Westminster’s 100 years includes long-gone fishing holes

    A community’s history and the outdoors side of that history go hand in hand.  Invariably, a community’s early history was more tied to and offered more outdoors experiences than our larger, modern and far more urbanized communities today. It is how the communities grew yet latched on to some of the outdoors.
    Westminster is an example. This year, 2011, is that community’s 100th anniversary of incorporation. How the very early residents enjoyed and lived in the midst of the outdoors is a matter of speculation. But somewhere in the middle of these hundred years, we can look back and reminisce. Some of us enjoyed the outdoors as early as the 1940s and 1950s in somewhat of a “Tom Sawyer” type of life.
    Let’s take a look at some of the fishing holes, many of which are not present today. But each offer a perspective of how families enjoyed the age-old lore of simple rod and reel, hook and worm fishing.
    Mud Lake (68th Avenue between Lowell and Sheridan boulevards), now Hidden Lake with nice homes and boat docks lining its shoreline on the south and Westminster High School on the north, was a popular fishery. I recall catching sizable carp, some tasty catfish all in a lake that was less than 10 feet in depth.
    A few blocks north (72nd Avenue at Irving Street) was La Sasso’s Pond.  It is long gone with homes and businesses in its place. This was the hot spot to catch bullheads and bluegills. The only issue daring young anglers faced had to sneak into the pond because it was fenced and not open to the public.
    The original part of Westminster (70th Avenue to the south and 80th Avenue to the north and the railroad tracks to west and Federal Boulevard on the east) was then a small community with a network of small ditches. The Harris Park Ditch carried irrigation water from the Farmers Highline Canal via the Allen Ditch. This is where kids with small cane poles, hook and worm enticed scrappy crawdads that filled these small ditches and ponds.
    At that point in history, two larger lakes attracted fishermen, young and old. One was Caulkins Lake (now Lake Arbor, south side of 80th Avenue midway between Sheridan and Wadsworth boulevards). The other is Standley Lake which continues to be a major fishery and municipal water storage facility. Standley Lake still claims Colorado’s 1996 walleye record at 18 pounds 9 ounces.  Caulkins Lake was an original irrigation reservoir, since filled to accommodate residential construction in the 1960s and 1970s.
    Margaret’s Pond (104th Avenue between Lowell Blvd and Sheridan Blvd) appears much as it did in the 1940s, calming, shaded, tree lined with bluegill fish and assortment of shore birds and occasional eagle soring above. This small fishery is now the welcoming entrance to the Legacy Golf Course and Legacy Ridge residential subdivision.
     Further north (144th Avenue, one mile west of Huron Street) is MacKay Lake, another farm irrigation pond with a long and storied life as not only a good warm water fishery but also a reserve for waterfowl. MacKay is now part of Westminster’s Open Space lands and open to the public.
     The Westminster 100th anniversary nook 12-member committee, chaired by Bob Briggs, produced a high quality and informative book “Westminster – The First 100 Years.” The book is filled with color photos and enjoyable narratives about community leaders, key events experienced by this Adams /Jefferson County community. It truly is a must read for area residents. Copies can be purchased by calling 303-981-4141.
     Every north area community has a rich history of its own outdoors. Thanks to the open space and trail systems set aside by Brighton, Commerce City, Northglenn, Thornton, Federal Heights and Adams County, much of the past outdoors is still available for residents to enjoy today.

Contact the author at Ron-Hellbusch@comcast.net.