Good morning, Goldenites, and happy Tuesday! I hope your flowers, gardens and lawns get some much-needed rain today! 🌦

Speaking of, ICYMI, Golden water customers will be moving into Stage 1 drought restrictions on May 1. This means people can’t water their lawns more than twice a week. Check out this week’s top story for more info. 👇

We have lots of other great stories in this week’s edition, including coverage of Mines football’s spring game and updates on two late-March crashes. Be sure to read until the very end for an update on last week’s “Blast from the Past” section about Golden’s baseball history!

🦬 This week’s High-Low-Buffalo

High: I always enjoy opportunities to run around and photograph Golden’s scenery, and I got to do that twice last week. The first was — as grim as it is — Clear Creek’s relatively low flows amid the dry winter/spring. The second and much more fun one was photographing buds, blossoms and blooms around Golden. The plum blossoms at Tanglewood Park were particularly pretty! 💮

Low: Covering court cases isn’t as exciting as you might think based on movies and TV shows like Law & Order. You can wait an hour or more for a specific case to get called up, and then once it does, like 70% of the time, they don’t do anything except schedule the next court date. Well, I had back-to-back court cases to cover Monday morning and both went exactly like this. 😩

Buffalo: On Sunday, I ran into avid Transcript/Tintype reader Cathy, who told me she’s traveling to Japan and Alaska this month and said she’ll be keeping up with local news via the Tintype! Safe travels, Cathy, and I hope you get to see the sakura! 🌸

Golden water customers will only be able to water their lawns twice a week starting May 1, as the city has declared Stage 1 drought restrictions.

City officials announced the restrictions at an April 7 community meeting and via a press release the same evening. They said the decision was based on comprehensive monitoring of snowpack conditions, stream flows, and forecasted reservoir levels, among other things.

“Current indicators show a concerning trend that necessitates action to protect our water supply for essential needs,” the April 7 press release stated.

Public Works Director Anne Beierle and her colleagues explained how there are three stages of drought restrictions, and the city may move into later stages based on how badly conditions deteriorate this spring and/or summer.

While Stage 1 drought restrictions can be implemented by city staff, only the City Council can declare a Stage 2 and/or Stage 3 drought, they clarified. Stage 2 would restrict Golden water users to watering their lawns only once a week, while Stage 3 would prohibit any lawn-watering.

“Small changes can make a big difference,” Beierle said. “Golden is relatively small, but the Denver metro region is large, and we’re all in it together.”

Much like Pokémon, a key aspect of college football is evolution.

And the only way for either Pokémon or college football players to evolve is to train and compete.

During its April 11 spring game, the Colorado School of Mines football team showcased how much they’ve evolved over the winter offseason and spring practices. Thanks to a unique scoring system, the offense beat the defense 34-29 after a successful fourth-down conversion that ultimately set up a last-second field goal.

Based on what the Orediggers said afterward, they felt confident they’d improved significantly since their last game on Nov. 15. Now, their goal is to reach their “final evolution,” so to speak, before their Aug. 29 season opener against Western Oregon.

“It’s going to be a great year,” defensive lineman Jacob Sanders said. “We have a couple of big games early on. More than ever, we’ll be prepared for those big games this year. … More than just trending in the right direction, we’ve actually taken steps, and we’re a completely better team than we were last year.”

Editor’s note: Check out a full photo gallery of the spring game on the Transcript’s Facebook page.

Despite an incredibly dry winter and a weird spring, Golden’s trees and flowers are tenacious.

Thanks to a bout of warm weather, many trees were blossoming and flowers were blooming in late March. But by April 10, many had lost their petals to rain, wind or heat; while others remained barren or dormant.

Some, though, either debuted in or held on until early April. Local plum, cherry and apple trees in particular seemed to enjoy a relatively cool week April 6-10, with highs in the 60s, mostly cloudy skies throughout the day and some occasional afternoon sprinkles.

Editor’s note: Check out even more photos of Golden’s blooms on the Transcript’s Facebook page.

⚾ Rockies fans were starving for success last season, but the team’s first dozen or so games are giving them a glimmer of hope. Read more here.

🏫 Jeffco Public Schools promised its budget cuts would spare classrooms. However, the district’s own documents show schools are losing 136 teachers, more than 10 counselors and nearly eight social-emotional learning specialists. Meanwhile, the district is recruiting a cabinet-level executive to oversee student services at a starting salary of $139,488. Read more here.

🏥 Ian Athas, a 35-year-old man, has been arrested for driving into a Golden cyclist on March 25 near the Jeffco Government Center, leaving cyclist Kristyn Wade hospitalized with a traumatic brain injury. On April 8, Wade’s family said she’d been moved from a local hospital to a rehab facility, adding that she still has a long road to recovery. A GoFundMe for Wade has raised $58,000 toward a $60,000 goal. Read the full story here.

🚨 A 79-year-old driver recently cited for hitting a 7-year-old boy in downtown Golden is scheduled to appear in court May 27. James Claude Smith has been cited for careless driving causing serious bodily injury, after the boy was hospitalized with several broken bones in his left hand and arm. Read the latest on the case here.

⚖ A 16-year-old Chatfield High School student appeared in court Monday facing one felony count after allegedly bringing a knife to school March 31 with plans to kill a teacher, according to the Jefferson County District Attorney's office. Read the full story here.

🔎 The Trump administration's case against Jeffco Public Schools rests primarily on what federal investigators say are 61 roster positions on girls' sports teams that are held by male students. But the government hasn’t publicly explained how it verified that figure, and neither the agency nor the district has released documentation that would allow outside verification. Read the full story here.

Tonight:

Tomorrow:

Thursday:

Saturday:

This week’s keyword search: “base ball” (two words) ⚾

The results: ICYMI last week, a regular Tintype reader asked me when Goldenites first played baseball, as the sport was first played in Colorado in 1862. The earliest instance I found in the Transcript archives was in August 1874.

However, another Tintype reader pointed out that I should’ve searched for “base ball” (with a space in between).

And sure enough! There were several mentions of “base ball” starting in 1869, but the earliest ones I saw weren’t referring to anything in Golden. They were referring to “base ball” activities in Denver or elsewhere.

However, in March 1873, the Transcript recorded a “base ball” game between Jarvis Hall students and the Golden Base Ball Club. This was the earliest record in the Transcript archives I found of a baseball game in Golden, but I admit there could be earlier ones in other sources. (And, yes, I searched the Transcript archives for “base-ball” (hyphenated) as well but didn’t find any mentions of games in Golden earlier than 1873.)

So, without further ado, enjoy the full recap of the March 15, 1873 game:

All archive clippings are available through The Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection

🔍 HAVE A SUGGESTION FOR NEXT WEEK’S KEYWORD SEARCH? REPLY TO THIS NEWSLETTER AND LET ME KNOW!