A Short History of Denver and the South Platte River
Denver was founded in 1858 at the confluence of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek. At the time, it was only a small frontier town with a few thousand residents. Early on, the town's drinking water came straight from the South Platte River. After a few years, however, wells were dug nearby to provide clean water.
    

 

Denver in 1859:

Denver in 1859

Image from http://www.us-coin-values-advisor.com/us-denver-mint.html

 
During the 1860's and 1870's, the town grew both in population and in size (see map below). Three important drivers of this growth were gold and silver mining, the coming of the railroad, and, more generally, the industrial revolution. In 1872, indoor plumbing came to Denver by using water from the Cherry Creek.
    

 

Denver in 1879:

Image from the David Rumsey Collection (http://www.davidrumsey.com)
 
As the city continued to grow and industrialize during the 1880's onward, the city's water source continued moving further and further west - away from the increasingly polluted city and into the Rocky Mountains. In 1886, the city's sewers started sending raw sewage straight into the South Platte River. Pollutants were also dumped into the river from the industries that developed along the South Platte River (see image at right). Denver's population continued to grow steadily throughout the 1900's until about 1960 (see population growth chart below) and with this growth, the pressures on the South Platte River and its tributaries increased many fold. The river soon became the town dump - an open sewer. And so begins "the Open Sewer Era" of the South Platte River.
Denver in 1889 (note industry from center left to top right):  
 

Photo from the Panoramic Maps of the Library of Congress.

 

Data from the City of Denver website

"The Open Sewer Era" of the South Platte River, depressingly, lasted some ninety years (from the late 1800's to the 1970's). During this time, the state of the river worsened and worsened. Although Denver's stormwater system - mostly consisting of open gulches - and sewage system are separate, the river was "full of oil, grease, raw sewage - anything unwanted, undesired, or in need of being made 'invisible' ... few trees survived along its banks, wildlife was non-existent, and the substance flowing within the channel was so posionous that it was harmful to the touch and lethal if ingested" (The Reclamation of the South Platte River Three Decades Later). No one in the city or county or state had any authority over the river - much less any funding for it. No one cared about it and all were guilty of dumping into the river:

 
  • - Industries piped their industrial waste and sludge into the river.

Above photo from "The Reclamation of the South Platte River Three Decades Later" (a report by the Greenway Foundation and the Urban Drainage and Flood Control District)
  • - Adjacaent businesses leaked a variety of toxins (including car oil, brake fluid, gasoline, and other lubricants)

Above Photo from Returning the Platte River to the People by Joe Shoemaker
  1. - The City (i.e. the Department of Public Works) dumped snow, salt, rubble, concrete, and trash along the banks

Above Photo from Returning the Platte River to the People by Joe Shoemaker
  • - Citizens dumped cars, tires, garbage, everything and anything
 
Above and Below photo from Returning the Platte River to the People by Joe Shoemaker
 

The dead South Platte River and its tributaries may have remained Denver's toxic dumping ground for decades to come were it not for one event in 1965 that would immediately change the city's and the people's relationship to the river forever... sort of.

Read on to find out what happens!