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Kerr family, moved there in 1864 and pre-empted the land five <br />years later. As Kerr developed his farm, Albert Eggleston also <br />settled land in the area and part of his land, patented in 1875, <br />became a portion of the town of Louisville soon after its founding. <br />The 1870s proved to be a decade of importance to Louisville. <br />Between 1875 and 1880 two crucial events occurred that set the <br />course of future Louisville --coal was discovered in 1877 and <br />the next year a town was platted. During August of 1877 C.E. <br />Welch of neighboring Golden, Colorado, entered into an agreement <br />with David Kerr to drill test holes on Kerr's land seeking <br />coal. Coal was discovered and the first mine opened before <br />the end of the year. The second event, relating to the first, <br />was the platting of Louisville in 1878. On October 24 of that <br />year Louis Nawatny, who had been field supervisor for Welch's <br />drilling operation, filed a plat for the town of Louisville <br />on land he had gained title to through pre-emption earlier in <br />the year. Nawatny used his Christian name as the root form <br />of the name of his village.3 The news of a coal discovery and <br />founding of a town led to the first population boom for Louisville. <br />The coal deposits of Louisville were scattered around the <br />town, the first ones minedbeing east of the town near Coal <br />Creek in the Welch/Louisville mine. By 1890 the Caledonia, <br />Acme and Ajax mines joined the Louisville/Welch in production. <br />This number increased to eight by 1900. During the last fifteen <br />years of the nineteenth century coal deposits farther east in <br />Boulder County were opened leading to the founding of Lafayette, <br />2 <br />