New book gives a look at Longmont history

A recently published book is an ideal gift for local history lovers to find under their tree. Erik Mason, Curator of Research at the Longmont Museum, has published the coffee table book, "Longmont: The First 150 years."

The book, Mason's first, includes both carefully researched text and nearly 300 images. Many of the photos were made available when the museum received custody of the Longmont Times Call's photo archives in 2015.

Compiling the book took time. Mason began his research and writing about two years ago and took a sabbatical in early 2019 to focus on research and selecting his images.

"I tried to tell the story both through text and photos," he said. " I think that's one of the great things about the richness of the Museum's photo collection is that we're able to illustrate so much of Longmont's history through our photographs."

The timeline in the book isn't relegated to the present-day city's origins. "I wanted to make sure that we recognize that people were in this area for more than 14,000 years. The first chapter talks about the earliest people to come through. We talk about the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Ute tribes that lived in this area."

Longmont, as an entity, isn't introduced until the third chapter. "Longmont is founded in 1871, following the establishment of Burlington, the precursor community that is covered in the second chapter," said Mason.

The book also addresses the history of the entire region, including present-day Niwot. It includes stories of Chief Niwot and of the bankruptcy of the Niwot Bank during the Great Depression.

When asked about surprises he found, Mason said, "I've been at the museum for more than 20 years, and I understood the broad arc of Longmont's basic story, but some of the patterns that began to emerge were striking. One of the first ones I noticed was the recurrence of natural disasters, particularly floods."

Mason found that the 2013 flood was just the latest in a series of floods that affected the area. "There was one in 1969, 1935, 1921, 1894, and in 1864 when the community of Burlington was badly affected. It was a surprise to me how much the pattern occurred with the same impacts each time." Mason's book uses photos that demonstrate this pattern, showing areas of the city near each other but flooded at two different periods of time.

Another feature of Longmont's history Mason noticed was how resources in the Longmont community have grown in the last fifty years. This was especially evident when he looked at efforts to expand Longmont United Hospital in the middle of the last century.

"It took all kinds of fund drives and the effort was put over the top because somebody auctioned off a fur coat. That's how close they were on money. Now, because Longmont has resources which are available as a large city, there wasn't a big community drive for any of the new medical facilities, the new rec center, and so forth."

It is also striking that, in many ways, dramatic chapters in the region's history were happening while Mason was working on the book. Ultimately, the book ends in the year 2019 but closing the book then wasn't an easy choice.

Mason explained. "Finishing up in 2020, I had to decide that certain things were stories that are still going on now. We're not going to know how that one ends for a while. For that reason, I decided to stop with the end of 2019."

"I had to set a page limit. I wanted to write a book that people could actually pick up. Not one that had every story in it."

The book, which has been published by Donning Publications, has been well-received. "I've been pleased. People have been enjoying looking through the book and viewing the photos. They've been buying it up. Sales have exceeded expectations, said Mason.

Copies are available for purchase at $39.99, both online and at the Longmont Museum's gift shop on 400 Quail Road, or by phone purchase at 303-651-8374 where customers can arrange for a curbside pickup. The book can also be purchased at Barbed Wire Books on Mainstreet in Old Town Longmont or borrowed from the Longmont Library.