County’s place names fun to ponder

 By Silvia Pettem
(published in the Boulder "Daily Camera" on October 15, 2006)

Reprinted with the permission of Ms. Pettem and the Boulder “Daily Camera.” The Council of Geographic Names Authorities acknowledges and thanks Ms. Pettem and the Boulder "Daily Camera" for allowing the Council to use and post the article.

             In the 1890s, when New York investors pumped money into the Boulder County mining camp of Delphi, they cast aside the mountain community’s ancient Greek name for one that better reflected their hoped-for wealth. The easterners chose “Wall Street,” after their city’s financial district. The name of Wallstreet (one word today) has remained in use for more than a century.

             Authorities on geographical names from all over the country will meet in Boulder this week, a good time to look at the origins of some of our county’s place names.

             The town of Nederland derived its current name (after Dayton, Brownsvillle, and Middle Boulder) because it meant “low-land” to Dutch silver mill investors. Although high in the mountains, Nederland is lower than the source of the mill’s ore at 10,000 feet in the mining camp of Caribou. That town was named for the “Cariboo (different spelling) Diggings” in British Columbia.

             Eldora, west of Nederland, originally was Happy Valley. During the camp’s gold boom in the 1890s, the residents renamed it Eldorado after the legendary 16th century Spanish American city rich in precious metals. After Eldorado’s mail got mixed up with the mail in a town of the same name in California, the Boulder County town’s name was shortened to Eldora.

             Settlers of Ballarat, north of Jamestown (a town that the locals call Jimtown), probably thought that wealth would follow their association with the mining town of the same name in Australia. No one can remember who James or Jim was or why Jamestown originally was named Elysian Park. Its reference to Greek mythology meant “the home of the blessed after death.”

             Similarity, spirituality figured into Providence (also called the John Jay Camp), a mining community southwest of Jamestown. One theory was that its founder thought that he was led to his gold discovery by divine guidance.

             Other towns were named for early settlers and former home towns. A prominent and early Louisville property owner was Louis Nawatny. Lafayette town founder Mary Miller gave her community her husband’s first name. Crisman, in Four Mile Canyon, was founded by Obed Crisman while nearby Salina’s first residents came from Salina, Kansas.

             Some of the names, like Boulder (for the rocks), are just plain descriptive. Orodell, at the junction of Four Mile and Boulder creeks, may be a combination of the Greek “oros,” meaning mountain, and the English “dell” for small wooded valley. Eagle Rock, in Boulder Canyon, is known as a nesting place for eagles.

             A legendary account for the mining camp called Sunshine states that it was named for the community’s first baby, Susie Sunshine Turner. But records show she was born in November 1874, four months after the town was incorporated and named. Perhaps the gold glittered in the sunlight.

             Since Boulder County’s earliest prospectors came in search for gold, they lost no time giving the name Gold Hill to their camp, mountain, and mining district. North of Gold Hill is Lickskillet Gulch named, supposedly, for the miners who would rather lick their skillets than wash them.

             For information on the Council on Geographic Names Authorities conference in Boulder, contact Andrew Cowell at 303-492-8270.