Louisville, Colorado- Best small town in the US

Reading my profile you see that I am in Commerce, Texas. Why then, am I writing about Louisville, Colorado. You see, we kind of got exiled to Texas, leaving our 25 year home town of Louisville, after being laid off from a job in Denver. One must feed one's family after all. Seeing the Internet article that Louisville was (once again) chosen the top small town to live in in the US prompted me to expand on the story based on a resident's viewpoint. As a former member of the Louisville Historical Commission, I enjoyed the company of the descendants of the town's founding father's and got great insights into the old life in Louisville. Now this info is based on two years ago so hopefully the places mentioned are still open.

Louisville is an old coal mining town. There are still many tunnels under parts of the town, but don't worry, it won't turn into another Paint Your Wagon fiasco. Things are stable. As a mining town, the influx of miners included many nationalities but the one that seems to have stuck is the Italian influence. The Blue Parrot cafe has served Italian food including monster meatballs and home made noodles for many years. The Old Louisville Inn, in downtown Louisville is a historic building and now a restaurant. I highly recommend the green Chili soup and the Guiness meatloaf, although there are many tasty items on the menu. The old mahogany bar was shipped in from Leadville and comes complete with a bullet hole from a rowdy night long ago. There also is tell that there are tunnels beneath it and a ghost that haunts it. I know the truth ------ but I'll never tell.

There is a pavillion used for summer and winter activities near the Inn. During winter festivities like the parade of lights, they create an ice skating rink there for all to enjoy.

The winter parade of lights, mentioned earlier, is coupled with the parade of homes which takes you to a number of the restored Victorian homes in town. Stories of the original residents are printed and distributed with the show. The year we left, the home of the town doctor from the turn of the century was featured. His home and office were the same with documentation of children born on the kitchen table in emergency situations. A craft fair is held at the old school house in the park or the Methodist church across the street while the parade is going on. Since it is often pretty chilly, there was always spiced cider and hot chocolate available to warm one's soul and innards. The fresh baked cookies and pizzels would top it off.

Winter would bring snow and cold but usually not as bad as many believe. Yes, as evidenced by our bear, there could be some heavy snows. We got snowed in for three days once until the neighborhood teenager got his big tired 4 wheel drive out and drove up and down the street to pack it down. Sometimes it was a while to get snow plows to the neighborhood. As far as cold, we've seen 23 below on some winter days. One morning it had snowed that very fine extreme cold snow about 12 inches deep. It was about 20 below but the kids' bowling league was still going to bowl. I loaded them in my Ford Bronco II and started snow plowing my way through the light snow. One of the kids asked me to turn up the heat so, while watching the road, I flipped the switch. Unfortunately I turned on the air conditioner instead and we had an instant snow storm inside the car as the cold air crystallized the humidity in the cab. That was pretty spectacular.

Another favorite story was in the first house we lived in there in Louisville. On Christmas morning I got up very early as I usually do. I came downstairs to watch TV and looked out the sliding glass door to our back yard. It was a white Christmas that year and the back yard was almost as bright as day as the moon shown on the snowcovered yard. At the bottom of the yard was our apple tree. Many apples had not been harvested and lay on the ground. To my delight and enjoyment, I watched twelve doe and one buck mule deer enjoying the apples. I woke my wife and asked her if she wanted to see. she was up like a flash. we watched them for about 15 nminutes before the buck walked up to the fence and effortlessly hopped it and bounded away with his harem in tow.

During the summer, there are many activities including the Taste of Louisville where the restaurants in town sell samples (we never missed this) and the 4th of July celebration when they have a picnic in the park with free brats and hot dogs for all in attendance. This used to be held in the old park in the center of town but has since moved to the new larger park on the southeast side of town. Keep in mind, they are less than half a mile apart. It's a small town after all. The new park allows residents to bring their dogs to the fenced dog park where they can run loose, play, dive into the small lake to fetch and generally create great entertainment. Booths abound with crafts and business ads galore.

We lived in a newer neighborhood on a street with plenty of children and friendly neighbors. A few houses down was our community park which adjoined the golf course. On the 4th of July, we could go to the park or simply pull up chairs on our deck and watch the fireworks set off on the golf course. we were close enough that they put up crime tape to keep the kids from going onto the golf course where the firework tails would drift to the ground.

Wildlife abounded in the summer also. When we moved into our newer house, we heard not to let the cats out because there was a fox in the neighborhood that had a taste for cats and poodles. We were OK with sacrificing poodles but wanted our cats to be safe. One evening, as my wife and I were preparing for our evening walk, I walked out the front door and the fox was standing in the lot across the street. I called my wife out and we spoke softly and moved toward him. He let us get to about 50 feet then trotted off in the direction we were going. we proceeded on our walk and about a block down we encountered him again at the place where two sidewalks came together. We continued to walk toward him talking softly. To our surprise, he didn't move. He laid down and rolled over on his back in the dust, keeping his eyes on us until we were within five feet or so. I will never forget those haunting red brown eyes with so much intelligence in them. At that point he rolled over and stood up. He walked past us and jumped the five foot fence next to us without effort. We saw him two more times that summer.

Our cat became a criminal one day when she brought a mouse she caught into the house. It wasn't dead and when we startled her she let go and the mouse took off. After much chasing, I took a swipe at the little booger and must have stunned him. I picked him up in a trashcan and took him out to the garden where he regained his senses and vaulted back to safety. We saw on the news a couple of days later that this type of mouse was, in fact, an endangered species!

 Louisville, Colorado. Does it deserve the number one rating? You bet it does! It was a wonderful place to raise our kids and enjoy the people, places, history and culture. We miss it--- a lot.

Louisville, Colorado will forever be in our Treasured Pasts.

Stuart