Jan. 20, 2002 - 17:50 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

All That Gurgles

I picked up a book at the Tattered Cover the other day by Thomas A. Noel. He is pretty much Mr. History of this area and has written many books on Denver and surroundings. The title of his book is, "The City And The Saloon." Now why in the Sam Hill should a university professor like Tom Noel be interested in Saloons in Denver in the early days?

Well, from what I have read it is written that all along the westward course of gold rushers were floated on a tide of booze. In the 1860's the route from Omaha to Denver had quite a few road houses offering, shelter, food and other things such as liquor.

I guess the Pikes Peak gold rush around 1858 / 60 brought settlers to the confluence of Cherry Creek and the Platte river. Ralston had discovered a mite of gold on Ralston Creek in 1850 where he city of Arvada lies, but he passed on to greener pastures. Other parties would hear of gold and head west, and not finding enough moved on after a while. Bits of gold seemed to be everywhere, but no amount that would cause a rush.

But enough stayed in 1858 to form a town. The St. Charles Town Association was formed, but the men moved east for the winter hoping to get a town charter from the Territory Legislature in the spring. In the course of events that town was bought out and Denver was established in late 1858.

It seems such a short time ago that Central City and Blackhawk were abuilding and population in town was increasing. To an easterner who had going on 300 years of history behind him, Denver was an upstart town which had been in existence for just a short time. But the movement of people was ever westward, driven to a certain extent by gold fever which had been rampant since about 1849 on the west coast.

His book is a fascinating book of many chapters, but it does trace out the relationship of Saloons to population as Denver grew. There is a map in his book showing all the saloons in town at the height of the rush. It is unbelievable the number.

Railroad came to town in 1871 connecting Denver to the rest of the country. Not long after came electric lights and street cars and churches.

For a short span of time there were residences, a small amount of groceries and necessities were purveyed, but the seat of civilization here was saloons. A saloonkeeper was by turns a hotelier, supplier of meals, money, grubstakes and who knows what. Official business was conducted in a good many of them, churches had Sunday meetings in saloons.

Until society caught up with the apparatus of city life, saloons were where it all was at.

The changes of time came with a rush. Schools, churches, courthouses and hospitals arrived and the aura of a wide open, wild west town gradually eased into a city of trees and water.

I picked Mr. Noel's book to start learning a bit about my home town and the settling of the west because of things I heard from some of the old heads around us who would talk a little now and then.

Looks like I picked a good place to start -- where the main activity took place for a short amount of time. Is not gold All That Gurgles . . . . . . .

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