Early History of Clear Creek

Early History of Clear Creek. . For thousands of years native peoples have lived, hunted, and battled along this creek. The earliest western nation to claim the creek was France when it created the New World Province called Louisiana in 1682. In 1765 the French ceded the province to Spain. In 1800 France, under Napoleon’s rule, regained Louisiana, and in 1803 sold it to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase.

This creek had two names before it became Clear Creek. Its first known name was Cannon Ball Creek, so named by Frenchmen. In 1820 the American military exploration team led by Stephen H. Long noted it was named Cannon Ball Creek “from the size and form of the stones in its bed.” The creek’s second name came in 1832 when Louis Vasquez, a fur trader, built a fort upstream of the creek’s mouth. The creek then was called Vasquez Fork or Vasquez River. Louis Vasquez, for whom Vasquez Street in Golden is named, trapped and traded with natives and mountaineers along the river until around 1848. In 1859 gold rushers renamed the body Clear Creek reflecting the clarity of the waters.

Picture caption: Entrance of Clear Creek Canyon, circa 1870. Courtesy Denver Public Library, Western History Department. . This historical marker is in Golden in Jefferson County Colorado