Already
the bison-hunting grounds of grounds
of Arapaho and Cheyenne Indians when (mostly luckless) prospectors began
arriving in 1859, Denver began its days as little more than a rough-and-tumble
gold miners' camp. In an effort to polish the area's image (and bolster his
coffers in the process), General William H Larimer shamelessly wooed Kansas
Territorial Governor James W Denver into granting Larimer and his partners a
township by proposing to name it in the governor's honor. Larimer's bootlicking
worked, and the Denver City Township Company set up shop in late 1859 at the
confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River.
The
area's gold rush - though short-lived - brought a substantial overland freight
and passenger business (via horse and wagon) to Denver, whose foothill location
was as convenient as any along the Front Range for servicing the Rocky Mountain
mining camps. Nevertheless, without water or rail transportation, Denver's
overnight rise was unsustainable. Languishing far from the Transcontinental
Railroad, which was opened in 1869 through Cheyenne, Denver stagnated until the
105 mile (170km) Denver Pacific line joined it to Cheyenne the following year.
The
city's dawdling ascent to prominence was furthered by the arrival of the Kansas
Pacific railway line that same year and by a silver rush in the following
decade. In 1881, Union Station opened to consolidate passenger traffic for the
railroads. The Italian Romanesque landmark burned in 1894 and was replaced with
today's Neoclassical station, anchoring 17th St as a center for banks and posh
hotels, including the Oxford, Barth and Brown Palace. By the 1890s, the region's
population had tripled and Denver had become known as the 'Queen City of the
Plains.'
The
city's boom continued until 1893, when the Silver Panic laid waste to the city's
economy and threw the entire state into a depression. The following year, the
discovery of rich gold deposits in Cripple Creek again reversed the trend.
Following
the Great Depression, WWII brought jobs at hastily built munitions and chemical
warfare plants in and around the city. In 1952, Denver's 12-story height limit
was repealed in the downtown area, excepting the historic districts. The Denver
skyline now contains some 20 highrises, but many of these suffered during the
mid-1980s, when an office-construction boom suddenly turned into a glut. The
cycle reversed yet again during the 1990s, as Denver became home to computer,
telecommunications and other high-tech firms and service providers, which now
dominate the local economy.
Denver
International Airport (DIA) opened in 1995 on 53 sq miles (137 sq km) of former
grasslands and prairie dog burrows. The first big airport built in America in
more than 20 years, the US$4.9 billion facility is now among the nation's
busiest.