Why go
This history explains why downtown formed at the creek and river junction, and why rail buildings matter so much to a city east of the mountains. Read it before walking from Confluence Park toward LoDo: the shift from a prospectors’ settlement to a regional supply center becomes easier to see.
The full story
Gold prospectors arrived at the South Platte in 1858, during the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush. Early settlements appeared on both sides of Cherry Creek. William Larimer staked out Denver City on the bluff opposite Auraria and named it for James W. Denver, then governor of Kansas Territory. The first town sites stood near today’s Confluence Park. The town made its early living by supplying miners with goods, livestock and services rather than by mining at the creek itself. Rail access was the next turning point. The first transcontinental route passed through Cheyenne, leaving Denver about 100 miles away. Local backers pushed for a connecting line, and the Denver Pacific link opened in 1870. This helped the young town serve a much wider region. Union Station’s later creation brought several separate rail terminals together, so a walk from the confluence toward the station follows two of the forces that shaped the center: trade at the waterways and connections across the plains.