Golden will shortly be hosting its annual Buffalo Bill Days celebration.
This event’s roots derive from the commemorative trail rides by the Buffalo Bill Saddle Club to Buffalo Bill’s grave on the top of Lookout Mountain which began sometime in the 1950’s. Since everything Western was so popular in the 1960’s the manager of the local Chamber of Commerce felt the trail rides could be expanded upon for an activity to promote Golden. So the large contingent of riders rode up the mountain one summer day and when they rode back down, they rode through town – the first Buffalo Bill Days’ parade. Thereafter, the Chamber of Commerce expanded on the trail ride, making it into a community-wide event. Events were added such as an arts and crafts fair, food vendors, a street dance, parade, and a golf tournament. Over the years, the local volunteer Fire Department jumped in by cooking a pancake breakfast to start the days’ events and various organization s hosted spaghetti dinners for the community.
In 1985, the Chamber felt they could no longer commit the resources to run the event and asked the Golden Lions Club to take it over. The Lions Club did, in fact, run the event in 1986 and 1987, having given up its own 4th of July community celebration in order to concentrate all of its efforts on Buffalo Bill Days. However in 1988, the Lions Club turned the event back over to the Chamber so they could go back and continue their 4th of July activities. After the 1988 event, the City stepped in and appointed the first all-volunteer Board of Directors whose sole function was to sustain Buffalo Bill Days as they city’s sole community-wide event. To this day, it continues as an autonomous, all volunteer organization. It is these volunteers’ responsibility to raise the funds necessary to cover the costs of staging the event as the event is not funded by any other organization or business. Its directors function not only to coordinate running the event with other participating organizations and arranging for all the equipment, sanitation, advertising, and sponsorships, but also each director is responsible for a specific part of the event, i.e. entertainment, arts and crafts, food vendors, children’s rides and games, and the parade. Since its inception as an autonomous organization, the volunteers have been able to expand the scope of the event and have been quite successful in drawing attendees from throughout the Denver area who enjoy bringing their families to a wholesome, small-town community event.
July will soon be upon us and, on July 22 to the 25th, Fossil Trace Golf Club, Parfet Park and Lions Park ballfields will be bustling with activity as volunteers prepare the parks for the staging of this year’s event which is scheduled for July 23-27, 2008. Buffalo Bill Days is seeking interested persons who are willing to commit time to serving on the Board of Directors as well as volunteers who are always needed for this bustling weekend. Interested parties should contact BBD at goldenbuffalobilldays@msn.com
Phone: 303-384-0003
(please leave a message)
Fax: 303-279-8141
Email: goldenbuffalobilldays@msn.com
Buffalo Bill Days, Inc.
PO Box 1536, Golden, CO 80402