Denver city (regional capital), history - Pictures
Cheyenne and Arapaho visited the Denver area for decades before the first white trappers and explorers passed by the site. Word of the discovery of gold in 1850 by a California-bound group eventually resulted in the arrival of a party of prospectors led by William Green Russell in 1858. They too found gold and the news spread, beginning the “Pikes Peak or Bust” gold rush. Two little settlements, Denver and Auraria, grew near the gold discoveries. They merged and incoporated as the city of Denver in 1860. Denver grew as a destination point and shipment gateway for the mountain mining communities to the west. Denver was designated the territorial capital in 1867. However, because of rivalries between towns, Denver did not become the official state capital until a special election in 1881, five years after Colorado achieved statehood in 1876.
The arrival of two railroads in 1870 assured Denver's prosperity. The discovery of silver near Leadville in the late 1870s provided the money to turn the town into the region's major city. Horace Tabor built the Tabor Grand Opera House and five-story Tabor Block in Denver with part of his silver fortune. Denver's population jumped from 4759 in 1870 to more than 106,000 in 1890. The crash of the silver markets in 1893 severely hurt the community. Silver mines closed and banks folded, bringing to an end a boom that started a decade before. Denver would go through several boom and bust periods in the century that followed.
