Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
DENVER
POP 620,000 / ELEV 5280FT
History
Between hell-raisin' gold rushers, US Army generals, warring Native American tribes and
'unsinkable' frontier women, Denver's past is colorful and chaotic, and people here relish
and romanticize the Wild West history. It was rumors of gold that brought the human tide to
the Front Range in the middle of the 19th century and established Denver as a major supply
point at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, but Arapaho and Cheyenne buffalo hunters
already occupied hundreds of camps in the area.
DENVER FOR FREE
For cheapie fun you can tour the Colorado State Capitol for free on weekdays, and almost all of the city's museums
have free admission days at least once a month. The city's lovely public parks and clear skies provide tons of fresh
entertainment and, if you're clever, you can use the B-Cycle program for
almost
free. After you pay the $5 daily
membership, break your rides into 30-minute segments. If you check the bike in at one of the ubiquitous stations
every half-hour you won't have to pay a usage fee.
General William H Larimer was the city's white founder; in late 1859 he established a
township at the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River and named it after
the person who appointed the area to his control, Kansas Territorial Governor James W
Denver. Without water or rail transportation, however, Denver's overnight rise soon stag-
nated, ending the first of many boom-and-bust cycles that have defined the city's growth.
Supplying gold and silver miners fostered the city's boom until 1893, when the Silver
Panic destroyed the economy and sent the state into depression. The following year discov-
ery of gold deposits in Cripple Creek rejuvenated Denver's stature as a center of finance
and commerce. When this dried up it was coupled with the Great Depression.
In 1952 Denver's 12-story height limit was repealed and the skyline sprouted high-rises,
but many of these suffered during the mid-1980s when an office-construction boom went -
you guessed it - bust. The cycle reversed yet again in the 1990s, and by the millennium
Denver was a hub for computer, telecommunication and tech firms. Oil and gas is big in
Colorado, and many firms are finding their homes somewhere on the upper floors of the
