Louisville City Map Poster

About Louisville

The town of Louisville was established in 1877 as a mining community. The first discovery of gold occurred on June 6, 1875 by William H. Jackson and George W. Holman while they were building a log cabin near the present-day intersection of South Boulder Road and Gold Run Avenue (then called "Gold Camp Road"). They named their find the "Louisville" after Holman's hometown in Kentucky, which had been named for King Louis XVI at Versailles just two years earlier; it is said that when Jackson saw how much gold there was he exclaimed: "By God! This place is going to be another Klondike!" The first placer mine opened up along Clear Creek west of Denver on May 16, 1858 during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush with little success but did establish an area where prospectors could congregate to search for gold deposits . In 1860 four prospectors formed a partnership called The Rocky Mountain Mining Company and purchased land from William Nye along what would become known as Clear Creek between Golden and Black Hawk .