“They really have worked hard to pull this event off.””

Mayor David Spellman

BLACK HAWK — The normally empty lot at Church and Gregory streets did not stay empty for long on Saturday. By early afternoon on June 27, 2026, it was full of vendors, people throwing axes, kids playing carnival games, and crowds walking toward Gregory Street Plaza. 

Black Hawk’s Founders Day honors William L. Lee, Dr. Frederick H. Judd, and Mylo Lee, who founded Black Hawk Point in 1860 after John H. Gregory’s 1859 gold discovery drew thousands of prospectors into the gulch.

The City of Black Hawk thought of everything this year for its Founders’ Day celebration, making the small mountain town feel much bigger than it is.

The free celebration ran from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Black Hawk’s HARD District, with live music, food, vendors, family activities, historical displays, and western-themed entertainment. Kids waited patiently in line for free games, face painting, and balloon animals, while adults crowded the $2 beer tent.

The day had a natural connection to where it was held. Black Hawk grew out of the Gregory Diggings after John H. Gregory discovered lode gold in 1859 in the gulch between Black Hawk and Central City. Thousands of prospectors soon poured into the area, chasing gold through what became known as the “Richest Square Mile on Earth.”

Black Hawk later became a milling center, using its access to water and lower position in the gulch to process ore from the mines above. The town was incorporated in 1864 and remains tied to that mining history, even as casinos, festivals, and preservation projects have reshaped its present revenue streams.

That history was not tucked away in a museum on Founders’ Day. It showed up in books, mineral displays, old tools, costumes, staged gunfire, and conversations with people who care about the place.

Kim Ramstetter, daughter of Mary and Charlie Ramstetter, sold copies of “Gold Country Colorado,” a regional history book written by her parents. She said the book is not just about John Gregory, even though his name is central to the area.

"John Gregory Country," edited by Charles and Mary Ramstetter, was among the regional history books featured during Founders Day.

Photo by Mindy Leary

“It’s not about the gold rush,” Ramstetter said. “It’s just about the people and the places and what was going on.”

The book includes mining history, old photos, gulches, buildings, and stories from the region. Ramstetter said her parents worked on it for years. The first edition was published in the 1990s, and a second edition came out in 2013.

Her presence was a statement that Black Hawk’s history is not just about mining; it’s about family research, old photographs, and people still trying to keep the stories within reach.

Mayor David Spellman thanked the Black Hawk team members who helped put the event together, including Public Works, Police, Fire, Gilpin Ambulance Authority, and others working behind the scenes.

“They really have worked hard to pull this event off,” Spellman said. “It gets better every year.”

The entertainment schedule began with Sugar Britches at 11 a.m., followed by the mayor’s welcome at 12:30 p.m., Kind Mountain Band at 1 p.m., the Wild Bunch shootout at 2:30 p.m., Atomic Drifters at 3 p.m., the Backroom Cabaret Dancers at 4:30 p.m., and the Lady Legends Show at 5 p.m.

The Colorado Wild Bunch drew one of the biggest crowds of the afternoon. Mike Keeler with the Wild Bunch introduced the group and explained the safety rules before the show began.

Members of the Colorado Wild Bunch performed a comedic western shootout during Black Hawk’s Founders Day celebration.

Photo by Mindy Leary

The reenactors used pistols with sealed barrels and blocked cylinders that only accept 9 mm blanks, Keeler said. He also warned the crowd that the show would be loud, especially for young children and dogs.

The shootout played more like a comedy than a clean duel. Two arguing characters tried to settle a grudge, only to be ordered into a proper duel by a third character who seemed more annoyed than concerned.

“You got a $10 schnitzel on a 5 cent hat,” one character said, before the shouting turned into confusion, backwards walking, missed instructions, and gunfire. And like any classic western, cowboys wound up dead on the ground.

Vendors filled nearly every available stretch of the plaza. Booths included Black Hawk Ridge Metalworks, Beads by Bo, Friends of Charlie’s Place, RC Reclaim Creations, Moose Track Boutique, E3 Osseum, Wild Moon Medicine, Cobalt Creations, Gilpin Pottery Art Studio, Jen’s Gems, Central City Sourdough, Peak to Peak Rotary, Cottage Comforts, VFW Post 7563, and others.

Chris Renelt, owner of Spiked Handmades, brought handcrafted tallow-based beer soap from Westminster. He said the “spiked” name came from a beer-making kit a friend gave him years ago.

Chris Renelt, owner of Spiked Handmades, showed off handcrafted tallow-based beer soaps, body butters, salves, and other skin-care products during Founders Day.

Photo by Mindy Leary

“I brewed. I took it overboard and brewed way too much beer,” Renelt said. “And then I was looking for other ways to use the beer, and I found I could make soap with it.”

Renelt said he has only been selling his products for about a year and a half. His booth included soaps, foaming soaps, lip balms, body butters, salves, beard balms, and scent samples kept in small, covered cans so they did not all begin to smell the same.

Moose Track Boutique, based in Nederland and Fort Collins, displayed wood-burned ornaments, magnets, notebooks, keychains, and new cell phone cases with raccoons and mountain scenes. Owner Dena Steward said she has been doing wood burning for about six years and started making phone cases this year.

“I started out making one for myself, and then I went, ‘Ooh, that was fun,’” Steward said.

She also offers custom pet portraits, turning emailed photos into engraved ornaments, wall hangings, notebooks, and other items.

At Cottage Comforts, Gilpin County vendor Pilar sold aprons, reusable paper towels, towels, bibs, hot pads, dresses, skirts, and embroidered items. 

Mining history was also on display. Intermountain Adventure Tours brought a private collection of old mining gear, minerals, tools, cart rail spikes, lanterns, and specimens. 

Andrew, one of the people staffing the exhibit, said the display was meant to educate the public about the mining history that shaped the area.

“This is such a lost element of our history,” he said. “The whole reason that we’re all here.”

The display included purple fluorite, crystallized fluorite, angel wing calcite, stalactites, old boxes, a drill, and other pieces connected to the mining era.

Peak to Peak Rotary sold funnel cakes and took peach orders as a fundraiser. Members said the proceeds support education programs, scholarships, dictionaries for children, service projects, highway cleanup, and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library for children in Gilpin County and Nederland.

A boy takes a swing at one of the free children’s games offered in Black Hawk.

Photo by Mindy Leary

People lined up for selfies with giant historical replicas of the Statue of Liberty and Uncle Sam on stilts as the town of 128 residents celebrated its founders and looked ahead to Colorado’s 150th anniversary and the United States’ 250th anniversary.

Founders’ Day mixed the old and new Black Hawk into one hot, crowded afternoon. There were mining tools and cell phone cases, western shootouts and photography shoots, history books and face paint, cabaret dancers and soap made from beer. Not lost to history was Black Hawk’s pride in its beginnings.