Things to do / Travel Guide
The first inhabitants of the eastern Colorado and Wyoming Rockies were members of the Ute tribe of Native Americans. Members of the Crow, Blackfoot, and Cheyenne tribes made hunting forays into the mountains, but they never truly settled in the region. The first Europeans to explore the region were the Spanish, arriving from the south; their settlements, usually of adobe and mud, have all been lost. Nevertheless, many ancestors of these early settlers remain in the region to this day, mostly in Denver.
Until the 1850s, towns in the regions around and including the eastern Colorado and Wyoming Rockies were known mostly as rest stops on travelers' journeys further west. By 1876, Colorado was already settled enough to become the 38th state in the Union, with Denver as its capital. What happened in the interim?
The Gold-diggers
Populations can shift to new regions slowly, just a trickle over many years, or quickly - as in the case of the eastern Colorado and Wyoming Rockies region. The areas in this part of the U.S. witnessed an explosion of people, starting in the 1850s. If you had visited the area around Denver in the year 1860, for example, you would have seen less than 3,000 people. By 1890, however, there were more than 100,000 Denverites. Denver has always been the main population center of the region (and of the state), but many regional cities and towns were founded and experienced tremendous growth at the same time.
What were these people searching for? Gold, of course! Plus silver and copper, whatever would make them rich. In addition to riches, the migrants were also looking for adventure. A major reason for the migration westward was to escape the South's difficult Reconstruction period after the Civil War. This region's history is one of successive gold rushes, in a post-Civil War era in which many people had been uprooted. The pattern these gold rushes would take was this: some unfortunate soul would announce one day he had found gold in “that thar stream!” Immediately after, a stampede would form of other gold-hungry miners.
The mills that processed the extracted gold ore churned out millions upon millions of dollars worth of the precious metal. The “Mighty Argo” alone, the city mill of Idaho Springs, was responsible for the processing of $100 million of gold ore!
The mining towns in this region are represented by Cripple Creek first and foremost. At the mines in this area south of Denver, more gold was drawn out than at any other geological point in the world. Other famous mining towns are Castle Rock, where rhyolite stone was mined, and Canon City, both south of Denver; Black Hawk and Central City, west of Denver; Idaho Springs, Georgetown, and Silver Plume. However, the mines began emptying out at the turn of the 20th century, and by mid-century almost all had been closed down. There are still a few to this day, but they operate on a much smaller scale and differently than their predecessors.
Denver, Colorado
With the gold mine boom in the region, one city was needed as a hub from which all the metals could be transported back to the East Coast. Denver served as this hub. The city was settled on the confluence of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek, and opposite the mining colony of Auraria. It soon became the big city of the region, and it drew people from all walks of life, including gamblers and thieves, saloon owners, opportunists, displaced cowboys and miners, and enterprising businessmen. If you made your millions in the mines, you could settle down comfortably in the city and build your mansion.
Similar such hubs in the region, processing gold and sending it back east, also serving as leisure cities for those who had already made some money, were Colorado Springs in the region's south, and Fort Collins to the north. Colorado Springs also rose to prominence as a vacation and resort town for European tourists.
By the 1900s Denver had burgeoned to around 180,000 inhabitants, larger than Atlanta or Louisville at the time. A major milestone, it hosted the Democratic National Convention in 1908. Another turning point was the creation of the Moffat Tunnel through the Rockies, which succeeded in connecting Denver with the West Coast metropolises in California. This made the city, and the region, more accessible to those farther west.
In the 1950s and 1960s Denver became famous as a beatnik center. Neal Cassady was born and grew up in the city in the 30s and 40s, and Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsburg spent their formative years there as well.
The history of modern Denver is one of a gradual enriching of the populace by means of flourishing communications and energy industries. The Energy Boom of the 1980s sprouted many of the huge skyscrapers to be seen gracing Denver's skyline. Furthermore, and similar to the history of the region as a whole, Denver's fortunes have benefited from tourism. Denver now sports lots of big-city-type attractions and has become one of the best places in the U.S. for recreational tourism.
Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming
These two cities in the region's north got their start as railroad stops in the 1860s and 70s. Once the call went out about the founding of a new city in southeast Wyoming, and the first track reached the empty location, 4,000 people came to settle the area in just four months. Cheyenne, on account of this, earned the nickname “Magic City, Queen of the Plains.” It and Laramie were important stops on the transcontinental railway, the first and only stops for quite a distance in either direction. The cities drew all the usual suspects, including wandering railroad gangs and soldiers from the various permanent and transient military installments. These two cities remained prominent by virtue of their railroad connectivity.
One of Wyoming's claims to fame, aside from its past of railroads and bison, is for being the first state in the Union to allow women the right to vote. Actually, women gained suffrage while Wyoming was still just a territory, in 1869. There is a prominent statue in front of the Wyoming State Capitol in Cheyenne of Esther Hobart Morris; she was instrumental in this passage of affairs, and she was also the U.S.' first female Justice of the Peace.
Historical Attractions in Denver, Colorado Springs, Boulder, Cheyenne Wyoming and the Eastern Rockies
History
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