The land that today Coloradans call home was once an expanse of vast, open plains, its background painted the purple and white of almost insuperable mountains. Horses roamed wild, and natives hunted and thrived.

Today, the land is marked by cities and suburbs, resorts and highways. For 160 years, the winds of change have swept the Colorado landscape, but all is not lost. The history of this transformation may be right beneath your feet.

Arapahoe Street

Two hundred years ago, a band of Native American buffalo hunters called the Arapaho people befriended the Cheyenne clan. Together, they sought wild horses, practiced the art of war and held celebrations. They picked the wild cherries that gave Cherry Creek its name. But this lifestyle, threatened only by rival tribes, would soon be compromised.

By 1858, word that gold was discovered in the Rocky Mountains had spread east, drawing white people to Denver City. Skirmishes between the two cultures escalated to rape and murder.

Then, in 1864, Colonel John C. Chivington led armed troops to meet the native people, who presented the American flag and the white flag of peace. Chivington wasn’t deterred.

The Sand Creek massacre, in which women, children and the elderly were mercilessly slaughtered, was covered in the Rocky Mountain News and scribed into the history books.

But the Arapaho name would remain.

In 1873, the Arapahoe School, Denver’s second school, stood at 17th and Lawrence Streets, and was the tallest building in Denver. The area today also includes Arapahoe County, Arapahoe Community College (opened in Littleton in 1974), and Arapahoe Glacier in Boulder.

Larimer Street

Today, Larimer Street is known primarily for a single block between 14th and 15th Streets called Larimer Square. This strip of offices, cafés and shops was, in the 1960s, on the docket for demolition.

But in 1963, redeveloper Dana Crawford founded the Larimer Square Associates, which spared this historical landmark from destruction five years later. The history of Larimer Street, however, is much older.

With the Colorado gold rush in late 1858 came town promoter William Larimer.

Six days after arrival, and using firearms and threats to his advantage, Larimer formed the Denver City Town Company, whose members’ names are still spoken today: Wynkoop, Welton, Blake, Lawrence, Curtis and Bassett. In 1863, along with Samuel Curtis, Larimer left Denver for the Union Army.

Market Street

William McGaa was a known mountain man, a fur trader, and a drinker.

He was also one of the first people William Larimer met upon his arrival. They drank whisky together, and McGaa became part of Larimer’s Denver City Town Company.  

The other members of the company had named streets after themselves, and so would McGaa. But that would change.

In the 1860s, transport across the plains to and from Denver was expensive and dangerous.  The longer the trip took, the greater the expense—and the danger.

Improvements to service had bankrupted stagecoach companies. Then Ben Holladay took over. He extended service into the mountains and opened a depot at 15th and McGaa.

By 1867, when William McGaa died in jail while sobering up, Denver had been inspired by Holladay’s innovations and the city renamed McGaa Street to Holladay Street.

The area gradually developed into what parts of Colfax Avenue are rumored to be today: a red-light district. Holladay Street was then renamed Market Street at the request of Holladay’s family.

Wynkoop Street 

Wynkoop today is known for the brew pub of the same name and for Tattered Cover Book Store. Its origins, however, go back to Major Edward W. Wynkoop, a member of Larimer’s Denver City Town Company.  

With few exceptions, sentiment for Native Americans was poor in 1864. White people taunted them, attacking their camps and raping their women.  

Native Americans—who were rarely hostile unless provoked—retaliated. But tensions grew as they relinquished more and more land to whites, and as whites more and more often goaded them.

Rumor is a great conductor for fear, and white settlers around Denver developed an unsettling feeling.  Accompanying Indian leaders to Denver to ask Governor John Evans for peace was Major Edward W. Wynkoop.  He was unsuccessful, and two months later, the Sand Creek massacre occurred.

Stout Street

Born in 1859, John Denver Stout was Denver City’s first all-white child. The city’s first school was named Stout School and a street took on the same name.

Champa Street

Named by the Denver City Town Company in 1858, Champa Street shares origins with other streets named after Native Americans: Arapahoe Street, Cheyenne Place, Wewatta Street.

Photos courtesy of Mike Mecherikoff