142 years ago on November 14, 1873, Adolph Coors, along with Denver businessman Jacob Shueler, recorded a deed of purchase for an abandoned tannery in Golden, Colorado. Within months the building would become home to the Golden Brewery, thus beginning a new chapter in beer brewing history.
Coors was born in Germany in 1847 and by the age of 15 was already an apprentice in a local brewery. Immigrating to the United States at the age of 21, Coors ventured west to Colorado where he worked as a gardener as well as the manager of a bottling plant, saving his money in the hopes of opening his own brewery. Two years after the opening of the Golden Brewery, Coors bought out Shueler and renamed his venture the Coors Golden Brewery. It was only a few years after this point when Adolph Coors found himself in the United States Circuit Court for the District of Colorado, and so is now today found in Record Group 21 Records of District Courts of the United States – Civil Case Files (NAID 721171).
In 1889 Coors had contracted with the Beck and Pauli Lithography Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin for 5,000,000 bottle labels and 500,000 shipping labels, as well as letterhead, postcards, and advertising showcards discussed in part within these two handwritten letters found in the case file – 3165 Beck and Pauli v. Adolph Coors (NAID 22740465).
The above letter from December, 1889 also references Coors’ displeasure in how the “rock” is depicted in the trademark. The rock in question is Castle Rock, a prominent feature on South Table Mountain in Golden, Colorado and is seen on this letterhead for Golden Brewery from 1889 (NAID 22740512).
Its inclusion in the Coors’ trademark image makes further sense when one sees a photograph of just how prominent the peak is in relation to the brewery. In this close-up of a 1967 Bureau of Reclamation aerial photograph, from the file 154/001-005 Scenic Cities General GP (NAID 23811891), one sees Castle Rock to the right of the Coors plant.
After settling on the design, by March of 1890 the company had shipped nearly a quarter of the entire order and with that the problem began. Coors felt that delivery of the order should have been staggered and he was receiving much more of everything than he needed. This bill (NAID 22740516) would be the spark that would ignite the case; Coors refused to pay it.
For more records from brewing history don’t miss the exhibit: Spirited Republic: Alcohol in American History, now at the National Archives Museum in Washington, DC, and check out the free Spirited Republic eBook.