Sunday, September 20, 2026

Boulder lays Old Main's cornerstone in the snow, two years before anyone has a class

1875 · Boulder

On Sept. 20, 1875, Masons and town officials set the cornerstone of Old Main on a treeless rise south of Boulder Creek. They had planned a gala. The weather filed a dissent. Inside the stone they left a tin box with newspapers, statutes, a business directory, and eight coins, one of them Swedish.

Ground had been broken on July 27. The architect was E. H. Dimick of Boulder. The contractor was McPhee and Keating of Denver, who would finish the job for $28,700. None of that was visible from the road yet. Jane Sewall, who later arrived as the president's daughter, would remember the finished building as gaunt and alone in pitiless clear light, no tree or shrub or human habitation in sight. On this particular Sunday the light was not clear. It snowed.

The ceremony still happened. Webster D. Anthony, grand master of the Grand Lodge, told the crowd the day was not a novelty to dazzle or deceive. It signified peace, prosperity, and growth in knowledge. Then they put a small tin box into the northeast setting stone, at the joint between foundation and brick. Twelve newspapers. Eight coins, including an 1863 Swedish 2 öre with King Carl XV on it, which is a lot of international finance for a town that had just passed the hat. A Colorado business directory. The statutes. Nearly fifty items in all.

The hat is the other half of the story. The Territorial Legislature would put up $15,000 only if Boulder matched it. One hundred and four parties did, for $16,806.66. Marinus G. Smith, already nicknamed University Smith for donating the biggest piece of the 51-acre campus, headed the list at $1,000. More than half the donors gave less than $100. Cañon City had wanted the university and got the prison consolation prize instead. Boulder got a brick box on the sage and a two-year wait. Classes opened Sept. 5, 1877. Colorado had been a state for thirteen months.

In September 1985 the university opened the box, admired the Swedish coin, and put another one in for 2075. Old Main is still there, now a neighbor instead of a lighthouse. The Flatirons did not move. The trees finally showed up.

Sources: CU Coloradan — time capsule in Old Main · CU Giving — university forged from vision · The Bold — how CU came to Boulder · Wikipedia — Timeline of Boulder

The Marathon starts where yesterday's Ascent finished, then has to come back down

1956 · Manitou Springs to the summit of Pikes Peak and back

On this Sunday in 2026 the Pikes Peak Marathon leaves Manitou City Hall, climbs 13.3 miles and about 7,800 vertical feet to 14,115 feet, and then turns around. The out-and-back is the original 1956 race. The Saturday-only Ascent is the sequel. Matt Carpenter's 3:16:39 from 1993 is still the time everyone is chasing.

Yesterday this desk sent people up Barr Trail and let them stop at the summit house. Today the mountain asks for the receipt. The Marathon covers the same 13.32 miles to the top, then the same trail in reverse, and finishes at Ruxton and Manitou Avenues under a ten-hour cutoff. Downhill runners have the right of way. Uphill runners yield, which is either courtesy or physics.

The split is a 1980s invention. The original race was always the full trip. When the one-way climb got too popular it became Saturday's Ascent and left Sunday for people who still wanted both directions. That created the double: run up on Saturday, run up and down on Sunday, spend Monday inventorying your knees. Matt Carpenter of Manitou did the double in 2001 and again in 2007. He won the Marathon twelve times. In 1993, at 29, he went up in 2:01:06 and finished in 3:16:39. Kilian Jornet came for the record in 2019 and left 11 minutes short. The number is still on the board.

The women's mark is newer. Maude Mathys of Switzerland ran 4:02:45 in 2019 and retired the previous line. The mountain does not care which passport you carried up Barr Camp.

From the start line at City Hall you can see the halfway marker. It is a 14er. Pack a jacket for the summit even if Manitou is wearing shorts. In 2024 ice shortened the course to a Barr Camp turnaround. The Peak has a sense of humor and no customer-service desk.

Sources: Colorado Encyclopedia — Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon · Pikes Peak Marathon — course info · Wikipedia — Pikes Peak Marathon · Denver Post — Jornet 2019

4.7 inches of wet snow lands on trees that still have all their leaves

1995 · Denver

Sept. 20, 1995, put 4.7 inches of heavy wet snow on Stapleton while the trees were still fully dressed. Metro totals ran 4 to 8 inches. About 100,000 people lost power. City foresters later guessed that 80 percent of Denver's street trees took damage. The same date also owns a 94-degree high (2010) and a 28-degree low (1983).

Colorado likes to pretend September is a trustworthy month. The trees believe it. That is the problem.

On the 20th in 1995 a late-summer storm dropped the season's first heavy snow on the Front Range. Stapleton measured 4.7 inches, still the date record. Another 2.7 inches arrived the next day. The official high on the 20th was 49. The low was 31. Leaves had not gotten the memo. Branches snapped. Whole trees split. Firefighters ran from transformer fire to transformer fire. Power stayed out for more than a week in some neighborhoods. Insurance claims on metro houses ran about $6 million, plus another half-million on cars. Denver Parks later estimated that 80 percent of $125 million in city-owned trees were hurt.

The date has a cold twin. After a front on the 19th in 1983, Denver bottomed at 28 degrees on both the 19th and the 20th, the official record minimum for today. In 1921 an apparent bora shoved northwest winds to 44 mph, gusting to 64. In 1902 the evening of the 20th started a rain that put 3.21 inches on the city by the afternoon of the 22nd; 2.70 inches in one 24-hour slice is still the fattest September day on the books.

Then the other column. On Sept. 20, 2010, Denver hit 94 degrees, the hottest this square on the calendar has ever been. 2022 reached 92. 1956 and 2016 both reached 90. The average high is a polite 77.

If you are watching the Marathon from Manitou this morning, the summit will pick which version of Sept. 20 you get. The trees down here are still wearing summer. They always do. Pack the jacket anyway.

Sources: Extreme Weather Watch — Denver Sept. 20 records · ThorntonWeather — NWS week in Denver weather history · FOX31 — earliest Denver snowfalls · NWS Boulder weather history notes