Friday, September 18, 2026

East Lynne opens at Guard Hall and the new state starts campaigning in the rain

1876 · Guard Hall, 15th and Curtis, Denver

On Sept. 18, 1876, six weeks after statehood, Denver's high was 56 degrees and wet. That night the Forrester family troupe opened Ellen Wood's East Lynne at Guard Hall. The next morning the Front Range was white with snow. The first state elections were two weeks away.

The U.S. Army Signal Service logged the rainy 56-degree afternoon. The Denver Times used the next day's hills as a punch line: white with snow. Indoor entertainment came back with the weather. At Guard Hall, 15th and Curtis, Mrs. Forrester played Lady Isabel Vane. General admission was 50 cents. A reserved seat cost another quarter.

The troupe had already worked Idaho Springs, Georgetown, and Golden. The Rocky Mountain News treated their Denver stand as a trial balloon for a whole winter of plays, and then said the quiet part: managers would bring stronger companies if the city ever built an opera house big enough to pay. Five years later Horace Tabor would try that on the same street.

While the Forresters wrung hearts on Curtis, the canvass for Colorado's first state elections ran every night in towns across the new map. Democrat Thomas Patterson and Republican James Belford were headed for two congressional dates — Oct. 3 for the leftover months of the 44th Congress, Nov. 7 for the full term. Registration closed Sept. 26. The News, which was not shy about its party, told Denver Republicans the majority was real and would still lose if it stayed home. A first state fair, then still the Colorado Industrial Association's exposition, was due in Denver before Pueblo later claimed the name.

Guard Hall itself did not survive the next remodeling boom. It went up in 1873 and came down in 1915. The useful September fact: Colorado's first political season opened on a 56-degree Tuesday with a melodrama, a 75-cent good seat, and snow in the forecast.

Sources: Colorado Newsline — 150 years ago this week · Palace of the Governors — view west from Guard Hall · Wikipedia — Timeline of Denver

Denver wakes up at 29 degrees, and the Buffs still put 56 on Wyoming

1971 · Denver and Folsom Field, Boulder

Sept. 18, 1876 gave Denver a damp 56. Sept. 18, 1971 gave it a high of 36, a low of 29, two more inches of snow, and the date record that still stands. Thirty-five miles up the turnpike, No. 12 Colorado beat Wyoming 56-13 in front of 40,729 people who had dressed for a different sport.

The snow had arrived the day before. Stapleton measured 15.6 inches for the storm, 12.0 of them on the 17th, the heaviest first snow of any Denver season on the books. Wet, almost windless flakes took down trees and lines. Official September 1971 snow for the city finished at 17.2 inches, still the month record. Depth on the ground topped out around 13 inches.

The 18th was the hangover. Denver's high was 36. The low was 29, the coldest the date has ever been in the official record. The 17th had already set 31. The 19th would go to 27 at the same station, with older recaps still quoting 20. Four days in a row posted record-low maximums. Leaves were still on the trees. That is how you break a city in September.

In Boulder the No. 12 Buffaloes treated Folsom as if the calendar had not been revised. Charlie Davis, Cliff Branch, and a 10-2 team that would finish No. 3 in the country put 56 points on Wyoming and improved to 2-0. Attendance was 40,729. Eddie Crowder's club had beaten No. 9 LSU on the road the week before and would beat No. 6 Ohio State the next Saturday. The plains between the two box scores were a wreck of downed limbs. September 18 is the date Denver learned that a first snow can also be a last-of-summer snow, and that Folsom will still kick off in it.

Sources: Extreme Weather Watch — Denver Sept. 18 records · Extreme Weather Watch — Denver weather in 1971 · ThorntonWeather — NWS week-in-history notes · Sports-Reference — 1971 Colorado Buffaloes

An 81-mph gust at Jeffco turns a parked airplane onto its back

1988 · Jefferson County Airport, Broomfield / Longmont

On Sept. 18, 1988, a cold front ripped across the north metro. Longmont gusted to 82 mph. Jefferson County Airport, the field now called Rocky Mountain Metropolitan, hit 81. The wind flipped a small airplane and wrecked it on the ramp.

September on the Front Range is supposed to be the month you trust. 1988 used it for a reminder. Behind the front, northeast flow and a tight gradient turned the northwest suburbs into a wind tunnel. National Weather Service recaps still list the two numbers together: 82 at Longmont, 81 at Jeffco near Broomfield.

The airplane was parked. That is the part that stays in the clip file. Gusts in that range will pick up a light single-engine airframe, roll it, and leave the insurance adjuster to explain why a Saturday in mid-September counts as a windstorm. No tornado warning required. Just a front, a ramp, and a tied-down plane that was not tied down enough.

Jeffco is now Rocky Mountain Metro, still the busiest general-aviation field on the north side, still sitting in the same gap between the foothills and the plains where September air likes to accelerate. The 1988 note sits in the same week-of file as a 1901 50-mph northeaster, a 1948 69-degree September low that remains the warmest minimum for the month, and a 1990 funnel cloud that nearly touched Sheridan and Highway 285. September 18 keeps a small-plane footnote. Check the tiedowns before you trust the calendar.

Sources: ThorntonWeather — Sept. 18, 1988 wind · Wikipedia — Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport