The New Student's Reference Work/Denver

Den′ver, the capital of Colorado, is situated north and east of the center of the state, 922 miles west of St. Louis. It is on a level plain, 5,196 feet above the sea, beyond which rise the snow-capped peaks and deep-blue shoulders of the Rocky Mountains. Denver was founded on a barren waste, dry and treeless, in 1858, and the close of the Civil War saw it a rising frontier-town. In 40 years the mining camp has been transformed into the Queen-City of the Plains, with stately buildings of brick and yellow stone and wide, shaded streets, provided with all the appointments of a modern American city; and it has become the meeting-point of a great network of railroad lines, with four direct lines to the east. The city now covers about 75 square miles on both sides of the South Platte River. It is the center of the great mining-interests of the state. It has a United States assaying mint, and three of the largest plants in the world for the smelting of ore are located here, giving employment to 2,000 persons and having an annual output in bullion of about $30,000,000. It also has a large trade in live stock, it being the central point between the breeders on the south and the breeders on the north. It has excellent public-schools, the value of its school-buildings being more than $5,000,000; it has 95 church buildings and 160 miles of street-railway. The main water-supply for the city is brought from the mountains; underneath the city, within a thousand feet, is abundant water for artesian wells. An uninterrupted area of 200 miles of a snow-capped mountain-range from north to south, a perfect climate and a beautiful city combine to make Denver one of the most attractive places of residence in the country, while the scenic attractions and climatic advantages of Colorado attract many tourists in search of health and pleasure. Population, 213,381.