Clear Creek History Park - Reynolds Cabin, Blacksmith Shop and Hay Barn &Stage

Last crawled date: 2 years, 10 months ago

Clear Creek History Park is home to many of the original buildings from the old Pearce Ranch in Golden Gate Canyon (about fifteen miles away as the crow flies). When a housing development threatened the ranch buildings in the early 1990s, the community rallied together to save this piece of Golden’s history. Beginning in 1994, the buildings were moved to Golden, log by log, where they were lovingly reconstructed over the course of four years. The Reynolds family operated their own 240 acre ranch next door to the Pearce Ranch. Annie Reynolds and her three daughters, Henrietta, Mary, and Elizabeth, lived in this cabin that dates to about 1873. A blacksmith was a welcome addition in any new community. An expert metal worker, he created countless tools, household items, iron parts and implements that were necessary for life in the west. Horseshoeing accounted for only a small portion of their daily routine. Structures like this were built for drying hay—the stuff draft animals like horses and oxen eat. When drying hay in an enclosed barn, it creates a lot of dust that presents an extreme fire hazard.