggie gardens – news story

15) A Straw Bale Church addition – Second Sanctuary – at the Jefferson Unitarian Church.

16) A 10,000 watt Photovoltaic addition to the Unitarian Church.

17) A second lawn transformation company – turning lawns to veggies the rough scrap way – with cardboard, sticks, straw, and composted cow manure.

18) The National Renewable Energy Laboratory… (NREL) …. And it’s visitor center (and waterless urinals as well as water faucets).

19) An alpaca farm in the back yard of a duplex home. This Alpace farm – in addition to producing fine fibres – provides the “Champaign of Shit” to gardeners… Alpaca Poo (say “Poo” with a Lilt in your voice … to show due respect) is non-smelly, non – burning, fine material for soil amendments in the clay coils of the Rocky Mountains. See http://www.nrel.gov/

20) Golden Oldy Cyclery  | YouTube story)– “The Sustainable Museum of Sustainable Transportation” with its transformed structure envelope ( to R-104 on the Dining Room wall ) and passive, active, and garden Solar Collection.    … the only known “Carbon Negative” Museum in the world. At Golden Oldy, we viewed the historic evolution of the bicycle from 1868 through 1899…. Reflecting upon it’s amazing inventions. We viewed the 50 inch Columbia Standard bicycle – from 1879 – at the Thomas Stevens ride display.

The temps for the ride were in the 70s and even hit 80 in places… unlike last year’s NBG / Earth Day Ride … which started out sunny and warm – anad turned on a dive to low 20s temperatures with strong winds and flying snow which chased us…. home quickly.

Here are the rider’s names:
1) Mayor Marjorie Sloan
2) Linda Hartman
3) Lin Hark
4) Linda Wheeler
5) Anne Gerleman
6) Samuel Forsyth
7) Dennis Wack
8) Page Gaines
9) Bob Lytle
10) Ron Reid
11) Robert Dentun
12) Jerry Baer
13) Jeff Messerschmidt
14) Steve Stevens