Denver is an example of the settlers, who were already tired from crossing the plains; seeing the Rockies and saying fuck that and put their shit down right there. (Edit: Umm Aktualy ☝️comments are not needed, it was a joke)
Edit 2: thank you for my first two awards.
It was founded by unsuccessful miners after the 1849 CA gold rush. On their way to the coast they would stop in what is today Arvada and noted the high gold content in clear creek. After failing in CA some settled in Arvada to pan gold. That settlement was soon moved to present day Denver for river and flat land reasons. It then became a major cattle and mining hub.
I might be thinking a few decades late but I thought Denver being on the way to the railyards in Cheyenne was a huge thing for it’s growth because it put it en route for cattle in Texas being sold on the east coast.
Too far north and west for cattle coming up from Texas.
Originally the Texas cattle drives would end in Kansas rail road towns. Places like Dodge City boomed due to the trade. Kansas City grew and became famous for processing beef and then shipping it east. They even created the "Kansas City strip" steak which chef's in NY City would rename to "NY strips".
Long before there was the Kansas City Royals, was the Negro league Kansas City Monarchs too. You would think that it would be a nice tip of the cap to one of the most successful and best stories about the saddest part of US history.
But nah - strictly what was surely an unwelcome coincidence.
Abilene, KS was a major stop but barely thriving in comparison today. Dodge is still a major beef hub but Kansas City is modernized. Omaha was another major packing hub. Funny how the green rush hit Denver just like the gold rush, though 😅
Fun fact, while KC strips and NY strips are essentially the same cut, NY strips are thinner sliced while KC strips are cut thick enough to leave some pink in the middle.
The Goodnight-Loving trail comes straight up from Texas to Cheyenne. It may have been KC earlier before rail that far west but Texas cattle were absolutely sent onto rail in Cheyenne.
It was too far north to be a hub for cattle coming up from Texas. Denver and the Front Range cities were certainly cattle centers, they just weren't dealing with Texas cattle.
It would have had to go through Mexico. As southern route was the whole reason for the Gasden Purchase.
Also remember that when the transcontinental railroad was being built the industry was in the midwest and north. The south was still very agrarian until a couple generations later.
The railroad network in the future confederacy was also tiny compare to the North.
Do you remember the game Oregon Trail? I constantly wonder how any of the new generations made it through school if they don't know how our country was formed and WHY they couldn't just go wherever they wanted when they first got here, or whenever they felt like it. The country went through phases of land purchase and state creation.
Why not? You’re talking Native American Indians being made up! What I mean is you have a map stating that you’re on Navajo land, however chief wompum stompum ( the real guy) plays the part of a government agent. Places tariffs and taxes on certain parts of the land, signs a bogus signature, now we have a fucking awesome scheme to take over 50 states ( well 49) we’ll get the Samoans to Co-sign and just get what we want. An invisible governing body of “ fake white guys.” There’s a method to my madness and I’m not stopping because I’m full of ideas.. they stole over 2 million of my money and I can’t find it! I’m sorry but you’ll be hearing from me real soon.
I even tried so hard to find anything about a chief “wompum Stompum” and all I could find was one mention of a fictional character named Chief Wampum Stampum. He only existed in some audio dramas in the 70s & 80s. And in this fictional story, he was a man from India who went to America to meet native Americans, since so many Americans at the time were going to India to find gurus. But it’s just some silly story. And now I have wasted more of my time AND yours. 😅
There is a well known phenomenon in the northern front range of Colorado that, if it starts smelling like Greeley outside (aka absolute piss), it’s gonna snow or rain. It’s accurate about 85% of the time.
It smells like ammonia and manure, and there’s a musty undertone that I cannot pick out. Come up here the day before a big snow and you’ll get to know the stench!
Oddly enough, when we’ve actually driven in to Greeley, it wasn’t bad.
It's still nice, they've made it more pedestrian accessible (so traffic sucks, tradeoff there). I live further south but end up in olde town Arvada more often than I'd like for the drive.
I have a really cool book about arvada's history put out by their historical society. Lots of neat things happened there. And they have some notable gold finds at the denver museum of nature and science, if the exhibit is still there. I just really never thought I'd see it here, lol.
Man I loved Old Town Arvada when I was traveling for the glass plant I worked at. Completely chock full of homeless and hipsters though. Sucks when you are trying to enjoy tacos by the heaters and a dudes yelling and screaming at you
Nice! I haven't lived there in over 20 years, but many very fond memories. We still visit family there often. I wonder if they're on there lurking around.
Its important to note how important silver mining was in Colorados history.
In the mid 1800s, many other towns were looked at as potential state seats. Denver was settled on partially because it had the easiest access to leadville and aspen. D&RGW (railroad at the time) essentially planted politicians, in a very atlas shrugged manner and forced Denver to assist in funding the construction, which then led to the trans continental railroad.
Construction of train tracks was fundamentally easier through denver than it was through any other part of the rockies, that being said, the 2 mile long moffat tunnel didn't come in until the 1920s, before that, crossing the continental divide could take up to 3 days, but typically just 18hrs. (Slopes and snow and random goats)
Getting ore from leadville, which is actually mostly silver and molybdenum, became imperative around 1880 (matchless mine, silver) and became even more important come 1918 with the realization of industrialized war, hence the importance of moly, and the founding of climax mine.
Back to the point, Denver is a nice little center point for all this, I've neglected to mention the coal mining towns, like Redstone and north of paonia, as well as the significant silver production of places like the yampa valley (north of denver) or even the coalfield "war" in walsenburg post ww1.
Well think about it like this, if you had gold to mine, why not make mock states and cities of California , mix a fake map up, and lead the other 49ers to mine salt and coal while your group steals the riches!? Claim that it’s an Area 51 part 2 ( sorry folks did you read the sign gold mines closed for two weeks due to construction).
Denver also became the railroad, supply, industrial, and banking hub for Colorado’s hard rock mining era, which was extremely profitable and which, to some extent, continues to this day, although it is no longer the state’s largest source of wealth.
Fun fact, coors beer used to makes a ton of profit sifting gold from it's aggregate mines right there at i70 and 32nd ish area to pay for it's entire bottling operation which it mined for sand to make glass.
Former arvada/lakewood/golden resident. Colo. born and raised.
Semi related: we just recently learned what causes gold nuggets to form and it is from earthquakes over a very long period but maybe not as you think. Dissolved gold in water pushed up from earthquakes also causes quartz to be stressed inducing the piezoelectric effect for a gold grain point of nucleation which because quartz is an insulator and gold a great conductor has the piezoelectric effect run thru the gold to continue building the nugget grain by grain, earthquake by earthquake.
I believe the original settlement was Montana City, before they ventured a bit up river and settled what is now Auraria. Montana City was slightly southwest of what is now downtown Denver. I could be wrong though, I read this on signs at the park where Montana City used to be on the South Platte.
And Arvada is literally one of the nicest places I've had the pleasure of having friends live. I shamelessly love going there now that it's an established city but would not have liked actual Olde Town Arvada in the 1850's.
Actually gold was discovered in the confluence of Cherry Creek and the Platte River in down town Denver. Once the railroad went through Cheyenne, Denver needed the spur to keep the city alive. It was mainly a city to support mining in Central City and then became a cattle hub. All along the foothills of the Rockies there was gold found but never to the extent of Central city. As a matter of fact, Central City was trying to become the Capitol of that area but lost out to Denver, which is also known as the “Queen City of the Plains”
I’m not denying that gold was found in Arvada, however the significant find was in Denver.
”Gold panners found flecks of gold in the water at the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River in Confluence Park.
The discovery attracted a large number of miners, with nearly 100,000 people traveling to the region. However, more than half of them returned home when they didn’t find gold quickly.
The discovery of gold at Cherry Creek was a major event in the early stages of the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. The gold rush led to the development of a variety of industries, including ranching, irrigated agriculture, coal, iron, and railroads.
The discovery of gold at Cherry Creek set in motion the developments that would turn Denver into a world-class metropolis.”
Yes true gold was found there and documented but it didn’t spark a gold rush and Ralston continued on to California.
“Gold discovered in Ralston Creek (near the present location of 56th Avenue and Benton in Arvada) by Lewis Ralston and his party of prospectors who continue on to California, their planned destination.”
Can attest. Doing genealogy studies, I found the deed records to mineral rights land patents on property bought by my great-great grandfather near Clear Creek in the 1880s.
Nothing came of it, so he moved back to Missouri, but his brother stayed out in Boulder and eventually Denver.
Denver had a population explosion in the 1880s/90s.
no.... it was founded by unsuccesful miners after the 1859 CO gold rush... which had a non trivial portion of 49ers coming back over to try their luck again, but it definitely is connected to the colorado gold rush more than the california one.
I know you are joking, but the timeline for Calgary is way different than that of Settlers down south.
The area was first settled by Europeans when missionaries set up shop in the area to spread Christianity. Some time later the site was used by RCMP to set up an outpost to protect the fur trade, establish federal presence to contest American influence in the area, and to keep check on Treaty lands.
Migration to the area by European settlers was accelerated by the Dominion Act that opened up the lands to leasing for Cattle farming.
At no point was Calgary settled by people who were originally wanting to settle West of the Mountains, since Vancouver was already an established city, and you could just take a steamboat there over a couple months instead of roughing it on the prairies.
Not sure how you think I'm saying there is a steamboat from Calgary when I am talking about a time when Calgary didnt exist.
In other words: why would people try to cross the mountains, give up, and settle the Calgary area, when people just took boats from Eastern Canada to Vancouver on the regular. There were already railroads being built across the continent by the time Calgary was growing, ffs.
Like I said, OP was probably joking with that anecdote, but lots of people believe that narrative about Calgary's history.... And it is totally incorrect. Calgary is not nearly old enough to have the same history as a place like Denver.
There should also be a city on the edge of the Grand Canyon. Can you imagine? Heading west, going through hardship after hardship and then you find this big-ass hole in the ground. “Fuck it! We’re here!”
There’s a lot of truth to that. National borders are often defined by geographic features. If the USA ever breaks up, you can bet the new nations will be demarcated by geographic features.
The thing that surprised me the most about Dever is how flat it is. I didn't realize until I got there that it wasn't actually in the Rockies, but rather just before them. Where I'm from, cities have hills. lol.
A joke I have heard about some western towns is that they were just circling the wagons until the wind died down. A hundred years later, it still hasn’t quit blowing
I used to live near Denver and the other tale about why Denver, Boulder, etc got so many hippies was that their VW busses couldn't make it up the mountains on their way to San Fran.
You said it’s a joke, but what’s interesting is Leadville was the original intended capital of Colorado, huge mining town with a lot of resources, and had a pretty big population compared to Denver at the time as well.
Denver was sort of a second thought to become the capital.
Actually, Denver’s history is rich and rooted in its transformation from a wild frontier town to a thriving metropolitan center. I lived there for 6 years and am obsessed with history (one of my degrees lol) so here’s a solid bit of info!!
Denver’s story began during the Colorado Gold Rush of 1858 when prospectors founded the settlement along the South Platte River. Originally called Denver City, it was named after James W. Denver, the governor of the Kansas Territory, to curry favor with him. Ironically, he had already resigned when the name was chosen.
The settlement grew rapidly as a supply hub for miners flocking to the Rockies. Stopping on their way out to the Rockies. However, Denver faced challenges, including competition from neighboring towns like Golden and Auraria. Its lack of direct water access made it dependent on a combination of strategic planning and political maneuvering to establish itself as a regional powerhouse.
But, In the late 1860s, Denver’s leaders had to work very hard to ensure the city became the economic and political center of Colorado. William N. Byers, founder of the Rocky Mountain News, played a key role by advocating for Denver’s centrality and potential for growth. Then, The city’s survival was cemented when it connected to the transcontinental railroad in 1870. This ensured Denver’s growth as a commercial and transportation hub. However, the question of the state capital remained contentious. Golden, located closer to the mountains and mines, was its strongest contender.
Enter Henry Cordes Brown, the visionary behind the Brown Palace Hotel (where I worked as a chef in the palace arms restaurant after I finished culinary school and benefited I went to college). Brown, a businessman and real estate developer, played a critical role in securing Denver’s capital status in 1881. His philanthropic donations of land, including what became the site for the Colorado State Capitol, helped sway political opinion. Brown’s influence demonstrated Denver’s aspirations to be more than a frontier town as it was aiming for cultural and political prominence. Interestingly enough he had donated the land the capital building now sits, which honestly is a perfect location up on the hill, but city developers wanted to run the streets in a grid that was N/S but Brown still owned and was developing everything else from Broadway Street (where the hotel is) to the railway and refused to change his street layout, this is why Broadway seems to diagonally cut through Denver and the street orientation pivots, which is annoying and actually makes accessing the hotel a pain in the ass.
The Brown Palace Hotel was a chill place to work it Opened in 1892, and instantly became a Denver icon. Designed by Frank E. Edbrooke, it is an enduring example of Italian Renaissance Revival architecture. The hotel’s triangular shape and luxurious interiors, including its famous onyx lobby and artesian water from an 800-foot well, made it a symbol of Denver’s sophistication.
Fun fact: The Brown Palace has hosted every U.S. president since Teddy Roosevelt (except Calvin Coolidge) and has been the site of high-profile events, including the infamous “Unsinkable” Molly Brown’s gatherings.
It’s also haunted, and used to have an underground tunnel to what was formerly a brothel and speakeasy.
Just some of the haunted legends:
The Socialite’s Ghost: Many believe the spirit of a former long-term resident, Louise Crawford Hill, haunts the hotel. Hill, a socialite who lived in Room 904 for 15 years, was known for her glamorous parties and tragic personal life. Guests in that room have reported hearing faint whispers, seeing shadowy figures, and experiencing unexplained cold spots.
The Trumpet Player: Late at night, some claim to hear phantom music echoing through the halls, possibly the ghost of a jazz musician who performed in the hotel’s Ship Tavern in the 1930s.
Phantom Bellhop: Staff and guests have seen a man dressed in a vintage bellhop uniform wandering the hallways. When approached, he vanishes without a trace.
But also, yes; a bunch people got there looked around and said “fuck it, this is far enough” and ego can blame them, Denver is amazing, great weather, quick access to the mountains and just far enough away that it barley sees the crazy snow. And now it has such an amazing food scene, and a lot of other great things I really miss..
It might be a joke, but I like the thinking. I wouldn't be surprised if some of those little towns out there exist because the ones who founded them just got tired of traveling and said 'eh, this is good enough, we've got a source of water and some decent farmland for crops and cattle."
Yeah, people forget that some of those places just develop because... They're nice. We like to go up to Estes Park every so often to watch our favorite band play at the Stanley Hotel. The history out there is basically that a business magnate built a home/hotel out there to treat their TB and it just of grew from there.
Some one unironically typed out “uff”, and I’m usually not they type to be like “touch grass” but using “Reddit language/slang” is peak grass deficiency
100% I would’ve done the same thing. Tired from crossing big ass rivers, dodging native attacks, dodging rattlesnakes and shit then seeing the Rockies. Nope. I stay here.
Jokes aside, I've always been puzzled by those desert towns along I-10 and I-20 in the desert southwest.
Who was rolling along, looked around, and said: "Welp! No water as far as the eye can see! No trees! Barely any animals! The only things that grow are spiny or fibrous! We found it, Boys! Our new home!" ?
Wait till you hear the wacky story about how Phoenix got started! The gold mines out here in Wickenburg needed food so they put together an agricultural colony down where the rivers went to feed the gold miners
I use this joke for Coronado Heights, a hill in central Kansas where Coronado climbed to the top of the hill, saw nothing between him and Canada, and said fuck that.
Ive always wondered like how people ended up in arizona like who tf was on the oregon trail and got to arizona and was just like ya know what guys…. I think im just gonna stay here im good.
I've always thought that there's definitely truth to this even with the "um aktually" comments. Imagine walking across the plains for months and months, tired, 2 kids died of dysentery, and you see the fucking rockies.
This was exactly my thoughts about “This is the right place” attributed to Brigham Young. All those people hauled their butts across the Great Plains, over the Rocky Mountains, and then were standing at the edge of a desert and the largest body of water around is not potable. Not going anywhere further seems convenient.
Really not that far from the truth there are or were many communities that sprung up because a wagon wheel broke or there was a blizzard or something stopped people on the Santa Fe trail etc.. Colorado had about 40,000 mines so pure money coming out of the hills and mountains. And the cattle drives from Texas Montana and Wyoming ended at the Denver Stockyard. A lot of people ended up supplying (ripping off) gold camps and cowboys.
I used to live in Denver next to Cherry Creek which runs through the town. When I first moved in someone told me this was the spot they first settled. Where the first settlers set up shop. The local natives and Indians saw where they camped next to the creek and told them that it was dangerous and that it flooded all the time. And of course they didn’t listen and started building the town around it. Soon enough the creek flooded killed some people and ruined a lot of the town.
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u/neil6547881 26d ago edited 24d ago
Denver is an example of the settlers, who were already tired from crossing the plains; seeing the Rockies and saying fuck that and put their shit down right there. (Edit: Umm Aktualy ☝️comments are not needed, it was a joke) Edit 2: thank you for my first two awards.