Ever wonder what it was like to strike the first nugget of gold in Breckenridge?

Thanks to the Breckenridge Heritage Alliance and the Breck150 Committee, you don't even have to get your fingernails dirty to get a taste of gold fever. The groups showcase their 47-minute documentary on the first gold strike in 1859, as well as pioneer highlights during Breckenridge's colorful history.

The film, “Peaks on the Past,” is the seventh in The Golden Stories of Breckenridge series. It features commentary by a prominent group of Summit County historians including Bill Fountain, Mary Ellen Gilliland, Rick Hague, Sandie Mather, Maureen Nicholls, Robin Theobald and Rebecca Waugh. Maryann Rowley is the storyteller.

Flash in the pan

Thousands of miners rushed to Breckenridge when the first man from Missouri struck gold.

“Miners picked up these guide books that told them you could bring your gunny sacks and pick gold up off the ground,” Nicholls said.

They soon discovered it wasn't as easy as following a guidebook, so many returned home. But the hearty ones stuck it out and founded the town of Breckenridge.

And, eventually, some did get rich, especially on “dazzling Farncomb Hill,” which, as Gilliland describes, was “the storied storehouse of riches, treasures embedded in the rock.”

According to Theobald, whose great grandfather, Robert Foote, struck a significant pocket of gold on Farncomb Hill, “The huge strikes up there were unprecedented. These are strikes where they would literally take out tens of thousands of dollars in minutes.”

Tom Groves and Harry Lytton found the biggest nugget in Colorado, a 13-pound chunk nicknamed Tom's Baby, because Groves carried it around town wrapped in a blanket.

“Peaks on the Past provides some intriguing insights into some of the most memorable stories that shaped the history of Breckenridge, including the train over the High Line and the great snowstorm of 1898-99,” said filmmaker Wendy Wolfe. “The documentary also features rare footage of dredge boat mining and new information about how the town came to be named ‘Breckenridge.'”

Wolfe produced and edited the movie, which will also show at 4 p.m. June 11 at the Breckenridge Theatre as part of the Breckenridge Festival of Film. The documentary will be available for purchase at the Welcome Center on Main Street in late June.