Gold Rush Towns

News of 1858 gold discoveries at the mouth of Cherry Creek brought in gold seekers by the thousands. From the north came Fort Laramie mountain men, from the southern mountains the men of the Lawrence Party, and from the Missouri River towns wagonload after wagonload of eager newcomers.
Almost immediately companies were formed to survey and stake off new settlements. By early September of 1858, the town of Montana was established near present Overland Park in South Denver. A few weeks later a site was chosen for St. Charles immediately east of the mouth of Cherry Creek; St. Charles lay undeveloped until mid-November, at which time the site was re-surveyed and named Denver City. Meanwhile the town of Auraria had been laid out in the bottomland west of Cherry Creek. Eventually all of these sites would be incorporated into the modern city of Denver.

First Known Lithograph of Denver City-Auraria. Attributed to John Glendenin, 1859.

T.C. Dickson, September 1858.

Dickon and the Lawrence Party were working the old Spanish Diggings on Sangre de Cristro Pass when word arrrived of the gold discoveries at the mouth of Cherry Creek. Almost immediatly they dropped their shovels and headed north. On their arrival at the new diggings, the presence of gold in paying quantities decided them on the need for establishing a town to prepare for the stampede that was sure to come the following spring.

“On our arrival at the Platte river, where Green Russell and his party were working, we discovered they were not taking out as much gold as had been reported and we moved on about two miles further, where we camped. Shortly after this a party of us, including William Hartley, who was a surveyor and had his instruments with him, decided to lay out a town on the east side of the Platte river, about five miles from the mouth of Cherry Creek, which we did, and called it "Montana." About a week after this Chas. Nichols, Adna French, John A. Churchill, Frank M. CObb, William Hartley, W.M. Smith, William McGaa, John S. Smith and myself, nine persons in all, who were interested in the Montana townsite, came to the conclusion that we had made a mistake in laying out a town five miles away from the regular trail which had been used by soldiers, traders, and trappers for years in traveling from Fort Union and Taos, north to Fort Laramie, Bridger, etc... So we went down to the mouth of Cherry Creek, surveyed and laid out the town of St. Charles, consisting of 640 acres lying, east of the Platte river and Cherry Creek. This was on the 24th of September, 1858.
“On the 28th of September a meeting of the Town company was held, at which Adna French was elected president, William McGaa vice president, myself secretary, Frank M. Cobb recorder and John S. Smith treasurer. Frank M. Cobb and myself drove the first stake in laying out this town. Some time in October a party of fifty-five persons came out from Leavenworth [the Larimer Party] commissioned by Governor Denver, of Kansas, to lay out a town and establish a local government for the settlers. They came directly to the St. Charles townsite and, liking the location very well, they did not look further but made arrangements with the St. Charles Town Company to go in with them and reorganize the caompany. This they did by resurveying the townsite, taking in more land and renaming it "Denver," in honor of James W. Denver, then Governor of Kansas Territory. The organization then consisted of sixty-four members and, after setting aside a good number of lots for public improvement, it was found that there were 144 lots left for each of the sixty-four members of the Denver Town Company.
“Early in November, 1858, the remainder of the Montana Town Company realizing they could not make it much of a town, moved down to the mouth of Cherry Creek, and located a town on the west side of the creek opposite St. Charles, calling it Auraria, and commenced building cabins. John Easter and Ross Hutchins built the first cabin in Auraria and there was soon considerable rivalry between the towns of Denver and Auraria.”

Source: “Early Day Experiences of Col. T.C. Dickson,” related by J.D. Miller. The Trail, Vol.III (March, 1911).

Andrew C. Wright, October 1858.

Wright was an original member of the Lawrence Party of gold seekers. In later years he opened Denver’s first livery stable, then served as both street and water commissioner.

“About the 1st of October, 1858, James Cochran, "Dad" Clark, Jack Palmer and Ancrew C. Wright were camped on what is now called ‘Henderson Island,’ about sixteen miles below Denver on the Platte river. We were living with William McGaa, alias Jack Jones, Bill Roland and Jim Saunders – ‘squaw men,’ as they were then called. Jack Jones proposed that we go up to St. Charles, a town just laid out but no houses built, and put up a house. This town was located at the mouth of Cherry Creek. We came, and after looking the ground over, decided to build the house on the west side of Cherry Creek ....
“The town of Auraria was laid out some time later. We cut our logs... and started our house - a double log cabin. Two or three days later, John Easter and Ross Hutchins started a small cabin about half the size of ours, and were living in it before we had quite finished ours. Very soon a number of houses were built, but ours was the first started. John Rooker, of Salt Lake, built one. Old John Smith, the Indian trader, another. Then came Blake & Williams grocery store, John Ming grocery, and in a short time we had quite a village.”

Source: Letter to the editor of The Trail from Andrew C. “Jack” Wright, 30 January 1907.

John Easter, October 1858.

Easter was the organizer and titular leader of the Lawrence Party of gold seekers.

”When we got to what is now Denver we stopped. It was a pretty stretch of rolling prairie, wooded here and there, with vegetation rank and wild .... Hutchins and myself moved down...to a point immediately across Cherry Creek...and there decided to build our log cabin ....
“We finished our house in October. It was not pretentious - just a small two-room adobe, made comfortable in a way. There was wild game a-plenty about then. It was common for one of us to take down our rifle and bag a fine buck whenever we needed fresh meat. Antelope were varied with the venison.
“Having started our town, which was laid out in a fashion between Cherry Creek and the Platte river...we called it Auraria - land of gold. New people came in and the town flourished apace, becoming a busy little hamlet before the year closed.”

Source: “John Easter and the Lawrence Party,”, by Eugene Parsons. The Trail, Vol.VII, No.7 (December, 1914).

David Kellogg, December 1858.

Kellogg came west with an early prospecting party from Kansas City.

“December 20th, 1858. Some of our party and others who ]]ave just arrived from the states are building log houses at the mouth of Cherry Creek. They call the place Auraria. John Smith, a mountaineer wit]] an Indian family, lives ]]ere. Rogers and I ]]ave just returned from a trip up Clear Creek to the canon where the table land juts out from the mountains to the north side of the creek. On our return we find a stake set up claiming the ground for a townsite. A fine grove of cottonwoods in the creek bottom, a level space for a city, but no people. We stop, dig a hole and plant a large stake and mark it "Doosenbury City, Six Miles Square."

Source: “Across the Plains in 1858,” by David Kellogg. The Trail, Vol.V, No.8 (January, 1913).

David F. Spain, 30 April 1859.

Spain joined the gold rush in the early spring of 1859. He and seven others left South Bend, Indians, to follow the Platte River Route to the diggings at Cherry Creek. It was this same South Bend Party that would later grubstak John H. Gregory and share in his rich gold find at what became known as Gregory’s Gulch.

”Camp 1/2 mile West Denver City, April 30, 1859. We arrived at Auraria about 10:00 o'clock .... We heard all kinds of reports before we got here that hundreds were starving, the town deserted, etc., and you will no doubt hear the same reports greatly exaggerated but it's all false. The people have plenty to eat except flour. That is or has been scarce, but there was a pack train arrived from New Mexico today so flour will be plenty for a while at least.
“Auraria and Denver are all one divided only by the little stream of Cherry Creek. There are three or four hundred houses in the two towns, a great many not yet finished, but workmen are engaged and pretty much all the people are, of course, rough looking. A great many like ourselves just got through. I have seen but one white woman since my arrival, but any amount of squaws, but they are all very homely (so don't fear).”

Source: “The Letters of David F. Spain,” edited by John D. Morrison. The Trail, Vol.XXXV, No.2 (April, 1858).

Sylvester Davis, 2 June 1859.

Twenty-year-old Sylvester Davis joined the great Pikes Peak Gold Rush in company with three older men. The foursome followed the northern route to the mouth of Cherry Creek, where thy found neither mail nor gold. Two months later, young Davis abandoned the gold chase to follow the Cherokee Trail south toward a better life in New Mexico.

”after Dinner Started and Drove Into Denver City. Stopped and looked over the letter list & Did not find any thing for me. This Is quite a place, a qood many houses are commenced but not finished. Every thing Is hurry & bustle. Cherry Creek Is nothing but a Dry Sand Hole and Separates Denver from Orora. There is two Express Offices In this place but there will be a Regular Post Office & Is Established at the present time but the mail ]las not got In as yet. Camped just Below the city & Slept like a good fellow.”

Source: “Diary of Sylvester Davis,” New Mexico Historical Review, Vol.VI, No.4 (October, 1931).

Calvin P. Clark, 4 June 1859.

Clark, together with several friends and relatives from Plano, Illinois, reached the gold diggings by way of the southern route. He came for gold, but would stay to ranch. By the early summer of 1860, he would own a small spread on the road to Tarryall.

"4th 1 oclock P.M. at Denver City and Araria, situated at the mouth of Cherry Creek, and on the south side of the Platt River. saw no men to work but in the Post office plenty of them here. some men starting out for the mountains with their provission on their backs. common wages here $25 per month. Ferridge acrost the Platt River, a wagon & one yoke of cattle $2.50. plenty of Indians here. pappooses crying and playing in Cherry Creek. 1 frame house 2 stories high in Araria.”

Source: Two Diaries. (Denver: Denver Public Library, 1962).

George M. Willing, 13 June 1859.

Despite his initial disdain for the new gold towns, Dr. Willing would remain in Denver to open his own medical practice, even to advertise in the Rocky Mountain News that he had pills of every description for sale.

”Denver City and Auraria together make up but one inconsiderable village, with Cherry creek - when there is any water in it - running through the middle of it. There are here about one hundred and fifty houses with about 40 lodges of the Arrapahoe Indians - quite a number of negro women, with a pleasant but scanty sprinkling of white ones, and a mixed population of white, black, red and yellow. There are several gambling hells, and any number of doggeries.
“A post office, an express company's office, and a few mechanics' shops complete the place. It is a dull hole, this town, and as a speculation has not, I suspect, proved extraordinarly profitable. It had its origin in rascality, and therefore deserves to prove a failure. There is no doubt that all the flaming reports or rich gold discoveries that blazed so dazzlingly through the newpapers were concocted in this very spot, and sent forward by men who had never washed a pan of dirt, but who were largely interested in attracting hither a population, so that the value of their ‘city lots’ might be enchanced.”

Source: “Diary of a Journey to the Pike’s Peak Gold Mines in 1859,” by Dr. George M. Willing. Edited by Ralph P. Bieber. (The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol.XIV (June 1927-March 1928).

Ellen Hunt, 27 June 1859.

Mrs. Hunt was determined to make a lasting home for her family in the new gold towns. Before the next decade was out she would trade in her windowless cabin for the governor’s mansion, thanks to the selection of her huband, Alexander Cameron Hunt, as Territorial Governor.

”Monday - 27th. Started at 7 1/2 oc. The day was intensely hot and roads dusty. Traveled slow and arrived at D{enver} 20 minutes before 11. The cabin Ham had engaged was on the very outskirts of Auraria, built of logs and mud, with neither windows or floor. 'Tis much better than moist of its neighbors but at first I felt blue enough at the prospect of even trying to live in such a place. When once at work trying to make it comfortable I felt better. A partition was made of our wagon cover, shelves here and there...I sleep comfortable all night notwithstanding my fear of the Indians, of which about 300 are here.”

Colorado Magazine, Vol.XXI (September, 1944).

Charles C. Post, 27 June 1859.

Post was twenty-eight years old when he arrived in Auraria-Denver Ciy. He had spent the previous five years practicing law in Decatur, Illinois. After a short fling at gulch mining, he would return to the practice of law, first in Central City, later in Georgetown. In 1900, he would be elected Attorney General of Colorado.

”Monday, June 27th. We came to town at half past eight o'clock. We left the main road and came down Cherry creek bank and crossed to Auraria on wetst side. We were very much disappointed to find so large and flourishing towns, we saw lots of men, women and children all busy and apparently as contented as people are in Decatur. What a great and sudden change, eight months ago not a single tent or habitation had here been seen on the town sites: now a moving, living and energetic people are building a great metropolis. I broke for the post office; no letter. Went to Denver and at Coraville post office found six letters, thirty cents each and four newspapers at ten cents each; so much for Jones and Russell's U.S. Mail contract. Well I was glad to get the letters and I did not judge the money at all. I run all over the town, saw more gamblers and gambling than I ever saw before, and went to bed wondering what the Anglo-american race was approaching to, and concluded that a universal triumph and conquest was its destiny and went to sleep to dream of the dear ones at home.”

Source: “Diary of Charles C. Post,” Overland Routes to the Gold Fields, 1859, ed. By LeRoy H. Hafen. (Glendale, Calif.: The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1942).