Boulder history lesson 101: Change inevitable in business

Maybe, in times of economic uncertainty, one needs only to look back in history to come to grips with how innovation inevitably changes the business landscape.

 The fact of the matter is that any business – newspapers being one in their own headlines recently -- unwilling to adopt quickly to far-reaching technologies such as the Internet simply go out of business.

 I thought immediately of the U.S. automakers and their stubborn reliance on selling gas-guzzling (but previously profitable) trucks and cars while listening to a recent lecture by Boulder author William L. Reich, who wrote “Colorado Industries of the Past,” published this year by Johnson Books.

Here in Colorado, and in Boulder, Reich looks at some of the major business empires of their times, some of which today we only see in boarded up mines or building foundations -- “remnants of that bygone era.”

Then, as today, it was all about supply and demand. The Japanese carmakers figured it out with safe, fuel-efficient cars that didn’t break down while GM brought us the Hummer.

In the 1800s, as early Colorado pioneers arrived, many thought they could strike it rich in gold only to discover how impossibly hard mining was. Businesses making the real money, of course, were those that figured out what everyone really needed – transportation, food (grains, vegetables and fruit), beef and other meats, ice to keep everything from spoiling, and, of course, essentials like beer and cigars.

Other industries took off as the gold rush reality set in, Reich writes. Brickyards for buildings and homes, millinery shops making hats and dresses for the women, saddle and spur makers for cowboys and cowgirls, and a large sugar beet industry. “By the mid-19^th century,” Reich writes, “sugar was no longer considered a luxury item enjoyed only by the wealthy.”

One of the best-known spur and bridle manufacturers, Crockett Spur and Bit, operated here in Boulder, starting in 1943 when it moved from Lenexa, Kansas. It employed up to 125 workers at 944 Pearl St. Business slowly dried up as the passenger car replaced the horse and buggy.

The mining of precious metals, both silver and gold, did become a major industry for Colorado, and Reich describes  how new inventions improved not only the efficiency of the mines but also the life of the miners.

J. George Leyner, born in Left Hand Canyon west of Boulder, eventually patented the air and water drill, helping to reduce rock dust in the air and preventing many miners from a death of silicosis.

The mining industry was especially entrepreneurial, with hundreds of patents for new pumps, mechanical tables and chemical processes to extract gold and other metals from the ore piles. Reich weaves in interesting old photos and illustrations of mills, furnaces and mining techniques in his book’s chapter on “Mining Precious Metals.”

So what happened to many of the bedrock industries? Innovation for the most part.

It’s hard for us to consider, as we grab some ice out of our frig, how everyone depended on the icehouses. Early on, before electricity, ice was harvested from frozen lakes and stored with sawdust or hay.

Adolph Coors, Reich writes, built his icehouse – 60 by 40 feet and 16 feet high – along with his brewery in Golden.

Boulder had its own beermaker, the Boulder Brewery, eventually renamed the Crystal Springs Brewery. Now we support our own local microbreweries such as Boulder Beer, Avery and Mountain Sun.

While lighting up a cigar easily gets you kicked out of a bar today, almost every Colorado town had its own cigar rollers, who sold their product through drugstores, billiard parlors and saloons, Reich writes.  “An average cigar maker rolled and turned in about 200 to 250 cigars a day, so he would make between $15 to $20 per week, good wages for the times.” Today, a high-quality cigar might cost you $10 to $15 just for a smoke.

Those old cigar boxes, now collectibles, indeed were small works of art, with specialty brands such as the Denver & Rio Grande R.R. Scenic Line Cigar or Colorado Maid Cigars, using Victorian women as the advertising image.

“Colorado Industries of the Past” is full of stories of businesses that helped determine Colorado’s future. Only time will tell if our governor’s new program to build jobs and companies to renewable and clean energy will succeed.

What new breakthroughs in solar, for example, could doom the forecasted landscape of huge wind turbines on the plains?

Boulder celebrates its 150^th anniversary in 2009, a good time to become reacquainted with our colorful history. Booms and busts, you’ll find, are nothing new. For a new startup or car building legends like Ford and GM, change is inevitable. It’s a lesson all businesspeople – and their investors -- eventually learn.