Golden saw the first gold rush west of the Mississippi in1825, before either the California or Colorado gold rushes. When mining died out, Golden became a ghost town
Honky-tonkin’ replaced mining as Golden's claim to fame in the 1970s when the Golden Inn roadhouse hosted bands like Junior Brown’s old homeboys, The Last Mile Ramblers, David Bromberg, The Blasters, the Ventures and Leon Redbone. But the music stopped when The Golden Inn burned to the ground in the early ‘80s.
