Denver is the county seat of,
and coextensive with, Denver County, one of the few consolidated city-counties.
Denver, the capital of Colorado, was established by a party of prospectors on
November 22, 1858, after a gold discovery at the confluence of Cherry Creek and
the South Platte River.
Town founders named the dusty crossroads for James W. Denver, Governor of Kansas
Territory, of which eastern Colorado was then a part.
Before the great Colorado gold rush, the Rocky Mountains offered little to attract
settlers, except "hairy bank notes," the beaver pelts prized by fur
trappers, traders and fashionably hatted gentlemen in Eastern America and Europe.
Although founded as the main supply town for Rocky Mountain mining camps, Denver
also emerged as a hub for high plains agriculture.
Denver’s breweries, bakeries, meat packing and other food-processing plants
made it the regional agricultural center, as well as a manufacturing hub for farm
and ranch equipment, barbed wire, windmills, seed, feed and harnesses.
Sited on high plains at the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, Denver has a
sunny, cool, dry climate, averaging 13 inches of precipitation a year. |
The sun shines 300 days a year,
and the usually benign climate and nearby Rocky Mountain playground have made
tourism one of the Mile High City’s economic mainstays.
Warm chinook winds warm the winters between snowstorms.
Denver is a sprawling city in a state of long distances and mountainous obstacles.
To tackle long distances and tough terrain, Coloradans have become auto-dependent.
Denver has one of the highest per-capita motor vehicle ownership rates in the
country—with an average of one licensed vehicle for every man, woman and
child.
Roughly 20 percent of the core city population is Spanish-surnamed, 13 percent
African-American, two percent Asian and one percent Native American.
ZIP codes for Denver CO 80012, 80014, 80022, 80033, 80123, 80127, 80202, 80203,
80204, 80205, 80206, 80207, 80209, 80210, 80211, 80212, 80214, 80215, 80216, 80218,
80219, 80220, 80221, 80222, 80223, 80224, 80226, 80227, 80228, 80229, 80230, 80231,
80232, 80233, 80234, 80235, 80236, 80237, 80238, 80239, 80241, 80246, 80247, 80249,
80260. |
