page_title: History of Denver
section_title: Larimer Party
hierarchical_section_title: History of Denver / 19th century / Larimer Party
caption_attribution_description: English: James William Denver
context_page_description: The history of Denver details the history of the City, and County of Denver, Colorado, the United States from its founding in 1858 to modern-day. Located on the banks of the South Platte River close to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Denver was founded in November 1858 as a gold mining town. The gold quickly dried up and the city moved to become a supply hub for new mines in the mountains. Denver grew rapidly, becoming the new county seat of Arapahoe County and eventually the state capital. Investors from Denver built a rail line from Cheyenne to western Kansas which traveled through Denver, bringing new people and supplies. New roads and improvements to rail and air travel in the early twentieth century made Denver a hub for transportation. Until World War II Denver's economy was dependent mainly on the processing and shipping of minerals and ranch products. With war looming, Denver was in a prime location for more federal activity, being situated far from either coast. After the war, oil and gas companies fueled a skyscraper boom in the downtown area. With the combined spending of the energy companies and the federal government, Denver expanded quickly.
context_section_description: In November 1858, General William Larimer and Captain Jonathan Cox, Esquire, two of the land speculators from eastern Kansas Territory that had met with the Territorial Governor James W. Denver (who honorarily gave them appointments such as commissioner, judge and sheriff) unpacked their wagons and divided up the supplies.  Larimer looked over the Auraria landscape. and was not satisfied with the first area chosen.  He moved to a new area where he set up a campfire and four cottonwood poles crossed together, creating the first "Larimer Square" to stake a square-mile claim on the site of the St. Charles claim, across the creek from the existing mining settlement of Auraria. The majority of the settlers in St. Charles had returned to Kansas for the winter and left only a small number of people behind to guard their claim, including one of their leaders named Charles Nichols. Larimer and his followers gave the representatives whiskey, promises, and the threat of a noose, whereby the St. Charles claim was surrendered.
  The name of the site was changed to "Denver City" after Kansas Territorial Governor James W. Denver, in an attempt to ensure that the city would become the county seat of then Arapaho County, Kansas. Ironically, when Larimer named the city after Denver to curry favor with him, Denver had already resigned as governor and no longer had say in naming the capitol.
  In Denver, in the winter of 1858–1859, Katrina Wolf Murat, assisted by Wapolah, a Sioux, sewed together the first flag of the United States in Colorado.
  Denver at first was a mining settlement, where gold prospectors panned gold from the sands of nearby Cherry Creek and the South Platte River.  Larimer, along with associates in the Denver City Land Company, laid out the roads parallel to the creek and sold parcels in the town to merchants and miners, with the intention of creating a major city that would cater to new immigrants. In the early years, land parcels were often traded for grubstakes or gambled away by miners in Auraria. However, the prospectors discovered that the gold deposits in these streams were discouragingly poor and quickly exhausted. When rich gold deposits were discovered in the mountains west of Denver in early 1859 it appeared that Denver City might become a ghost town as prospectors left for more lucrative claims.  However, once the gold rush began there was a great need for materials that couldn't be produced locally, which assured Denver's future as a supply hub for the new mines.
  Before the gold rush, trading was sparse in the Denver area. Early expeditions into the area, such as the Pike and Long expeditions, had returned east referring to the plains as the "Great American Desert", which deterred immigration. Despite this, frontier posts and forts existed and traded with the natives and frontiersmen. However, the closest major trading routes, the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails, were not within a hundred miles of the Denver area. Until a permanent trading route was established the locals had to make do with what little extra the new immigrants brought with them.
  Auraria and Denver began to compete for businesses that could cater to the new immigrants and for domination of the area. Auraria began to take an early lead with the first saloon, smithery, and carpentry shop. However, in May 1859, Denver City donated 53 lots to the Leavenworth and Pike's Peak Express in order to secure the region's first overland wagon route. Offering daily service for "passengers, mail, freight, and gold," the Express reached Denver on a trail that trimmed westward travel time to as few as six days. With supplies being delivered to the Denver side of Cherry Creek, businesses began to move there as well. By June Auraria had 250 buildings compared to Denver's 150 buildings, and both cities were growing quickly. With this growth came a need for a wider government.
caption: Former Kansas Territorial Governor James W. Denver visited his namesake city in 1875 and in 1882.
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