MEETINGS
Denver: Then and Now
Brian Wiens and Gary Zerbe, Local Area Committee Members
D
enver will welcome the Joint
Statistical Meetings in August.
Denver is the largest city and capi-
tal of Colorado. To prepare attendees for the
full experience of Denver, the local area com-
mittee offers this brief introduction to the
history of Denver as the first of a series of
articles about the city and environs.
Prior to human settlement, the area
was near the beach of a large inland sea.
Fossils and footprints in an area known
as Dinosaur Ridge—near Morrison,
west of Denver—give evidence of dino-
saurs being among the early inhabitants.
The first human inhabitants were Native
Americans. Before European descendants
settled the region, the Arapaho camped Denver International Airport is the sixth busi-
near a creek they called Cherry Creek for
est airport in the nation and 10th busiest in
its wild chokecherry bushes. French traders
the world. Photo by Chris Carter. Denver Metro
named an adjoining river the Platte River,
Convention & Visitors Bureau.
after their word for shallow. The Arapaho
and southern Cheyenne tribes were granted
ownership of land between the Platte and
In 1859, Horace Tabor moved to
Arkansas rivers in the 1851 Fort Laramie
Denver with the gold rush. After building
Treaty with the government of the United
massive wealth in silver, Tabor and his sec-
States. That treaty was broken seven years
ond wife, Elizabeth “Baby Doe,” became
later, when gold was discovered in the area
respected public figures (despite the scandal
and European descendants quickly arrived.
when his first marriage ended in divorce).
The founding of the City of Denver is
In Leadville, a mountain town that was a
traced back to 1858, when the area was part
competitor for the site of the state capital,
of Kansas Territory. Several small settlements
one can see both the opera house built by
were begun in response to the gold rush in
Tabor at the height of his wealth and the
This is the third largest museum of its kind in
the Rocky Mountains. Hoping to gain favor
Matchless Mine, where Baby Doe died as
the United States. Prehistoric Journey is a $7
with James Denver, the governor of the terri-
a pauper in 1933. Their lives became the
million exhibit that covers the history of life
tory, one such settlement at the confluence of
subject of the famous opera “The Ballad of
on Earth, complete with a dramatic collection
the South Platte River and Cherry Creek was
Baby Doe,” which premiered at the Central
of dinosaur skeletons. Photo by Sheri O’Hara.
named Denver City by its founder, General
Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau.
City Opera in another nearby mountain
William Larimer. (An ironic footnote to his-
town in 1956.
tory: Governor Denver had resigned from
In 1893, the Buckhorn Exchange restau-
office before the town was named, but the
rant was founded by a colleague of Buffalo
plenty of red meat will be a memory of a
name survived.) As the various small settle-
Bill Cody, and it later received the state’s first
visit to Denver (although vegetarians may
ments merged, they took on the single
liquor license. The restaurant has welcomed
prefer to visit briefly, and then dine else-
name of Denver City and, soon, this name
a wide swath of American life, including
where). Buffalo Bill died in Denver in 1917
was shortened to Denver. In 1865, Denver
miners; aboriginal Americans; cattlemen;
and was buried on Lookout Mountain,
was named territorial capital, and in 1876,
royalty; and Presidents Eisenhower, Carter,
overlooking Denver and the Great Plains,
Denver became state capital when Colorado
and Reagan. Pictures of celebrities and oth-
in a gravesite still open to the public. This
became the 38th state. In 1890, Denver was
ers who have visited adorn the walls, along-
burial caused a rift with the town of Cody,
reportedly the second-largest American city
side Liquor License Number One. A meal
Wyoming, which claimed Buffalo Bill
west of Omaha, Nebraska.
featuring Rocky Mountain oysters and
desired to be buried there. Several tons of
JANUARY 2008 AMSTAT NEWS 21
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