Hi all, I knew I'd find more under the dust. In the "Boulder Genealogical Society Quarterly August 1993 Vol 25 #3" is an excellent article about Thomas Akins by Kay Short McDowell and Tim Ostwald. (In one of those eerie coincidences the same issue has a five-generation ancestor chart for C. David Knowles) The article is "The Descendants of Thomas. A. Akins and Margaret Ross - Part 1". They make a few brief historical comments and I'd like to note a few things from those. They speak of the start of Boulder and Valmont as though it was simultaneous. The party of Thomas Akins stopped at the "abandoned Fort St. Vrain, located near the present site of the St. Vrain power plant." They also state "John Rothrock, a surveyor and carpenter...contributed his skills by building 13 or so cabins... at the mouth of Boulder Canyon." And mention "...Thomas J. Jones, the first settler in Valmont." C. David Knowles