Where did all these people come from? Walnut Hills in the Anthropocene

Hominids, human-like apes, appeared on the Earth about 15 to 20 million years ago in what was, by this time, Africa pretty much as the continent appears today. This model has them evolving, along with other great apes, from gibbons. By 300,000 years ago, they had formed into anatomically modern humans, relatively hairless, typically upright walking bipeds. The switch from hunter-gatherer societies to sedentary lifestyles, what we call "civilization", happened around 30,000 years ago in southwest Asia. About 6000 years ago, city-states developed, primarily in the river valleys of Asia and Africa, and with cities came writing, recorded history, and various technical disciplines like mathematics.

Did homo sapiens (scientific name for humans) appear in different places on Earth. Hints reappear from time to time that they might have but, fossils being what they are-rare and elusive- evidence is not conclusive.

From all that we know, humans are a very new addition to the Americas. Humans were established in North and South America by 12,000 to 14,000 years ago and may have crossed the Bering land bridge from Asia to the area now occupied by Alaska as early as 26,000 to 19,000 years ago during the last glacial maximum. Again, fossils are rare and hard to interpret because they have to be preserved by very special processes. Hunter gatherer societies did not leave abundant traces like later, more sedentary colonies. When humanity began constructing permanent dwellings and tools, human history shifted from paleontology to archaeology. Instead of looking for bones, we began reading the artifacts left behind.

Lamb Springs, south of Lake Chatfield, has produced the remains of mammoths killed by humans dated at 14,140 to 12,140 years ago, so they were in the area before that time. The earliest natives seemed to stick to the plains but later humans were established in both the plains and the mountains. 

By 1700 AD, both the Ute and Apache tribes were settled in this area. The Ute were primarily in the mountains while the Apache were mainly a plains tribe. The. Comanche entered the area in the early 1700s and banded with the Ute to drive the Apache south of the Arkansas River, then, in the 1820s, the Arapahoe and Cheyenne moved in and pushed the Comanche south.

The first settlers of European ancestry in the area were gold prospectors from Georgia. In fact, the early settlement that became Denver was named Auraria after the Georgia town of the same name. Gold prospectors entered the area on the way to California after the Sutter's Mill strike and found some gold in the South Platte River and it's tributaries. Towns like Montana City and Petersburg sprang up but the gold wasn't as forthcoming as the prospectors expected. Still, people settled in to farm the land in places like Arvada and what is now West Denver.

If you spend much time in Denver, you'll eventually encounter the name "Little Raven". That was the name of a Southern Arapahoe chief who established peaceful relations with the first European settlers to enter the area.

The Pike's Peak gold rush commenced in 1859 bringing thousands of settlers into the Colorado territory. In 1862, engineer Richard Sullivan Little brought his wife Angeline and built the Rough and Ready flour mill, establishing the town of Littleton in 1867, which was incorporated in 1890. Both Littleton and Little Dry Creek are named after the Little family.

Centennial is a recent addition of Arapahoe County. It was established February 7, 2001.  Walnut Hills was incorporated much earlier in 1965.

Big history is the history of everything. We are the outcome of everything that has gone before us. Carl Sagan said that, "we're made of star stuff," and he meant that literally. Everything is.

Everything has a big history... your town, yourself. I had a genetic trace done several years ago. My ancestors originated in Africa (like every other hominids on Earth) and left with a handful of others, probably during a time of drought). It's rather miraculous that they survived to exit the continent. Their descendants traversed the passes of the Caucasian mountains and entered Europe about 45,000 years ago, likely following migrations of large game animals like bison. My ancestors obviously included Neanderthal...most hominids today are sapiens hybrids. 

During the last of the last ice age, about 20,000 years ago, my people were in the Balkans, as soon as they could, migrating north. We were in southern France about 15,000 years ago, following the retreat of glaciers, finally settling in the region around the Rhine River.

We were dispersed when the Burgundians took over the region during the One Hundred Year war(s) and returned to our homeland after Germanic regions were returned to earlier inhabitants. We were originally Sahns, but took the name VanZandt from the Burgundians who left the Xanten area.

We were present in upstate New York during the Revolutionary War and later migrated to the Midwest, Oklahoma and Texas, and from there to North Carolina and Georgia, where my mother and father was born.

I came (briefly) from southern Florida before my family returned to our homeland in south Georgia, but my father followed jobs to central Georgia and Alabama. Leaving our home in the mill village of Valley, Alabama, I entered the university at Auburn, Alabama and, after twenty years of college and working through college, I began my career in Selma, Alabama as a vocational rehabilitation specialist. Now I have retired to the Denver, Colorado area, and that is my big history.

What's yours?

--- Terminus: California Street ---

A circuit around California and Stroud Streets from 15th Street to 19th Street in Downtown Denver forms the terminus of several of the light rails  - F, H, D, and L. A hike around the circuit is short but there's a lot there. I wasn't that interested in food or shopping but there is plenty of that.

I left the train at the Convention Center/Theater District Station and walked around to the Convention Center entrance. I've shown the big blue Bear ("I See What You Mean") in a past blog. Here he is looking into the Convention Center lobby.

                                                                  [Big Blue Bear]

The Convention Center is near the south end of 16th Street Mall, the southern end of old Denver, and the Civic Center Park. Denver is really a fairly small city. I would not attempt a hike across downtown Atlanta in a day but it would be easy  to start at the Convention Center, walk down 16th Street Mall and see the capital and other government buildings at Civic Center Park, return to California Street to complete the circuit around Stout back to 16th Street, and then take the 16th Street Mall Flyer bus to Union Center, look round there and Commons Park, then walk back down to the Conference Center in a day. For those that like city life, that would be a good day trip.

                                                     [Denver from the Conference Center]

The Conference Center/Theater District complex is cyclopean. The Conference Center itself is modernist sculpture of glass and steel. Characteristic of Denver, the interior is adorned with art.

                                                      [Conference Center and wall art]

There was a garden show opening in a couple of hours, but I didn't want to wait around so I started up California Street.

                                                    [California Street and the light rail]

The Colorado Information Center is just down the street on the right (north side of the street). They have a gift shop where you can buy, among other things, replicas of the blue bear (not quite as big as the original) for less than $30 - two sizes, even. The staff is friendly and informative.

The buildings along the circuit are a mixture of old and new. The old tends toward ornate.

                                       [Rose colored building with decorative pilasters and plaques]

Older buildings in Denver often affect a Greek Classical style. If a wall doesn't need columns, columns are suggested anyway with the use of ornate pilasters.

An interesting assemblage of buildings, the Holy Ghost Catholic Church literally rests under a cantilever projection of a skyscraper. Beautiful as a combination of new glass and old stone, there is also a humor here. I say "old" but the church building was dedicated in 1924 with less than a third of is original plan completed. The present building displays the largest collection of colocreme travertine in the United States, over 300 tons of decorative stone.

                                                     [Holy Ghost Catholic Church]

The Federal Custom House at California and 19th Street has an impressive portal. There's a lot of brass in Denver.

                                                          [Federal Custom House]

This is where I turned down 19th Street to follow the light rail over to Stout Street. At 19th and Stout is a collection of buildings, old and new, that house the Federal 10th Circuit Court. The new building to the east is an ornamented block of concrete.

                                              [New Byron White United States Courthouse]

These buildings were names for Byron Raymond White (1917 - 2002) the first Coloradan to serve on the United States Supreme Court.

Across 19th Street is the old building, a classical style building of the same Yule marble that adorns the state Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Consistent with Denver's love of monumental architecture, the front of the courthouse has a porch with 16 (count 'em) columns. The side walls don't need columns, so they have pilasters to be consistent.

The inside is similarly spectacular with barrel vault ceilings in the lobby and Federal District Courtroom and richly paneled ceilings in other rooms. Being a federal courthouse photography isn't allowed, but you can visit and be wowed. They also have an informative brochure in the lobby.

                                               [Old Byron White United States Courthouse]

The west side of the courthouse is adorned by these two bighorn sheep. The sheep were the work of Denver sculptor, Gladys Caldwell Fisher. Their official names are "Rocky Mountain Sheep" and "White Ram".

                                                                  [Courthouse sheep]

Across 18th Street from the Byron White Courthouse is the Ghost Building. You can look at the outside but you can't go in - it's very posted.

                                                                [Ghost Building]

It was named after Allen M. Ghost, who was a real estate tycoon. The 1700 stone blocks were moved to the current location in 1985.

Almost back at the Convention Center, I spied another purple building, this one the La Boheme Gentlemans' Cabaret. Again featuring ornate pilasters, it is, as they say, a strip club. I see on the Internet that they consistently get good reviews.

                                                                  [La Boheme]

After the train ride back to University Station, I walked across campus to home, stopping along the way to take a few pictures of the construction being done on the west side of the Driscoll Building. This is scheduled to be finished next fall.

                                                             [Driscoll construction]

Some cities favor a monumental style, others like small town American aesthetic. How would you describe downtown in your city? Have many of the buildings been relocated? A lot of Selma, Alabama, where I used to live, was originally in Cahaba, Alabama but was moved upriver because of flooding.

--- Pride of Place: Denver c. 1860 ---

If you look at a current map of Denver, you can see the original town. Check it out.

Denver, current. Google Maps. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Denver,+CO/@39.7524295,-104.9982855,14z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x876b80aa231f17cf:0x118ef4f8278a36d6!8m2!3d39.7392358!4d-104.990251 accessed 8/25/18

Do you see how the pattern of streets change? Between interstate highways 25 and 70, the streets run diagonally to the map but in other areas they run north-south and east-west.

Towns are established where they are for different reasons. For instance, Tombstone, Arizona was a silver mining town. Look at a map of Tombstone and see if you can see the peculiarity.

No water! There are no streams running through it. Towns tend to develop where there are resources. Many Native American villages were mobile and followed game, or weather. Food is important but by far, water is the most important. Most large cities were founded on oceans or rivers. Denver is no exception.

Gold drew people to the Denver area and the original settlers set up around the South Platte River and Bear Creek, but it turned out that Denver's gold was only a rumor. Montana City, on the South Platte near Big Dry Creek was a bust, but the settlers didn't give up. They moved their cabins up river to where Cherry Creek ran into the river and set up a permanent settlement. They called it Auraria - they evidently still had gold on their minds. You can see the Auraria Parkway on the above map where the two interstates come together.

I'll be hiking from Auraria station to Osage station in November.

Notice, on the map, how the streets run along the river. The river was the important thing in early Denver around 1860. The railroad was yet to come.

You can find Cheesman Park, a green spot on the mouth a little southeast of downtown Denver. That was the city's "boot hill" - the cemetery. It was outside the city proper. Now it's a major park well inside the heart of Denver. Notice how the streets in this part of town run vertically and horizontally. Many modern cities follow this kind of grid pattern and Denver quickly became a modern city.

The state capitol building was raised in 1886. The green blip on Interstate 70 - that's Civic Center Park. The capitol building is just east of that - just outside of the old town.

Here are a couple of old maps from the 1860s of the area around Denver, and Denver City (that's what it was called before it became the territorial capitol. Can you see where old Denver fits into new Denver?

Early maps

Denver 1862 from https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4310.ct001032/?r=0.491,0.305,0.145,0.055,0 accessed 8/25/18 "Map of Colorado Territory embracing the Central Gold Region" Jacob Monk, Philadelphia

Denver City Map (1860) Ellis Gene. http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16079coll39/id/409 accessed 8/25/18.

Denver's oldest standing structure is, well, four miles southeast from where old Denver was. Four Mile House, on Cherry Creek, is a white clapboard and brick home built in 1859 as a way house for travelers on the Cherokee Trail, a major overland trail to the gold fields in Oregon and California that was established in 1849. Here is a picture and some links to information about the Four Mile Historic Park.

Four Mile House. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite) https://denverite.com/2017/06/21/oldest-buildings-denver-matter accessed 8/25/18

https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/four-mile-house

Use Google to look at some maps of major cities of the world. Do they seem to have been established on streams? Do you think the streams were navigable to the ocean? What about your town? Why is it where it is?

Are there any surviving buildings from your towns founding? What material was used in their construction? What "style" are they?

You can often learn a lot about the early history of towns from local cemeteries. Are there any old cemeteries in your town? Where was it built in relation to the town? What are the earliest dates on tombstones there? Were any of the first settlers buried there?

--- How Denver has grown ---

Damascus was established in the third millennium BC. Rome, in 753 BC. Paris was established by the Romans as a military camp in 52 BC. Alfred the Great founded London in 886. It had been settled off and on earlier, but this is the London that grew into the modern city in the United Kingdom.

Cholula is the oldest continuously inhabited city in North America, settled in the second century BC. Mexico City was founded in 1325. The Pueblo village of Oraibi, Arizona has been inhabited since around 1100, despite St. Augustine, Florida's contention that it is the oldest city in America. It was settled in 1565, and is the oldest city in America settled by Europeans. Hopewell, Virginia was settled in 1613 and Albany, New York in 1614, over five years before the Pilgrims landed in the New World at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620.

Denver, Colorado was founded in 1858. That was three years before the beginning of the American Civil War. Actually, Montana City was settled in 1858 where Grant Pioneer Park now stands on the Platte River. It was soon abandoned in favor of Auraria, a little further north. As the name suggests, the draw was gold. Gold wasn't found there. The McBroom brothers, John and Isaac, settled the area around Bear Creek near the confluence with the South Platte around 1859. A Swedish immigrant, Peter Magnes, also founded a small settlement, Petersburg, near the confluence of Bear Creek and the South Platte in 1865. Petersburg later became Sheridan, Colorado. There are plaques along Bear Creek and the South Platte commemorating the McBrooms and Petersburg.

By the way, the McBrooms bare no relation to Broomfield, Colorado, which was probably named for broomcorn grown in the area, an early source of revenue.

All this to demonstrate that, in terms of American cities, Denver is an adolescent. In terms of world cities, it is an infant. Still, in its short time, it has grown from three rows of cabins in 1858 to 4,749 in 1860 to over 700,000 people. It is currently the 19th largest city in the United States. By decade the growth chart looks like this:

                                                                       [Denver Growth]

Denver really took off in the 1870s when the population jumped from 4,759 to 35,629 and 1890s when it reached 106,713 people. Denver City became the territorial capital of the Colorado Territory on February 28, 1861 and, with a railroad to the first transcontinental railroad, which passed through Cheyenne, Wyoming, a major supply hub.

For more about early Denver, check out Pride of Place: Denver c. 1860.

Why is your home town where it is? When was it founded and how quickly did it grow? Is it still growing?

--- Laws of the Trail ---

On Friday, February 16, I hiked the first half of Bear Creek Trail, from River Point Shopping Center to Wadsworth; then, on Thursday, March 15, I completed the trail walking from Wadsworth Boulevard to Morrison, Colorado. I was studying the signs - rules and regulations - of the trail, and I wanted to try out an alternative route around Fox Hollow Golf Course and Bear Creek Lakes Park that might provide a more direct, quicker path to Morrison than Bear Creek Trail and Mount Carbon Loop Trail. It didn't turn out that it gives me any advantage but there were some interesting items on the way and I found out some other interesting things about the area, such as why Mount Carbon is called "Mount Carbon".

I'll be blogging about this trip over the next few weeks.

                                             Loretto Heights from Englewood Station

I walked down to Englewood station, which is about 2 miles down the hill and boarded the train for Oxford station, which might be a mile down the tracks. From there, it's a short walk through River Point Shopping Center to the place where Bear Creek trail joins the Platte River Trail. There were still patches of snow and, where water poured from drains, there was still ice sculptures.

                                                                   ice sculpture

Most of the trail runs between lands owned by private individuals or groups.  Just before Knox Court, there is a Colorado Department of Transportation facility. There's another past Wadsworth. As shown by this sign, private and public concerns often create conflict.

                                                           Colorado DOT sign

                                                                  10 mph sign

I couldn't walk 10 miles per hour if I wanted, but I guess bicycles could top that. Speed limits are usually imposed on sections that get a lot of foot traffic. Most of the traffic on Bear Creek are very courteous people, but the rule that gets broken most often would be this one - I guess the need for speed is paramount.

Honestly, I don't know why they worry about dog poop when these are around most of the year.

                                                                      Geese

When I first moved to Colorado, geese would tolerate the presence of humans but they wouldn't let them get too close but I've noticed in the last 4 years that they don't respond nearly as strongly to nearby humans and will often let people within a couple of feet. Perhaps the warmer winters the last couple of years have brought geese and humans together for longer stretches of time.

                                                     Denver Park and Recreation rules

The rules posted in the park are reasonable. I'm not sure if marijuana is considered "drugs" anymore or not since it was legalized. I noticed that nudity wasn't included (don't get your hopes up - the broader principalities would gladly reinforce their own laws concerning that.)

Both Plato and Aristotle held good laws to be reasonable laws and Augustus of Hippo in his On Free Choice of the Will opined that "an unjust law is no law at all."

Many of the early Americans stated similar ideas. Henry Ward Beecher said "When laws, customs, or institutions cease to be beneficial to man, they cease to be obligatory." I take it that these people considered "man" to mean "all people". In a time where the wealthy make it an avocation to find ways to domesticate laws to their own personal servitude, I think the Denver Parks and Recreation have come up with rules that allow the most people to enjoy the lands set aside for recreation.

These particular rules and regulations were established in 2012 and updated 2015 (as specified in Chapter 30 of the municipal code - posted on the Internet https://www.denvergov.org/content/dam/denvergov/Portals/747/documents/rules/DPR_ParkUse_RulesRegulations_05272015.pdf accessed 3/26/18), so it's a dynamic work. The whole thing is 44 pages but it also includes mountain parks where there might be bears, Red Rocks where you might be tempted to climb on things that will kill you, and so on. The appropriate sections are posted where they apply. The Parks Manager for the Lakewood Community Center Resources Department, Steve Carpenter, in an email, said that violations of park rules and regulations can lead to warnings or citations. I often see park vehicles out patrolling the areas around the trail and it's evident that a lot of work goes to keeping the parks maintained. Mr. Carpenter mentioned that Lakewood police help on occasion and I have been involved in citizen volunteer efforts to clean up the parks. Denver seems serious about their outdoor resources and pedestrian throughways.

                                                            No motorized vehicle

Bear Creek is primarily a walking and biking trail. There is a trail that parallels much of the length, the Stone House Trail, that is specifically provided for horse traffic also.

There are several picnic areas along Bear Creek Trail and they post their own rules.

                                                                     picnic area

                                                                   No swimming

This one puzzles me. After Bear Creek Lakes Park, Bear Creek, except when swollen, smells like sewage. Why would anyone swim there, much less let their children do so, yet I often see whole families frolicking in the waters in Bear Creek Park. I guess they're exercising their American rights to dysentery.

                                                                         Rapids

I've lived around Bear Creek for going on four years and I swear that, just in that time, this small cascade has gotten bigger. I like to imagine that one day, it will be an actual waterfall.

                                                                     Flash flood

I've only seen Bear Creek flood once in four years. I had to either wade or backtrack and cross a major street during rush hour - I waded. But Bear Creek (and all the other streams coming out of the Rockies) have had disastrous outbursts in the past and, despite the excellent flood control measures taken in the last century - Bear Creek Lakes, Lake Chatfield, Strontia Springs Reservoir, the lakes along Cherry Creek, etc. - the last few floods are still in living memory. Even since the dams were built, there have been some destructive flooding, for instance, in Morrison and Bear Creek Lakes Park in the 2013 floods. You can tame nature to a certain extend, but when she wants to, she can always get you.

                                                                    Trail closed

                                                                           Detour

On this trip, a large section of the trail between Sheridan and Wadsworth were closed off for some construction. It was obvious (from the smell) that they were working on sewer lines. There are always reminders that this is an urban trail along it's entirety.

But, urban or not, it is a corridor for wildlife.

                                                                    deer tracks

These were photographed at Bear Valley Park, right next to Dartmouth Plaza and Bear Valley Shopping Center.

                                                                  Crumpled sign

Signs get some abuse. This one stands at the end of Dartmouth where it takes a sharp turn. It looks like a driver didn't make the sharp turn.

                                                                      Wheel chair

Denver Parks and Recreation tries to make the urban trails accessible to everyone.

                                                                      Ducks

Ducks like it - they're everywhere. I've seen other waterfowl along the creek but it's mostly ducks and geese.

                                                                Shared path signs

Since there is a variety of different kinds of traffic on Bear Creek, there is a variety of signs reminding people to be courteous. There are a few places that, if it were not for arrows, you could easily find yourself going where you don't want to go. Bear Creek Trail runs along a braid of other paths. Some just lead you to city streets, some go on to private properties.

For most of its length, Bear Creek Trail passes over or under busy city streets. There are crossings at Lowell Boulevard and Fox Hollow Drive, but many of the tributary trails cross streets and, although Denver is strict with pedestrian laws, as Sancho Panza says, "If the pitcher  hits the stone, or the stone hits the pitcher, it's bad for the pitcher."

Denver and Lakewood Parks and Recreation departments provides maps in several places along Bear Creek Trail. They obviously want you to know where you're going.

(To be continued)