Skip to main content

1908 Democratic National Convention

In 1908 the Democratic Party held its national convention in Denver to nominate candidates for president and vice president. The 1908 convention was the political culmination of a half-century of development in the city and the last time Denver would…

1936 Border Closure

For ten days in 1936, Colorado governor Edwin “Big Ed” Johnson declared martial law in the state, which allowed him to close Colorado’s southern border to migrant workers from nearby states and Mexico. Amid record unemployment during the Great Depression…

August Meyer

August Robert Meyer (1851–1905) was a mining engineer who played a central role in starting Leadville’s silver boom in the late 1870s. Meyer recognized the value of the area’s lead carbonate ores, built a smelter, developed local infrastructure, and…

Base and Industrial Metal Mining in Colorado

Miners came to Colorado for gold, stayed for silver, and survived after the 1890s by diversifying into a wide range of base and industrial metals such as lead, copper, zinc, molybdenum, tungsten, vanadium, radium, and uranium. Often ignored or discarded…

Beef Industry on the Colorado Plains

Colorado’s beef industry traces its roots back to the latter half of the nineteenth century, when cowboys drove cattle across the plains in some of the most iconic imagery of the American West. However, the state’s modern beef industry did not begin…

Bob Beauprez

Bob Beauprez (1948–) is a rancher and former banker and politician from Boulder County. He represented Colorado’s Seventh Congressional District from 2003 to 2007 and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2006 and 2014. A devout Catholic and member of the…

Bulkeley Wells

Bulkeley Wells (1872–1931) was an influential mining investor and hydroelectric engineer best known for building the Smuggler-Union Hydroelectric Power Plant near Telluride and for his hostility toward unions. A controversial figure in Colorado history,…

Charles Boettcher

Charles Boettcher (1852–1948) was an entrepreneur and philanthropist best known for founding the Great Western Sugar Company and the Boettcher Foundation, an organization that made the Boettcher name synonymous with generosity in Colorado. Boettcher…

Climax Molybdenum Mine

Located in Lake County beside Fremont Pass, the Climax Molybdenum Mine started production in 1918 and grew to become the world’s largest underground mine. Deemed a national priority during World War II because of molybdenum’s importance in hardening…

Coal Mining in Colorado

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, coal mining was the most important industry in Colorado. Coal mines served as the crucibles of empire, churning out the fuel needed to power the railroads, precious-metal mines, and smelters that…

Colorado Congressional Districts

Colorado is divided into seven Congressional districts according to population, with each district represented by an elected member of the United States House of Representatives. Colorado representatives serve two-year terms, as required by the US…

Colorado Constitution

The Colorado Constitution establishes the basic framework of the state’s government. Written and ratified in 1876, it has served as the state’s original and only constitution. As in other states, ultimate power rests with the people and is exercised by…

Colorado Fuel & Iron

The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) was a coal and steel company based in Denver and Pueblo. Most of its coal mines were located in southern Colorado. Its only steel mill was located in Pueblo. The firm came into existence as a result of a…

Colorado Fuel and Iron Strike of 1959

In 1959 union members at the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) in Pueblo participated in a nationwide strike for better job security. The strike led to a nationwide shortage of American-made steel, while the suspension of mining operations and…

Colorado Fuel and Iron Strike of 1997

The Colorado Fuel and Iron strike of 1997 was a labor dispute between Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) and the United Steel Workers of America (USWA). Oregon Steel Mills had purchased Colorado Fuel and Iron in 1993 and maintained the Pueblo mill…

Colorado Gold Rush

The discovery of gold near present-day Denver in 1858–59 drew thousands of people to present-day Colorado, prompting the political organization of first a US territory and later a state. Many current cities and towns, including Denver, Boulder,&nbsp…

Colorado in World War I

As Europe stumbled into war in late July and early August 1914, Coloradans viewed the conflict with mixed emotions. Some favored the English, French, Italians, Russians, and their allies. Others preferred the Germans and Austrians and their friends. The…

Colorado National Bank

Colorado National Bank (CNB) was founded in Denver in 1862 and managed to survive the state’s ups and downs until its 1998 sale to Minneapolis-based US Bank. The intermarried Kountze and Berger families, prominent as early Denver treasurers, civic…

Colorado State Capitol

Colorado’s iconic, gold-domed Capitol looks out over the city of Denver from atop Brown’s Bluff, exactly one mile above sea level. Built between 1886 and 1908, the Capitol’s exterior remains largely original, but the interior has been subject to…

Colorado’s Second Fur Trade

Colorado’s “Second Fur Trade” was typified by the burgeoning popularity of mink fur coats, a luxury item that enjoyed great popularity during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. As one of Colorado’s leading productive industries for several decades, mink…

Columbine Mine Massacre

On November 21, 1927, members of a Colorado militia fired into a crowd of hundreds of striking miners in the Weld County town of Serene, killing six and wounding twenty. The Columbine Massacre showed that little had changed in Colorado in terms of…

Crawford Hill

Crawford Hill (1862–1922) was a successful Denver businessman and philanthropist. The firstborn child and only son of Alice and Nathaniel P. Hill, Crawford inherited their fortune and carried his father’s prosperous businesses into the next generation. A…

David H. Moffat

David Halliday Moffat (1839–1911) left a lasting impression on Colorado from his involvement in many industries, including banking, mining, and railroads. Through his civic involvement in Denver, Moffat helped the city develop financially and…

Denver International Airport

Located on a 52.4-square-mile site 25 miles northeast of the city, Denver International Airport (DIA) is the largest airport in North America by land area and the second-largest in the world. This vast airport with a spectacular tented terminal makes…

Denver Ordnance Plant

The Denver Ordnance Plant in Lakewood produced ammunition during World War II. The plant was the largest federal project in Colorado history before its conversion into the Federal Center, which today houses dozens of government agencies. Beginnings …

Denver Tramway Company

The Denver Tramway Company (DTC) was the dominant private transit company in Denver’s history, serving tens of millions of commuters per year at its peak and making it possible for the city to expand beyond its urban core. Established in 1885 by John…

Denver Tramway Strike of 1920

The Denver Tramway Strike of 1920 typified the active militancy of many labor unions during the early 1900s. The strike brought the conversation surrounding labor relations to the forefront of Denver politics and would influence the larger labor…

Diana DeGette

Diana DeGette (1957– ) is a lawyer and politician who has represented Colorado’s First Congressional District—the city of Denver—in the US House of Representatives since 1997. A member of the Democratic Party, DeGette is known for her ardent support of…

Equitable Building

The Equitable Building (730 Seventeenth Street) is located in the heart of downtown Denver’s financial district. Built in 1892 as the town’s premier office structure, it arguably still is. It also signaled that eastern capitalists had begun focusing on…

Fritchle Electric Automobile

The Fritchle Electric Automobile was an early, fully electric car designed in Denver in the early 1900s. The Fritchle stood as an example of the early period of automotive design, when the internal combustion engine had not yet secured its place as the…

Great Western Sugar Company

The Great Western Sugar Company was co-founded by Charles Boettcher in 1900 after he observed the hardy, profitable sugar beet crop while vacationing in Europe. In Colorado, the sugar beet industry he helped launch proved a boon to the state and local…

Hastings Mine Explosion

The Hastings Mine Explosion was the deadliest mining disaster in Colorado history. Caused by the misguided striking of a match in the Hastings coal mine north of Trinidad on April 27, 1917, the blast killed 121 coal miners; one other worker died of…

Henderson Molybdenum Mine

Located about nine miles west of Empire, the Henderson Molybdenum Mine was developed by American Metal Climax (AMAX) and opened in 1976 to work one of the world’s largest known molybdenum deposits. A conveyor belt for transporting ore connects the mine…

Henry Teller

Henry Moore Teller (1830–1914) was a successful Colorado businessman, lawyer, and politician. His business and legal interests, which included mining and helping to organize the Colorado Central Railroad, were surpassed only by his political achievements…

Industrial Workers of the World

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was founded in Chicago in 1905 as an explicitly anarchist-socialist alternative to the major labor unions of the time, which the IWW’s leaders deemed too conservative. In the following decades, the organization…

Interstate 76

Construction of Interstate 80 South, later known as Interstate 76, began in 1958 and reflected the desire for easier transportation across the state of Colorado. The 184-mile highway connects Denver to western Nebraska and represents a vital link between…

J. Quigg Newton

James Quigg Newton, Jr. (1911–2003) was a distinguished lawyer, politician, and philanthropist who served as mayor of Denver (1947–55), president of the University of Colorado (CU; 1956–63), and the head of several national charitable foundations. As…

Jared Polis

Jared Schutz Polis (1975– ) is the forty-third governor of Colorado, elected in 2018. A member of the Democratic Party, Polis formerly represented Colorado’s Second Congressional District and served on the State Board of Education. Polis is a…

Joe Neguse

Joseph “Joe” D. Neguse (1984–) is a politician who represents Colorado’s Second Congressional District, which includes Boulder, Fort Collins, and most of the northern Front Range. A member of the Democratic Party, Neguse is the first African American…

John Hickenlooper

John Wright Hickenlooper II (1952– ) is a Colorado businessman and politician who served as mayor of Denver from 2003 to 2011 and forty-third governor of the state from 2011 to 2019. In 2020 Hickenlooper was elected to the US Senate. In 1988 he founded…

John R. Smith

John R. Smith (1860–1927) was Colorado’s chief state prohibition officer during the years 1923–25. He successfully rooted out black-market alcohol crime but received harsh public criticism for his often-unconstitutional methods. He brought his friends on…

John Wesley Iliff

If there is a name in Colorado history that is synonymous with cattle and ranching, it is John Wesley Iliff (1831–78). At the time of his death, Iliff owned approximately 35,000 head of cattle and thousands of acres stretching from northeast Colorado to…

Jokerville Mine Explosion

On January 24, 1884, the Jokerville Mine outside of Crested Butte was full of methane gas and exploded, killing fifty-nine workers. As the third-deadliest mine disaster in Colorado history, the Jokerville explosion demonstrated the dangers of coal mining…

Josephine Roche

Josephine Aspinwall Roche (1886–1976) was a Colorado industrialist, labor advocate, and politician known for her role in reforming the Colorado coal industry in the 1930s. The daughter of a wealthy coal baron, Roche improved miners’ working conditions…

Ken Buck

Ken Buck (1959–) is an attorney and politician from Weld County. He represents Colorado’s Fourth Congressional District in the US House of Representatives, an office he has held since 2015, winning reelection in 2016 and 2018. Since March 2019, Buck has…

Leadville Strike of 1896–97

The Leadville strike of 1896–97 was a nine-month labor conflict pitting the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) against the owners of the district’s mines. The strike began in June 1896, when miners requested higher wages and were rejected, and reached a…

Ludlow Massacre

The Ludlow Massacre began on the morning of April 20, 1914, when a battle broke out between the Colorado National Guard and striking coal miners at their tent colony outside of Ludlow in Las Animas County. Nobody knows who fired the first shot, but the…

Mark Udall

Mark Emery Udall (1950–) is a former US representative (1999–2008) and senator (2009–14) from Colorado. A member of the Democratic Party, Udall comes from a prominent political family in the American West. His father was former senator Morris Udall; his…

Mexican Land Grants in Colorado

From the sixteenth century to the mid-nineteenth, the king of Spain and the Mexican government awarded land grants to individuals and communities throughout the American Southwest. All seven of Colorado’s land grants, comprising more than 8 million acres…

Michael Hancock

Michael Hancock (1969– ) is the forty-fifth mayor of Denver, elected in 2011. Currently in his third term, Hancock succeeded fellow Democrat John Hickenlooper and interim mayor Guillermo Vidal. Widely seen as a pro-growth mayor, Hancock is credited with…

Mike Coffman

Mike Coffman (1955–) is a Colorado politician who is currently the mayor of Aurora, his childhood hometown. From 2009 to 2019, Coffman served in Congress, representing Colorado’s Sixth Congressional District, which includes Aurora. He also previously…

Nathaniel P. Hill

Nathaniel Peter Hill (1832–1900) was a mining entrepreneur and US senator from Colorado. In the 1860s, Hill, an accomplished chemist and metallurgist, bought mining interests in Black Hawk and developed the first successful smelter in Colorado,…

New Deal in Colorado

As the United States entered the third year of a great economic depression triggered by the 1929 stock market crash, many Americans put their hope in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his pledge to give them a “new deal.” During his first term …

Otto Mears

Otto Mears (1840–1931) was a Colorado businessman who played a key role in the removal of the Nuche (Ute) people and is best known for building more than 450 miles of toll roads and railroads on the Utes’ former lands in the southern and…

Panic of 1893

The Panic of 1893 touched off a nationwide economic depression that lasted for at least three years, threw millions out of work, and caused banks and businesses to fail across the country. In Colorado and other silver-mining states, the panic was tied to…

Pat Stryker

Patricia “Pat” Stryker (1956–) is a Colorado-based businesswoman and philanthropist. With an estimated net worth of $2.6 billion, Stryker has donated more than $195 million to charity in her lifetime, mostly through the Bohemian Foundation, her Fort…

Philip Anschutz

Philip Anschutz (1939–) is a Denver-based businessman and Colorado’s richest person, with a wealth estimated at more than $10 billion. He has garnered comparisons to Gilded Age financier J. P. Morgan for his success across a wide range of businesses—oil…

Populism in Colorado

Populism was a third-party political movement of the 1890s that left an enduring imprint on Colorado history. The Populist or People’s Party was especially strong in the south, Midwest, and west because it focused on the grievances of farmers, workers,…

Precious Metal Mining in Colorado

From the 1850s to the 1920s, gold and silver mining drove Colorado’s economy, making it into an urbanized, industrial state. The rapid development of Colorado’s mineral resources had political, social, and environmental consequences. The mining of gold…

Progressive Era in Colorado

The Progressive Era (1900–20) was a national period of social and political reform in which grassroots activists and their political allies sought the power of government and science to address pressing public problems. In Colorado, Progressives brought…

Rocky Flats Nuclear Facility

Rocky Flats is a gravelly, narrow floodplain cut by gullies as it slopes from the Rocky Mountain foothills into the plains just northwest of Denver. Unlike many places, its name is known more for what was manufactured there than for its geology. Today it…

Shenandoah-Dives Mining Company

The Shenandoah-Dives Mining Company was active in the San Juan Mountains from the 1930s through the 1960s. As one of the largest mining operations in the region during the twentieth century, the company’s history exemplifies the boom and bust cycles and…

Ski Industry

Colorado’s ski industry anchors the state’s thriving tourist economy. Built primarily on national forest lands, the state’s numerous ski resorts attract upwards of 12 million visitors annually, generating billions in revenue. Introduced to the state in…

Stan Kroenke

Stan Kroenke (1947–) is a Missouri-based billionaire whose extensive portfolio of real estate and sports franchises includes Denver’s Nuggets (basketball), Avalanche (hockey), Rapids (soccer), and Mammoth (lacrosse), as well as Ball Arena, Dick’s…

Sugar Beet Industry

Today sugar beet production is a small part of Colorado’s economy, but in the twentieth century it was the most important agricultural activity in the state. Of more than twenty sugar-refining factories, most built between 1899 and 1920, only the Fort…

Susan B. Anthony

Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) was a well-known civil rights activist and prominent leader of the women’s suffrage movement. She made her first visit to Colorado in 1877 to advocate for women’s suffrage before an upcoming referendum. Although she spent…

The Denver Police Department since 1933

The Denver Police Department is the primary law enforcement apparatus for the city of Denver. Officially formed in 1859 as a small group of marshals, today’s Denver Police Department consists of more than 1,500 officers in sixteen units active in a…

The Denver Police Department, 1859–1933

The Denver Police Department was formed in 1859 to bring order to a rowdy, dusty mining camp. The department grew up with the city and with broader trends in American policing. Denver Police spent most of the late nineteenth century focused on drunks,…

The Great Die Up

“The Great Die Up” is one of three nicknames for the winter of 1886–87, when hundreds of thousands of cattle across the Great Plains died in harsh weather. The event changed the cattle industry forever, ending the practice of open-range grazing. Ranchers…

The Rocky Mountain Fleet

During World War II, Denver’s war production industry expanded to include the production of ship parts bound for assembly on the West Coast. Known colloquially as “the Rocky Mountain Fleet,” dozens of ships would eventually see production at the Colorado…

United Mine Workers of America

The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) formed in 1890 to fight for better pay and working conditions for the nation’s coal miners. In Colorado the union was most active in the early twentieth century, with thousands of members joining strikes in the…

Verner Zevola Reed

Verner Zevola Reed (1863–1919) was one of Colorado’s most successful businessmen, playing a central role in the development of mining operations during the Cripple Creek Gold Rush and for the US oil industry.
 
 Early Life and Business Ventures&…

Vulcan Mine Explosions

Between 1896 and 1918, the Vulcan Mine in Garfield County exploded three times, killing a total of eighty-five workers. The successive blasts prompted action from labor unions and politicians to make coal mines safer. At the site of the Vulcan Mine today…

Western Federation of Miners

Founded in 1893, the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was one of the largest and most active labor unions in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American West. The union was involved in some of the most important labor disputes in Colorado…

William Dudley Haywood

William Dudley “Big Bill” Haywood (1869–1928), a labor activist in the late 1800s and early 1900s, was the most prominent leader of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), the largest union ever operating in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain states…

William Gray Evans

William Gray Evans (1855–1924) was a Denver businessman best known as the Denver Tramway Company president. The son of Territorial Governor John Evans, he was involved in many of Denver’s early foundational enterprises and played an integral role in…