Things

The Denver, Laramie, & Northwestern Railroad Company (DL&NW) was a small firm that planned to link Denver and Seattle by rail in the early twentieth century. The company’s history serves as an example of the pitfalls of running a small railroad company in the western United States at a time...

Wetlands are ecosystems that are at least periodically saturated or inundated by water , creating unique habitats that support a wide variety of plant and animal species. Colorado wetlands include a diverse range of ecosystem types, each with distinctive plants and animals, hydrologic regimes, and...

Like most places in the arid American West, Denver could not possibly sustain itself without water from irrigation systems. While easy to overlook, disputes over water rights began with the onset of irrigation and persist to the present day. Today, though most of Denver’s original canals have been...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a New Deal program aimed at reducing unemployment among young men by giving them steady work improving the nation’s landscape, public lands, and infrastructure. When it was implemented in 1933, the CCC was the largest-ever public works program. Today, the...

Rocky Mountain Elk ( Cervus canadensis nelsoni ) are large mammals in the deer family that live in Colorado’s forests. Revered as a symbol of the American West, they have played an important role in Colorado’s ecology and natural history. Each year, millions of people travel to Rocky Mountain...

The North American beaver ( Castor canadensis ) is native to Colorado, and its role as both an environmental engineer and a keystone species has profoundly impacted the state’s ecology and history. Although their populations today are low, beavers continue to shape Colorado’s environments. Ecology...

The Earth beneath the rugged mountains and serene plains of Colorado records an ancient saga. Broad tropical seas teemed with life, while reptiles roamed on shore. Continents converged and collided, building massive mountains, only to be torn apart by the movements of colossal tectonic plates...

The Denver Woman’s Press Club is an organization for women newspaper writers and authors founded in 1898. At the time of its founding, the club demonstrated the new social and political power of women through its involvement in a range of causes, including the women’s suffrage movement in the early...

In Colorado, water is a valuable and limited resource, and competition is only becoming more of a challenge. That’s why the Colorado Foundation for Water Education (CFWE), a non-advocacy nonprofit organization, works statewide to promote increased understanding of water resources so Coloradans can...