City's history steps into spotlight at Thursday Nights at the Museum

This week’s installment of Thursday Nights at the Museum will turn the spotlight on one of the Longmont Museum’s own. The weekly event, which precedes next week’s finale, will celebrate the publication of “Longmont: The First 150 Years” with the author and the museum’s curator of history, Erik Mason. 

Mason drew from the museum's historic collection, for which he is responsible, in writing the book that includes more than 17,000 objects, 10,000 photographs and thousands of documents relating to Longmont and the St. Vrain Valley. 

In addition to documenting everyday life — farmers working in their fields, workers in local factories, traveling businessmen — Mason shares Longmont facts and stories that only a curator of history would know.  From the city’s connection to the only athlete to ever win gold in both a Summer and Winter Olympic Games to Longmont’s complicated relationship with alcohol to why so many streets are named Pratt, it’s all there in the book. 

“Longmont has a rich history, with so many fascinating characters and events, and I am thrilled to see this book come out and highlight their stories,” he said. 

Mason is widely considered the expert on Longmont’s history and has worked at the museum for more than 20 years. He also is the leader of the museum’s popular annual history walking tours that are now available via a mobile app.

So, if you have ever wanted to know why Longmont was originally called the Chicago-Colorado Colony in 1871,  which presidential candidate stopped in the town in 1900, how long the Ku Klux Klan dominated the city council in the 1920s, or who were the “Beetdiggers,” Mason’s book will provide the answers.  

“Longmont: The First 150 Years” for $39.95 at longmontmuseum.org or in the gift shop at the museum, 400 Quail Road. It also is available to borrow through the Longmont Library.