>> this year, c-span is touring cities across the country, exploring american history. a look at our recent visit to boulder, colorado. you are watching american history tv all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. when visitors come to the boulder history museum, they will learn the early history of the boulder area. our focus is telling the story of boulder from the early years up until today. the first floor is the exhibit of the arapahoe, native americans who lives here before white settlement. the legend and legacy exhibit tells that story. the second floor of the museum is called story makers. it is really about the stories of the early settlers to the boulder area, why they came

here, how they made a living, and what life was like in the early years of boulder. one of our most notable historic figures in boulder's history. chief niwot was in arapahoe chief who would appear in the mid-1850's when gold was discovered and there was a lot of movement to the west, a lot whites came out in search of gold and really changed the life of the indians who had been living here. niwot was an interesting man. he spoke english, which he learned from his sister's husband who was a for trainer. trader. niwot was here in 1858. whitet time, a group of

speakers came out and camped at the foot of the mountain and niwot asked them to leave. the land was given to the indians from the treaty of fort laramie so it really was indian land. when niwot saw them, and camped here, he asked them to leave. he said we are here looking for gold. we will only stay through the winter and we will leave. they ended up discovering gold in the mountains just west of boulder that winter and they never left. they came down. many of them settle this area and created the city of boulder and the arapaho really lost their land at that time. here we have some clothing and items that represent what the arapahoe would have worn and used in the late 1800s. there is a dress made out of hide that arapahoe women would have worn.

there is a saddle blanket that they would have put over a horse a horse. a beautiful headdress that the chief would have used during ceremonies and also some leggings that would have been worn by men. you can see the beautiful beading that is on it. some of these probably would have been used more during ceremony and ritual than they would have been for everyday life. tried tirelessly to keep peace between the tens of thousands of white man who came out to search for gold and the arapahoe -- at that time there only several thousand of them. ultimately, the arapahoe and cheyenne who lived in the area ended up in an area down in and manyern colorado of them were brutally massacred in 1864.

most of the rest of them ended up on reservations in wyoming and oklahoma. after 1864, the population of indians in this area was incredibly diminished. in the story makers exhibit, which is an exhibit that tells the early stories of boulder. in particular, the section is about the early miners that came to boulder. in 1858, gold was discovered in a riverbed near what is today denver and soon after that, word got out and tens of thousands of people came west in search of gold, really looking to seek their fortune. they came to boulder. there actually was not gold in the city of boulder. it was in the mountains. the city was founded as a supply town for the gold miners who were in the mountains. what you can see here is some of

the equipment that the miners would have carried. b a lot of miners had aurro that they would have a tack on -- a lot of miners had a burro that they would put a tack on and a shovel. a lot of people thought they would get rich seeking gold and it did not work out, so they came back down and started businesses to supply the miners who were in the mountain. we are looking at the section of the exhibit that really focuses on boulder as a healthy place to be. today, boulder gets on many lists as the fittest city and the most healthy city and things like that. we can really trace that back to our early roots. one of the interesting things we found is that we found a breakfast menu from 1898. on the menu was granola. they were making granola in boulder in 1898, something a lot

of people actually came out of the 1970's and the health food movement there. we can trace the health food movement in boulder back to the early years of our history. here, this over exhibit ties into that with outdoor activities, which again are a huge part of boulder today. people come to boulder to be outside, to hike, to bike, to run, to climb. as you can see from the equipment in here, the early years of boulder, that was equally as important people -- to people. we had great wooden skis used in the 1800s, some snowshoes. -- women didsay these activities as much as men. women would go on hiking excursions in the mountains.

they would hike in these tall boots and their long skirts. we have pictures of women climbing long's peak, which is a 14,000 foot mountain west of ssesder in long dre and these boots. the items in the display focused on education in the boulder community, which has been a hallmark of boulder. as much as the flatirons and mountains, boulder is defined by the university of colorado. it opened in 1877. ,n 1878 they hired mary ripon who was the third faculty member hired at the university and she was the first woman to be hired at any state university in the country. really quite remarkable at the time. mary has a very interesting story. she had a secret life as well. not only did she teach at the university, but she fell in love

with one of her students and she ended up marrying him. at the time, a woman could not be married and continue to teach. she married him secretly and in addition, they had a child. they had a daughter. she took a sabbatical in europe for a year and she had her doctor there and she left her daughter with her husband and the husband raised that the daughter. mary came back to colorado. she lived the rest of her life in boulder. she did send money to support her daughter and she would go visit her, but no one in boulder ever knew that she had been married or that she had a child. she kept this a secret to friends and relatives in the states and it was not until nearly 100 years later that anybody knew that mary ripon had been married and had a daughter when her grandson came forward and broke the news that she

actually had a secret life that nobody knew about. boulder's history is so fascinating and so many people that come to boulder and that live here have no idea why boulder is here. they have no idea who lived here prior to the founding of boulder. theye hoping that when come and visit the museum and explore our exhibits that they of why thea sense city is here in the first place. why was it founded and who lived here before boulder was a city. have a lot of people who are new residents to boulder who don't know that early history and a lot of visitors that come into boulder that really want to know, why is it here? we are hoping that they will get a good sense of the community, not only when it was founded, but also who lived here prior to the founding.

find out where c-span's local content vehicles are going next online at www.c-span.org /localcontent. you're watching american history tv all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. >> with live coverage of the u.s. house on c-span and the senate on c-span 2, on c-span 3 we complement that by showing you relevant congressional hearings and public affairs events. c-span 3 is home to american history tv with programs that tell our nation's story. war's 150th anniversary, visiting battlefields and key events. american artifacts, touring museums and historic sites. with theookshelf, best-known american history writers. the presidency, looking at policies and legacies of our nation's commanders in chief.