The Curse of Boulder Valley, also known as Niwot's Curse, is attributed to Chief Niwot, who is said to have first stated it upon meeting the first white gold seekers to visit what is now known as the Boulder Valley in Boulder County, Colorado. According to the chief, the curse of the valley was its breathtaking landscape.[1]
People seeing the beauty of this valley will want to stay, and their staying will be the undoing of the beauty.
Niwot was the leader of the Southern Arapaho. The visitors were encamped at what the Arapaho considered to be a sacred site, Valmont Butte, some four miles to the north east of what is now central Boulder, Colorado. Niwot and his closest elder braves, Bear Head and Many Whips, rode out to the site where the new arrivals had decided to camp, near the place where Boulder Creek releases from the Front Range onto the Great Plains. Some see the Curse as portentous of the settling of not only the Boulder Valley, but of the entire Western United States.[citation needed]