P.O. Box 822 Golden, Colorado, 80402
parfet pre-historic park (triceratops trail open space)
Introduction
The history of clay mining and the discovery of ancient dinosaur footprints led to the establishment of the .5 mile Triceratops Trail as a public educational site. It is a designated National Natural Landmark site. Self-guided tours are available daily and a free map is available in a box at the colorful information shack. A QR Code tour is also available for a fee. In the summer months, the Friends of Dinosaur Ridge offer guided tours. The site offers excellent scenic views.
This discussion references maps that can be downloaded at the bottom of the page.
Rocky canyon entrance with wooden walkway and railing under clear sky.
more about parfet pre-historic park
Triceratops Trailhead is located off of the US 6 paved trail. It is a relatively short distance from US 6 and the 19th Street overpass. Paid parking by credit card is available at the School of Mines parking lot which you can enter from 19th Street just east of US 6, or by entering via the roundabout. Directional signage to Triceratops Trail is at the far west end of the parking lot. Cyclists and hikers can access the 6th Ave trail from 19th Street or at Heritage Road near the Jefferson County Buildings.
The soft, in-and-out, half-mile Triceratops Trail weaves through the 68 million-year-old Laramie Formation composed of hard sandstone and clay. The fins seen today are left over from the clay mining days. Informational signage is in place along the trail and includes photos showing the clay mining operations.
An unmarked secondary loop trail is noticeable near the historic clay hauling trailer. The trail is on a once used four-wheel road that goes south to the ridge line and curves back to the Triceratops Trail. At the southern end of this trail is an unused and dismantled shed that was part of a microwave tower long gone.
Over the clay mining years, the vegetation was greatly altered by the mining operations. No current botany assessment has been made of the plants which are mostly field grasses.
There are two predominate clay types in the Golden area, laid down during the early Cretaceous Period (110 -100 million years ago) (1). One type of clay is the Dakota Group of black shales. This clay is found in the North Dakota Hogback and elsewhere. It has a high kaolinite content, the main chemical needed for quality dinner chinaware, pottery, and decorative porcelain pieces. Coors Porcelain (now CoorsTech) sought out this type of clay, called “fire clay”.
The second type of clay found in Laramie Formation is called “brick clay.” It has more impurities, gray in color, and turns red when fired. It was used to make bricks and sewer pipe which was the basis for Parfet family enterprises. This is the clay along the Triceratops Trail.
The Triceratops, and perhaps their close relatives, the Torosaurus, as well as a crocodile-like reptile and small mouse-like and weasel-like mammals, left their tracks and traces in the soft mud as they roamed in a semi-tropical climate. The view would have been similar to the Mississippi River delta in modern day Louisiana. Plant life was thick and diverse and included large fronds.
The uplift of the Rocky Mountains starting filling and burying the mud impressions with sand and debris while draining water of the Inland Water Way. New rivers and flooding brought new layers of sand and clay. The ancient animal tracks hardened and were pushed up more, and then vertically to what they are today. Erosion brought the tracks to the attention of clay miners and paleontologists.
The local Elk herd enjoy the golf course grass but there is no indication that the herd climbs up to the Triceratops Trail. Along the Triceratops Trail, there are vegetated areas including vertical deep clay fins that probably support small mammals. There are places were rain water pockets on the rocks and in the pits. Signs are posted to report any rattle snakes seen. These are seldom seen due to human activity and when giving them wide birth, they leave the trail.
Along the trail and near the top of the ridge line is a stylist form of an ancient tree that would have been present when the dinosaurs roamed the land. The piece is titled “Geological Overlook at Triceratops Trail”. It was installed in 2008. The design architect, Craig Vickers, had been on the Golden Parks and Recreation Board and a resident of Golden. Funding came from the Jefferson County Conservation Trust Fund, Scientific & Cultural Facilities District, Golden Civic Foundation, the City of Golden, Golden Lyons Club, and Friends of Dinosaur Ridge. It is likely the funding effort was led by the “Friends” group.
George Parfet (1821-1881) emigrated as a coal miner from Wales first moving to Pennsylvania and then moving his large family to Ralston Creek, Colorado in 1874 to mine coal. He then moved the family to Golden in 1877. Although he continued as a coal miner, one of his sons, George Washington,
“G. W.” Parfet (Sr.) (1859-1924) (1st generation of clay miners) saw opportunities in mining brick clay. Within his branch of the family he established a clay mining dynastic of four generations that started in 1877 and lasted 122 years until 2002.
Much of the acreage of today’s Fossil Trace Golf Course is on the former sprawling Rockwell Clay Mine. It was established by G.W Parfet Sr. and partners. This was one of the 15 clay mines that existed in and round the Golden area of which the Parfet Family and their partnerships owned the majority of the mines.
One of G.W. Sr. sons was George Washington G.W. “George” Parfet Jr. (1889-1940) (2nd generation) who continued in the family business. He was active in the Golden community as a member of the local school board, a Golden City councilman, and a founder of the Golden Methodist Church.
Before the electric interurban rail lines came to Golden, locally mined clay was hauled by wagon to standard railroad cars that took the clay to brick and clay pipe factories. With arrival of the relatively quiet electric locomotives Golden residents were open to allowing the use of the Denver Tramway Company’s interurban rails lines to transport clay from the local Golden mines to factories.
At what today is the roundabout at Jackson and 24th Street, (near Golden High School), there was a rail switch that allowed electric engines with two to three empty gondola cars to turn west on the “Fire Clay Spur” (today 24th Street) to the Rockwell Mine. Clay was loaded directly on to the short string of gondola cars and hauled out to a designated brick factory (3). When the rails were taken up in the 1950’s, clay was hauled by trucks. The Rockwell Mine continued to give up clay until the early 1990’s.
Although the concept of a Golden golf course was proposed in late 1980’s to bring golfers and their money into Golden at a time when downtown Golden was dying, the process took many turns and twists over the next two decades. In 1998, William “Bill” Parfet (1918-1998) (3rd generation) died and one of his sons, William “Chip” G. Parfet Jr. (1947- ) (4th generation) took over the family business.
The Rockwell Clay mine was closed. Chip got his proposal for a new upscale neighborhood (Fossil Trace Neighborhood ) approved and donated 52.5 acres of the land to the city. The stipulation was that the donated acreage must be used for a golf course. The land donation was a great boost for a golf course consulting firm to expand the length and golfing challenges of the course.
The proposed 18 hole golf course was by no means widely supported within Golden. The city had to get a bond issue passed to build the course. The city staff promised to construct a new public six acre outdoor aquatic park (the future Splash Water Park) to replace the city’s lost outdoor pool (now a parking lot ) that was next to the library building. The city would also increase bike and walking trails, all without new taxes The ballot issue passed, but another public fight was just beginning in 2001.
Chip Parfet and local paleontologists had long known about the ancient 68 million year old fossils located on the donated land as well as the fossils adjacent to the donated land. In fact, Chip allowed some of the fossil collectors to take fossils. Now that it was city owned land, the proposal to cover up the fossils by the golf course designers and to not allow any public access to the fossils led to a new controversy.
The key spear header was William Caneer (1928-2018) known as “T” Caneer. He had lived in Golden since 1967 and was a geologist and a researcher for the Colorado School of Mines Research Institute. He was also a founding member of the Friends of Dinosaur Ridge (established 1989). “T” went on local television and convinced people to write letters and send emails to the city and attend meetings. He got the State archeologist involved.
The city staff came up with an acceptable option. One large palm frond would be placed in the future club house. One fossil would be buried and the remaining three fossil areas would be preserved and opened for the public to visit on special days. On July 30, 2001 a public ground breaking event for the golf course was held.
It was an outstanding achievement on the part of “T” Caneer to get the city to acknowledge and then compromise to allow an important group of fossils to be accessible to the general public. It also let the Friends of Dinosaur Ridge provide public tours and protect the designated fossil site. It is likely that bond money was used to purchase this additional acreage that now constitutes the Triceratops Trail Open Space. The Chip Parfet family had a long history of providing such land at greatly reduced prices. Old mining equipment, used in his family's mining business, was donated by Chip Parfet.
In October and November 2002, the first public tours were given by volunteers of the Friends of Dinosaur Ridge [FODR]. The short-lived initial name for the site given was, “Parfet Prehistoric Preserve” but within a year this would be changed to just “Triceratops Trail”. The original tours were on rough ground. In spring and summer of 2003 a formal trail design resulted in the construction of a public trail. Drawing on donated financial funds, in-kind services, borrowed equipment, plus herculean efforts of volunteers from the Friends of Dinosaur Ridge, a user-friendly trail was built.
Gravel was provided by the Lafarge Company, which was a mining gravel south of Apex Trail where Martin Material is mining today. The city provided trucks to haul the gravel to the site. Chip Parfet provided equipment for grading the trail. The local Boy Scout troop provided labor. This is the trail, along with later improvements, that visitors use today.
1. Anderson, Donna S and Paul B. Haseman (2021). Golden Rocks: The Geology and Mining History of Golden, Colorado. See: Chapter 10, “A lump of Clay” for excellent discussion and maps of clay mining in Golden. Online version is available.
2. Lewis, Rosemary, (2013). “Men in Clay: The George Parets of Golden” Historically Jeffco (issue 34) pp.32-33. Also Ref # 1 below, p. 76. Contemporary conflicts related to the golf course and building of Triceratops Trail drawn from relevant issues of the Golden Transcript.
3. Robertson and Kenton Forrest (2010). Denver Street Railways, Vol 3. “The Interurbans”, Colorado Railroad Museum. p. 262. There are many photos in this book showing electric engines hauling clay, coal and other materials.