Scene of Denver in 1870s
In the 1870s, Denver was a growing "two-horse town" having been a fledgling "one-horse town" in the 1860s.
Fire and flash floods posed an existential threat, even after precautions, such brick construction and improved firefighting, were implemented after the Great Fire of 1863 and the calamity of the Great Flood that followed that.
Following is an excerpt of a first-hand account of an 1878 blaze at 15th and Wynkoop streets accompanied by a flash flood of Cherry Creek. It was published in the Denver Tribune of May 22, 1878. Sadly, we have yet to come upon photographs.
"Never did flood swell so," the Tribune reporter wrote that day. Well, perhaps that was true of 1878, however, greater calamities followed as Denver reached metropolis status by the 20th century.
In the 1870s, Denver was a growing "two-horse town" having been a fledgling "one-horse town" in the 1860s.
Fire and flash floods posed an existential threat, even after precautions, such brick construction and improved firefighting, were implemented after the Great Fire of 1863 and the calamity of the Great Flood that followed that.
Following is an excerpt of a first-hand account of an 1878 blaze at 15th and Wynkoop streets accompanied by a flash flood of Cherry Creek. It was published in the Denver Tribune of May 22, 1878. Sadly, we have yet to come upon photographs.
"Never did flood swell so," the Tribune reporter wrote that day. Well, perhaps that was true of 1878, however, greater calamities followed as Denver reached metropolis status by the 20th century.
Excerpt from Denver Daily Tribune, May 22, 1878
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