Denver, Colorado

Denver is the largest city in Colorado.
Website: www.denvergov.org
Consolidated city and county with an estimated population of 598,707. The state capital of Colorado and the state's most populous city. Denver City was settled on this site in November 1858 during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. Founded by General William Larimer, it was named for James Denver, the governor of the Kansas Territory, of which this area was then a part. Denver City was the major white settlement of western Kansas, which was incorporated into Arapahoe County. Unrest in eastern Kansas left Arapahoe separated from the rest of the territory. The citizens of Arapahoe in 1859 organized the county into a new territory roughly coterminous with modern Colorado, which they called the Jefferson Territory, with its original capital in Denver City. The Republican sentiments of the government of Jefferson made its induction as a state unlikely,and when the Colorado Territory was organized in 1861 the Jefferson government was disbanded. Denver City remained territorial capital from 1861 to 1862.

Incorporated as a city bybuild the territorial legislature in 1861, it served as the county seat of Arapahoe County until city-county consolidation in 1903. It became territorial capital in 1865, shortening its name to simply "Denver" and became state capital upon Colorado's statehood in 1876.