Dorothy and Bill Harmsen were the most endearing sort of dreamers. They left his cushy pilot’s job and life in Minnesota for an old ranch in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. She grew flowers. He tried woodworking. They settled on ice cream, opening the first Jolly Rancher Ice Cream Store in Golden on May 28, 1949. They look happy in the pictures.
Business was going okay that first summer. But ice cream doesn’t sell in the winter in Golden, so they pivoted to confections and the Jolly Rancher candy we know today was born.
The rest is history, as they say. Jolly Ranchers took off, eventually being sold to the Hershey Company in 1997, where they sit proudly today in a popular line of mass-market candies and treats.
[Golden History Museum & Park]
Jolly Rancher Started as an Ice Cream Store in Golden in 1949
Posted on October 3, 2022 | Updated on September 30, 2025
Paul Karolyi
Jolly Ranchers never forgot their Colorado roots. (Paul Karolyi; Screengrab of https://www.hersheyland.com/jolly-rancher, September 30, 2022)
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