The Golden plate. Relief from Copernicus GLO-30; rivers and lakes from USGS NHD; watersheds from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset; roads and city limits from Census TIGER 2024.
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81° on Nov. 12, 1989, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1911. Next is 80° in 1911.
Golden’s center stands about 1,140 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 910 ft to 1,200 ft, a difference of 290 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Pond Mountain, about 1,790 ft, 13 miles south-southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Smithville Dolomite, Powell Dolomite, Cotter Dolomite, Jefferson City Dolomite (dolostone), from the Early Ordovician, 471 to 487 million years old.
The section below crosses 2 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 27×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Dolostone. Age: Early Ordovician, 471 to 487 million years old. About 19 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale.
Heights from Copernicus GLO-90 (a surface model: it includes buildings and tree canopy); summits from USGS GNIS; rivers from USGS NHDPlus HR; rock from the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation.
A raindrop that lands in Golden reaches the Gulf of America by way of Viney Creek, the White River and the Mississippi: about 1,180 river miles.
Lake on the way: Table Rock Lake.
620 miles of the trip are on the Mississippi.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Golden; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Golden has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 87° in July; winter nights fall to about 23° in January. About 47 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Golden normally reaches 58° and falls to 36°. The record high is 76°, in 2025; the record low 9°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 0.86 in, fell in 1978.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1911 at Cassville 1 NE, 16 miles northwest, 180 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
