By John Steinle

In 1895 Colorado newspaper subscribers were startled by the emergence of a new force in journalism: the Denver Post. Formerly an unremarkable evening newspaper, the Post was purchased by two journalistic buccaneers, Fred Bonfils and Harry Tammen. Bonfils had previously engaged in shady and borderline illegal enterprises and had concocted a fictional biography. Now he and Tammen turned their opportunistic eyes on unsuspecting Denver and proceeded to shake that city’s newspaper world to its foundations.

The revitalized Denver Post was the epitome of the era’s “yellow Journalism”, pioneered by Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. Sensational headlines printed in red ink leaped off the pages at the Post’s readers, and the Post’s publicity stunts entertained thousands on Denver streets. Harry Tammen even bought a small flea-bitten circus and hired the aged Buffalo Bill Cody to appear at its performances.  The two owners were accused of blackmailing potential advertisers into placing ads in the Post. Bonfils even assaulted rival newspaper owner Thomas Patterson on a Denver street. In separate incidents, Bonfils and Tammen were both shot and horsewhipped by irate lawyers.

Fred Bonfils’ two daughters, Helen and May were the beneficiaries of all this nefarious activity. When Bonfils died in 1933 he left an estate valued in the millions. Most of it was left to the more obedient daughter, Helen, but May contested the will and received what she considered her fair share.  In 1937 May proceeded to build a magnificent mansion in Lakewood near Kountze Lake in what was then pristine countryside. She named the estate Belmar, possibly after the name of a local rancher or as a contraction of her mother’s name, Belle, and her own name.

Designed by renowned Denver architect Jacques Jules Benoit Benedict, the white, faux-marble mansion was modeled after the Petit Trianon Palace at Versailles. Its 20 rooms were crammed with authentic and replica statues, lavish furnishings, and fabulous artwork by old and modern masters. A three-tiered Italian marble fountain graced the 750-acre estate. By 1941 May hired architect Burnham Hoyt to design a large art gallery addition to house her ever-expanding collection of masterworks. May’s stunning jewelry collection was sometimes displayed to her visitors, with priceless diamonds draped around the neck of her pet poodle. May was driven on her rare outside visits in a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost with custom walnut interior.

May’s extravagant lifestyle was matched by her philanthropic activities, which included lavish donations to many Catholic charities, to Loretto Heights College, the University of Colorado Medical Center, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and the Catholic Chapel at the U.S. Air Force Academy among many others.

May died in 1962, and her second husband, Ed Stanton, donated the mansion to the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver. Unable to pay the enormous monthly maintenance costs, or to find a suitable use for the mansion, the Archdiocese sold it to the Craddock Development Company. The mansion was demolished in 1971, and the current Irongate Office Center, Villa Italia shopping center, Lakewood Heritage Center at Belmar, and Lakewood Town Center occupy the site of the beautiful lost Belmar mansion and estate.

May’s charitable efforts continue after her death, because Ed Stanton used his inheritance to create the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, currently one of the major grant supporters of cultural and non-profit organizations throughout Colorado. Though May Bonfils Stanton’s Belmar Mansion is gone, her contributions to Colorado’s educational, cultural and religious organizations is a living legacy.

Gold fever brought tens of thousands of depression-deprived people across the broad prairies toward Colorado in 1858-59, fleeing the national financial crisis known as the Panic of 1858. Some made it, some didn’t, and some failed to find gold, said they had “seen the elephant”, and returned home in the East. But among those who stayed, Thomas Golden, George B. Allen, and Marshall Cook founded a town on November 28, 1858, and called it Arapahoe City. The town was located conveniently on the bluffs overlooking Clear Creek, and a large sand bar known as the Arapahoe Bar containing gold deposits washed down from the nearby mountains. 

Arapahoe City was laid out in a grid plan, with streets going in one direction going by letter names, and streets in another direction going by numbers. Officially, the town was in Kansas Territory since Congress did not establish a separate Colorado Territory until February 1861. Thomas Golden wrote to a Missouri newspaper stating that, “Indians are thick here. We apprehend danger from them. They have sent us word from some of their chiefs to quit this country, but we think we can stand them a rub, as we have 700 white men here. We have laid out a town by the name of Arapahoe City after the aborigenes (sic).”

As the first Euro-American settlement in Jefferson County, with the County’s first post office, Arapahoe City was hugely important. The Rocky Mountain News reported in 1859 that a stagecoach line ran from Denver City to Arapahoe City twice a week, while that same year the Cherry Creek Pioneer deemed Arapahoe City one of Colorado’s most important towns after Denver City and Auraria. As other nearby communities such as Golden City, Golden Gate City, Mount Vernon, and Apex emerged, Arapahoe City was in competition for growth and population. 

When a convention assembled in April 1859 to create a new state called Jefferson, Arapahoe City was noted as one of the voting precincts. The convention formed the Territory of Jefferson, unsanctioned by the United States government. The territorial legislature voted to name Arapahoe City the county seat of Jefferson County, but a popular vote reflecting the larger population of Golden City designated that community the county seat instead. 

The discovery of heavier gold deposits in the mountains by Arapahoe City residents George Jackson and John Gregory over the winter of 1858-59 resulted in the formation of Idaho Springs, Central City, Nevadaville and Black Hawk and drained the Arapahoe City population. Competition from Golden City also seduced residents to that larger community. The 1860 census noted only 80 people and 21 dwellings remaining in Arapahoe City. Some residents moved their houses or cabins to Golden City, where they may survive, although no one today realizes their origin.

By the late 1860s Arapahoe City had faded in importance, though newspaper articles in 1869 noted the construction of the Colorado Central Railroad from Golden to Arapahoe City. The most important and lasting remnant of Arapahoe City is the still-active Wannamaker irrigation ditch, dug by Jonas Wannamaker, the unofficial “mayor” of Arapahoe City. His family’s cabin survived until 1913, when it was destroyed by fire, erasing the last remaining home from Arapahoe City in its original location.   

The search for gold at the Arapahoe Bar continued in the 1880s with hydraulic mining, using high-pressure hoses to wash the gravel into sluice boxes to be processed.  A steam-powered dredge operated there in the early 1900s. The dredge used at the Arapahoe Bar, known as “Eleanor No.2” was later moved to the Breckenridge area, where it still exists and is in the process of renovation.

Today the only reminder of Arapahoe City’s existence is a small rock kiosk with a plaque, originally placed by the Colorado Historical Society (now History Colorado) in 1946 along 44th Avenue between McIntyre Parkway and the Colorado Railroad Museum. Several years ago, the original bronze plaque was stolen. The monument has been restored through the efforts of Jefferson County Historical Commission and other organizations. Alas, even this memorial has recently been blocked off by chain-link fencing along the roadway. It seems that the memory of Arapahoe City, Jefferson County’s first Gold Rush community, is in danger of fading to oblivion.