Advertisement by the Golden Gate Town Company in the Rocky Mountain News

To promote development of the town, the Golden Gate Town Company pledged to donate free lots during the winter months to anyone who would build there. Among the earliest descriptions of Golden Gate City comes from the Rocky Mountain Gold Reporter & Mountain City Herald of August 6, 1859. It reported: “Golden Gate. - This place is situated at the very mouth of the ravine entrance into the mountains, which gives it an advantage in a business point of view, over some other places. There are already several business houses in operation and a goodly number of inhabitants.”

The Rocky Mountain News on September 10, 1859, reported when its author visited town on August 23rd: “Fording the river at the point made famous by the passage of Horace Greeley on a refractory mule, we diverged from the old road, and in a short distance entered the mountains at Golden Gate, a city with ambitious name and some eight or ten houses, occupying a commanding site, overlooking its rival -Golden City- and the plains for many miles.”

Western Mountaineer and Rocky Mountain News ads for Golden Gate City businesses

The new Gate City Hotel held its gala opening ball April 6, 1860, which was described in the Western Mountaineer newspaper: “A grand inauguration ball was given on Friday evening last by Capt. W.G. Preston & Bro., on the occasion of the opening of the Gate City Hotel, at Golden Gate. A large number of ladies were present, whose gay dresses, ringing laughter and winning smiles forcibly reminded us of our young days; when, in far off America, we essayed to “Trip the light fantastic toe,” and thought we were “some.” The supper was to us quite a surprise – such an array of delicacies we did not expect to see in this region; the tables, (to use an original expression) literally groaned beneath the weight of good things. Dancing was kept up till the “wee sma’ hours” when all went home apparently surfeited with pleasure. Success to the Gate City Hotel.”

The town provided a fine sanctuary for miners driven out of the mountains for the winter. “Gate City,” as it came to be nicknamed, soon grew into a somewhat respectable center of commerce. By the spring of 1860 two tri-weekly stage lines were running through it to Mountain City, and at this time Golden announced the opening of a new storage, commission, forwarding and ranching business in the town.

Tom Golden's ad in the Western Mountaineer

As of June 1860 Gate City had several hotels, shops and stores, with some stage lines using it as a relay station. Tom Golden and Gard built a hotel, and the Denver firm of Buddee & Jacobs established an auction and commission house. Daniel McCleery opened his own hotel and restaurant and Golden became reputedly the first person to advertise prices in the gold rush region with his commission business. He advertised shingle nails at 35 cents per pound. The town came to be nicknamed “Baled Hay City” because virtually every business house there advertised baled hay for sale.