Founders
Every city has to start some- where; Denver got its start with this lineup, including some with local and international impact.
William Larimer
A transplant from Kansas, Larimer established the first settlement in Denver in 1858. Larimer, who named the city after Kansas Territorial Gov. James W. Denver, also laid out the streets of the city.
John Evans
The founder of the Colorado Seminary, which later became the University of Denver, he helped bring Denver's first railroad, the Colorado Pacific, to town. Before moving to Denver, Evans co-founded Evanston, Ill., and Northwestern University.
William Byers
Founder of the Rocky Mountain News and co-founder of the Colorado Historical Society. He helped bring services such as mail delivery, railroads, the telegraph, streetcars and irrigation to Denver.
Golda Meir
Second prime minister of Israel. Meir said she was inspired to help start the state of Israel while living as part of the Jewish community in Denver. Meir attended North High School. Her house still stands on the Auraria campus.
Ben Lindsey
Well-respected judge who founded the nation's first juvenile court system in Denver in 1901. It became a national model that focused on rehabilitation instead of institutionalization.
Industrialists
Mining, railroads, sugar and banking. Beauty supplies. Oil, sports teams and entertainment venues. Tires and rubber. Flour mills and agribusiness. A look at Denver's top money-makers.
Charles Boettcher
This baron of industry brought life to Denver's economy with interests in mining, sugar factories, meatpacking, cement, railroads and banking. Boettcher also owned the Brown Palace Hotel. He set up the Boettcher Foundation, which has given more than $200 million in charitable donations since 1937. Boettcher's son, Claude, built Boettcher Mansion, now the governor's home.
Madam C.J. Walker
The first female millionaire in America, this Denver native started a beauty supply company that thrived in the Five Points neighborhood. She later took her fortune to Newport, R.I., in 1905.
Phil Anschutz
Known for many years as Colorado's only billionaire, Anschutz has had varied investments in railroads, oil and now the Anschutz Entertainment Group, which owns pro sports teams in soccer (L.A. Galaxy and Houston Dynamo in the MLS) and hockey (the NHL's L.A. Kings). He also owns a wide range of venues for entertainment, ranging from soccer stadiums to the Millennium Dome in London.
Charles Gates Sr.
Gates bought Colorado Tire & Leather in 1911. He renamed the business Gates Rubber Co. in 1919, and it grew to be the largest rubber company in the world. That endowed the Gates Family Foundation, which has given $147 million to charity in the past 60 years. The family name appears on the Gates Planetarium at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, the Gates Tennis Center in Cherry Creek North and many other locales around town.
John K. Mullen
This Irish immigrant made his fortune in flour mills and agribusiness after founding Colorado Milling and Elevator Co. A strong supporter of the Catholic church, he paid for Immaculate Conception Cathedral to be built. He also planned to open an orphanage for teenage boys but died before that could happen. His daughters and their husbands went on to open Mullen Home for Boys, which later became Mullen High School.
Writers
From Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award winners to best-selling novelists and newspaper legends.
Thomas Hornsby Ferril
The Colorado poet laureate captured a sense of place with his poetry about the West. Carl Sandburg was one of his biggest fans. Ferril lived near City Park.
Mary Coyle Chase
Author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Harvey about an invisible rabbit. The hit play opened on Broadway in 1944 and ran for more than 1,700 performances, later becoming a 1950 movie starring Jimmy Stewart.
Gene Amole
When the beloved Rocky Mountain News columnist died of cancer in May 2002, the American Journalism Review's headline said, "A Piece of Denver Dies." Amole always referred to his town as "My Denver."
Clive Cussler
Born in Aurora in 1931, Cussler went on to become a best-selling adventure novelist and marine archaeologist.
Sidney Sheldon
Well-known for his TV shows (I Dream of Jeannie and The Patty Duke Show), he won an Oscar for The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer with Cary Grant. His best-selling thrillers included The Other Side of Midnight and Bloodline. Sheldon attended East High School; he died in 2007.
Disasters
Floods, blizzards, epidemics, panics — Denver has had its share of difficult days.
1864 Cherry Creek Flood
Water crested at 20 feet during this flood, which wiped away the original Rocky Mountain News building, a tavern and other businesses set up along the creek's banks during the gold rush days.
1918 Influenza Epidemic
Doctors and the public health system were not prepared for the first wave of this flu epidemic, which took the lives of thousands of Denver residents, including Mayor Robert Speer. He died May 14, 1918.
Highland Plane Crash
Five people died when two twin-engine planes collided in mid-air over the Highland neighborhood in northwest Denver on Jan. 25, 2003. One of the planes crashed into a house on the 3400 block of Moncrieff Place and exploded. Miraculously, none of the occupants of the house (including dogs and cats) was hurt.
Blizzards of 1913, 1982, 2003
Denver is known for its extreme weather. Old-timers remember kids taking to the streets with sleds during the famous Christmas Eve blizzard of 1913. The 1982 blizzard turned political when citizens later elected Mayor Federico Peña instead of the incumbent, Bill McNichols, because they blamed McNichols for a slow response to the storm. Taking cues from history, Mayor John Hickenlooper beefed up his snowplow fleet when the 2003 blizzard stranded hundreds at Denver International Airport.
1893 Silver Panic
Denver has always been a boom or bust town, and this was one of the first big crashes. Fraudulent loans combined with the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1893 led to widespread unemployment and bank closings.
Inspirational women
Over the years, the city has had a long list of strong women who have been leaders and innovators in the community.
Josephine Roche
One of Denver's first female police officers, she later took over Rocky Mountain Fuel Co. (a coal company) and gained the respect of her workers by supporting unions. Roche made an unsuccessful run for governor in 1934.
Molly Brown
She is best known as the "Unsinkable Molly Brown," who survived the sinking of the Titanic, but few people realize the extent of Brown's philanthropy after the disaster: She helped many survivors who lost their husbands find homes and work in New York City.
Mary Elitch
Elitch was the only woman in the country to run an amusement park at the start of the 20th century. When she became a widow at age 34, Elitch stayed afloat with some savvy business moves. She launched the nation's first summer-stock theater company at Elitch Gardens in 1897 and offered years of entertainment to Denver residents.
Emily Griffith
This petite schoolteacher from Nebraska moved to Denver in 1895 with dreams of providing a free education and job training to local immigrants. The Emily Griffith Opportunity School, founded in 1916, continues to train workers today.
Cleo Parker Robinson
Denver native and founder of the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, she is one of the most influential black women in dance. When President Bill Clinton named her to the National Council on the Arts in 1999, she developed innovative programs that help at-risk youth and promote tolerance through dance.
Villains
It hasn't been all peaches and cream in our city and its environs. We've seen our share of not-so- good guys, from con artists to bootleggers — and worse.
John Chivington
The Civil War military commander was the architect of the Sand Creek massacre in 1864. Despite promises to let the Arapahoe Indians live in peace, Chivington broke his word and ordered soldiers to kill 163 women and children.
John Galen Locke
Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan during the 1920s, he was the state leader of the most powerful Klan organization in Colorado history, at a time when the mayor, governor and most of the legislature were members. They burned crosses and interfered with Jewish and Catholic businesses.
Verne Sankey
This Denver turkey farmer, bank robber and bootlegger became the first criminal to earn the FBI's Public Enemy No. 1 status during the Great Depression. Sankey kidnapped industrialist Charles Boettcher's adult grandson, Charles Boettcher II, at gunpoint. Sankey held Boettcher in his South Dakota farmhouse basement until the wealthy Boettcher family paid a $60,000 ransom, then released him.
John Gilbert Graham
After taking out a life insurance policy on his mother in 1955, he put her on an airplane (United Flight 629 from Denver to Portland) and blew it up, killing 44 people. In 2005, author Andrew J. Field re-created the disaster in his book Mainliner Denver: The Bombing of Flight 629.
Soapy Smith
Known as the king of the Denver con men, he ran scams out of his Larimer Street office during the 1880s. His name came from a con in which he sold people bars of soap that supposedly had a $100 bill underneath the wrapper. He also helped rig elections, ran petty con games and sold fake mine claims.
Saints
If you believe in angels, then you might just believe this list of people fits that description, given their many good deeds.
Mother Cabrini
Originally from Italy, Mother Cabrini was a nun who helped Italian workers at the bottom of the economic ladder who lived along the Platte River bottoms. She was canonized as the first American saint in 1947 for her missionary works. Her shrine sits on a spot where a miracle allegedly occurred: Spring water flowed from barren land.
Francis Wisebart Jacobs
Jacobs was a founder of National Jewish Health, one of the nation's top hospitals for respiratory illnesses. She was known for setting up sanitariums for low-income tuberculosis patients in Denver.
Francis Schlatter
A famous faith healer from the Highland neighborhood who had long hair and wild eyes. Schlatter attracted large crowds with his laying on of hands, but later, he mysteriously disappeared.
Clara Brown
The former slave built her fortune investing in mining claims and a laundry business in Central City. She gave away most of her riches to help build churches in Denver and assist blacks who wanted to relocate here.
Daddy Bruce Randolph Sr.
Randolph opened his east Denver barbecue restaurant in 1961. Each year, he fed thousands of homeless people a hearty Thanksgiving dinner. Randolph died in 1994, but his reputation for generosity lives on: The stretch of East 34th Avenue near his restaurant is now called Bruce Randolph Avenue.
Heroes
From the NFL to outer space, an honest district attorney to heroic firefighters, this group is worth remembering.
John Elway
The beloved quarterback for the Denver Broncos football team was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004. Elway now owns the Colorado Crush, an arena football team that won the ArenaBowl in 2005.
Silas Soule
As a captain in the Army during the Sand Creek Massacre, he objected to the killing of women and children and ordered his men not to fire on them. Later, he helped launch an investigation into the massacre and was a key witness against John Chivington. Chivington's people later ambushed Soule and killed him for speaking out.
Philip Van Cise
The Denver district attorney who went after the Klan during the 1920s. His devotion to this cause ruined his chances to run for mayor. He also endured several attempts on his life.
Jack Swigert
An astronaut on the ill-fated Apollo 13 moon mission, which barely made it back to Earth after sustaining damages in-flight. Swigert was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives but died of cancer before taking office.
Fire Station No. 3 firefighters
These heroic men worked in the first black fire station in Denver, located in Five Points during the 1890s. The entire crew was killed while fighting a blaze in a local hotel. The fire chief said, "No one was their equal."
Events
The Democrats have twice raised our profile with conventions, but plenty of other big events have put us on the map.
Democratic National Conventions of 1908, 2008
Both of these events dealt with issues of race. Comparing the two conventions shows how the Democratic Party has become more inclusive over the years.
Click here to take a look at the Rocky's extensive coverage of the recent 2008 DNC.
And click here for an in-depth look at Denver's first convention in 1908.
1998 Super Bowl rally
A crowd of 650,000 people attended the victory parade after quarterback John Elway and the Denver Broncos defeated the Green Bay Packers during Super Bowl XXXII in 1998.
1920 Denver Tramway Strike
Historians call this the most intense labor conflict in Denver history. Striking workers, angry about scabs, tipped over streetcars in front of Immaculate Conception Cathedral. They also ransacked the offices of The Denver Post, which did not believe in strong unions. Seven people were killed in the riots.
Festival of Mountain and Plain
The biggest civic gathering in Denver, which ran from the 1890s to 1912. It was like a trade fair for the silver industry and included a parade of floats on Broadway and Mardi Gras-like costumes. Socialites attended a big ball at the end of the festival.
National Western Stock Show
Here is proof that we really do live in a cow town. Denver has hosted the world's largest stock show since 1906. It's serious business for ranchers, but a lot of fun for tourists as well.
Entrepreneurs
Out here in the wide-open West, the sky's the limit when it comes to building a business, as this diverse group proves.
Barry Fey
This larger-than-life Denver concert promoter launched his Feyline promotions company in the 1970s, through which he booked such major acts as The Who, The Rolling Stones and U2. He brought Led Zeppelin to town for its first American show in 1968 at the Denver Auditorium Arena.
Joyce Meskis
Founder of Denver's top independent bookstore, Meskis bought the original Tattered Cover, a 900-square-foot shop, in 1971. She has since expanded to sites in LoDo, Highlands Ranch and on East Colfax Avenue. The former president of the American Booksellers Association is a strong advocate for First Amendment rights.
Jack A. Weil
As he continued to work as CEO of Rockmount Ranchwear past 100, Weil was known as the oldest executive in America. He started the company in 1946 and made Western fashion famous with his snap-pocket shirts and bolo ties. Weil dressed such cowboy wannabes as Cary Grant, Bob Dylan and Heath Ledger. He died in August at age 107.
John Hickenlooper
Founder of the Wynkoop Brewing Co. along with several other restaurants in the LoDo area during the late 1980s. His efforts leading the revitalization of LoDo helped him become mayor of Denver in 2003.
Steve Ells
Fresh from culinary school, Ells (who was 28 at the time) borrowed money from his dad to open the first Chipotle in Denver in 1993. His successful formula, which lets customers choose their own burrito fillings and toppings, eventually attracted McDonald's as an investor. Now, the chain has hundreds of locations across the country, but Chipotle's headquarters remain in Denver.
Actors
So what if we're not the center of the film world? Plenty of big-time performers hail from Denver.
Antoinette Perry
This Denver native was a Broadway actress, director and producer. The Tony Awards, one of the highest honors in theater, were named after Perry in 1947.
Don Cheadle
Cheadle graduated from East High School in 1982. He went on to star in movies such as Traffic and Ocean's Eleven. In 2004, Cheadle was nominated for an Oscar for his role in Hotel Rwanda. He focuses volunteer efforts on ending genocide in Darfur and Sudan.
AnnaSophia Robb
A Denver native who got her start as an actor at age 9, she played Violet Beauregarde in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory after appearing in Because of Winn-Dixie. She also appears in Sleepwalking with Charlize Theron.
Pam Grier
This East High School alumna went on to become a major actress in such 1970s action movies as Foxy Brown. Later, she teamed with director Quentin Tarantino to star in Jackie Brown, an homage to her 1974 hit.
Douglas Fairbanks
The man who came to be known as the "King of Hollywood" was born in Denver and attended East High School, although he left in his senior year before graduating. He acted in summer stock at Elitch Gardens Theatre before going to Hollywood, where he succeeded as an actor and producer. Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and D.W. Griffith formed United Artists studios in 1919.
Musicians
Recently, local performers have gained a higher profile worldwide than ever before, thanks in part to these Denver-area players.
Dianne Reeves
This famous jazz vocalist and four-time Grammy winner is an alumna of East High School. She tours the world's most famous halls and clubs constantly, with every new release considered a Grammy candidate.
Harry Tufts
Opened the Denver Folklore Center in the 1970s. That grew into a music school and concert hall known as Swallow Hill Music Association, one of Denver's longest-running musical success stories.
Todd Park Mohr
This Columbine High School alumnus leads the rock band Big Head Todd and the Monsters. He met bandmates Brian Nevin and Rob Squires in high school. They formed the band while attending the University of Colorado and started releasing albums in the late 1980s. The band's 1993 album, Sister Sweetly, went platinum (sales in excess of 1 million records).
Isaac Slade
Born in Denver, Slade grew up to become the pianist, vocalist and songwriter for The Fray. The rock band's debut album, How to Save a Life, went double platinum with an assist from TV shows such as Scrubs and Grey's Anatomy, which featured the band's songs.
Judy Collins
After attending East High School, Collins went on to become part of the folk scene in the 1960s, rubbing shoulders with Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger and Leonard Cohen. Collins sang Amazing Grace and Chelsea Morning during President Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration.
