A city is placed on the plains just east of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, which form a dramatic & awe inspiring skyline to the west. A central downtown dominion is on the east side of the South Platte River, near its confluence sustaining Cherry Creek, approximately xv miles from either a foothills.

These are a county seat of, and conterminous by having, Denver County -- one of a pack consolidated city-counties. When of the 2000 census, the people of the city was 554,636. Besides when of the 2000 census [http://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/phc-t29.html], the people of the Denver-Aurora metropolitan area was 2,179,240, making it the 22nd-largest metropolitan area in the United States.

Denver is nicknamed a "Mile-High City", because its official elevation, measured on the fifteenth step of the state capitol building's west side, is 5,280 feet (1,609 m) above sea level. (A elevation is 5,431 foot [1,655 m], every bit surveyed at a Denver International Airport). As well, the row of seats in the upper deck of Coors Field, home of Major League Baseball's Colorado Rockies (NL), is distinctively marked in purple (one of a team's colors) to suggest that a row is of these mile above sea level.

Denver hwhen as well been known historically as a Queen City of the Plains because of its significant role in a farming industry of the plains regions along the foothills of the Front Range.

Many US Navy ships have been known as USS Denver in honor of the city.

History
Denver was founded in the Kansas Territory in 1858. In November 22 of that month, General William Larimer, a land speculator from either eastern Kansas, laid cottonwood logs to stake a square-mile claim on a hill overlooking the confluence of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek, across a creek from either a existent mining personal injury settlement of Auraria.

A places was accessible to existent trails & got antecedently been a places of seasonal encampments of the Cheyenne and Arapaho. Larimer, along using associates in the Denver City L& Company, sold parcels in the town to merchandiser and mineworker, by using the intention of creating a major city that would cater to recently emigree. A title "Denver City" was chosen to honor Kansas territorial governor James W. Denver, in order to ensure that the city would become the county seat of then Arapaho County, Kansas. Ironically, whilst Larimer known when it fallowing Denver, he was unaware that James Denver got already resigned as governor.

inside a 1st pack years, when the town grew, l& parcels were typically traded freely for grubstakes and in the course of play by mineworker in Auraria. A city was incorporated in November 7, 1861, several months fallowing a formation of the Colorado Territory. Denver was a county courthouse of Arapahoe County, Colorado until the creation of Denver County around 1902.

Denver was selected to carrier a 1976 Winter Olympics to coincide with Colorado's centenary day of remembrance, however Colorado elector stricken down ballot initiatives allocating public funds to invite the high costs of the games, and then it were moved to Innsbruck, Austria. A movement against hosting a games was depending largely in environmental issues & was led by so State Senator Richard Lamm. Lamm wwhen after elected as Colorado governor in 1974.

In April 20, 1999, the Columbine High School massacre occurred at Columbine High School, which is located south-west of Denver around an unincorporated locality around suburban Jefferson County; the school has the Littleton address.

A cheeseburger was allegedly invented within Denver by Louis Ballast world health organization operated a Humpty Dumpty Barrel cause-in. He applied for the patent within his currently renowned invention in 1935. It has been speculated that he wasn’t the number one human to add cheese to a hamburger, however cipher has an sooner patent, & there is no grounds to believe to debunk his claim has emerged.[http://www.magazineusa.com/us/info/show.aspx?unit=originals&doc=32]

Denver was an crucial place for the "beat generation." Beat icon Neal Cassady was raised on Larimer Street around Denver, & the part of Jack Kerouac's beat masterpiece On the Road takes place in a city, and is according to the beat's actual lives around Denver in the period of the itinerant hike. Beat poet Allen Ginsberg lived for a period in the Denver suburbia of Lakewood, Colorado, and he helped found a Buddhist college, Naropa University or the "Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa" around nearby Boulder, Colorado.

Geography and climate
Denver is placed at 39°43'35" North, 104°57'56" West (39.726287, -104.965486)in the Colorado Front Range region. It has a Rocky Mountains to a west and the great plains to the east. Based on data from a United States Census Bureau, the city has the number locality of 401.Ternary km² (154.9 mi²). 397.Ii kilometer² (153.Tetrad mi²) of these are l& and Quartet.I kilometer² (Ace.Half a dozen mi²) of these are h2o. A amount vicinity is I.03% a water supply.

Climate
Denver has the semi-arid climate characterized by dry winters, wetter springs, on line-humidity summers, & pleasant lessens. When Denver is placed on the Great Plains, the atmospheric condition of the city & encompassing metropolitan area is heavy influenced per proximity of the Rocky Mountains to the west. In a wintertime, the storms that dump out vast numbers of snow in the mountains make their way blocked per lofty Front Range mountains. Thus, Denver tends to use at times dry winters that receive less snow than of these will require. In a late spring & early summertime, a warmly, dampish air from either the Gulf of Mexico influences the metropolitan area & electric storm come prevailing, especially in the afternoon. Late summertime electric storm come likewise commons, fueled by tropical wet from either Mexico called the "monsoonal flow."

A climate, piece considered modest in comparison a mountains to a west & the plains farther east, could typically exist as super unpredictable. An typically-repeated expression of Denverites is "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes." Mensurable numbers of snow use fallen around Denver when late when Memorial Day and when early as Labor Day, although trace amounts use at times been recorded within June.

Denver averages Xv.Quaternion inches (391 millimetre) of precipitation by the season. A typical annual snow is in Sixty inches. Although Denver's Convention & Visitor Bureau claims Denver receives ended 300 sunny times a year [http://www.denver.org/StaticPage.aspx?PN=climate], a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says Denver receives about 250 years of sunshine a year [http://ols.nndc.noaa.gov/plolstore/plsql/olstore.prodspecific?prodnum=C00095-PUB-A0001#TABLES]. January's norm day-after-day high is 43° F by having the daily moo of 15°F. July's norm high is 88°F by having the on line of 59°F. [http://www.crh.noaa.gov/cgi-bin-den/showProduct.pl?title=Denver's+Climatological+Normals+And+Means&product=normals.html&backto=2]

Neighborhoods
Denver has 79 administrative "neighborhoods." A City & community groups utilise these "neighborhoods" for planning & administration. Although a City's delineation of the "neighborhood" boundaries is somewhat arbitrary, typically a City's definitions of its "neighborhoods" correspond to victims utilized by Denverites to describe the particular place. Which are actually people "neighborhoods":

Denver likewise has the total of "neighborhoods" non reflected in the City's administrative "neighborhoods." For instance these neighborhoods reflect a way humans within an front yard identify themselves; every now and again it reflect how else others, like realty developers, develop defined people areas.

Among a neighborhoods usually spoken of come LoDo (short for "Lower Downtown"), part of the City's Union Station front yard; Capitol Hill; Uptown, a share of the Northerly Capitol Hill front yard; Curtis Park, part of the 5 Points front yard; Alamo Placita, a northern a share of the Speer front yard; & the Golden Triangle, roughly the Civic Center front yard.

Demographics
When of the censusof 2000, there are 554,636 people, 239,235 menage, & 119,378 families living in the city. A population density is 1,396.5/km² (3,616.8/mi²). There are 251,435 housing units at an typical density of 633.1/km² (1,639.6/mi²). A racial makeup of the city is 65.30% White, 11.12% Black or African American, 1.31% Native American, 2.81% Asian American, 0.12% Pacific Islander, 15.59% from other races, and 3.75% from two or more races. 31.68% of the people come Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There are 239,235 house away from which Twenty-three.2% stand tikes under a age of Xviii accept the two, 34.7% come married couples living together, 10.8% have a female homeowner sustaining there are no married man present, & L.1% come non-families. 39.3% of 100% family come processed higher of people & Ennead.4% own person residing alone world health organization is 65 years aged or even older. A typical family size is Ii.Twenty-seven & a typical personal size is Trinity.Fourteen.

In a city the people is spread retired sustaining Xxii.0% under a age of Eighteen, Ten.7% from either 18 to 2 dozen, 36.1% from either 25 to 44, Xx.0% from either 45 to 64, & Eleven.3% world health organization come 65 years aged or even older. A median age is 33 years. For each C females there are 102.One males. For each Hundred females age Xviii & complete, there are 101.Ace males.

the median income for a personal in the city is $39,500, & the median income for a family is $48,195. Males have a median income of $34,232 versus $30,768 for females. A per capita income for the city is $24,101. Fourteen.3% of the people & Tenner.6% of families come in a image below the poverty line. Away from a aggregate people, Xx.3% of victims under a age of 18 & 9.7% of people 65 & older come dwelling in a image below the poverty level.

Economy
Denver's economy is to a few degree according to its geographic position & its connection to a bit of of the major transit of the united states. Since Denver is the big city inside 600 miles, it has turn into the natural location for storage & distribution of goods & services to the Mountain States. Denver is besides around midway between a big cities of the Midwest like Chicago and St. Louis and the cities of the West Coast, another benefit for distribution. This position besides allows Denver to have a considerable total of federal jobs using numbers of government agency depending or even getting agents in the Denver metropolitan area. This includes a Denver Federal Center, within nearby Lakewood, Colorado. As a matter of fact, a Denver Metropolitan Area has more federal workers than any more city except for the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. Along sustaining a superfluity of bureau comes numbers of corporations according to Usa defense & space projects. Lockheed-Martin, and Ball Aerospace are examples. Course, existence a capital of the state of Colorado also gives many state jobs to Denver.

Denver's position touching a mineral-rich Rocky Mountains, encouraged mining & energy corporations to uprise in the area. In the early times of the city, gold & silver booms & busts played the big role in the economic profits of the city. In the 1970s and early '80s, the energy crisis in America created an energy boom in Denver captured in the soap opera Dynasty. When you took this instance, Denver was built higher well, using several freshly downtown skyscrapers built during this instance. Yet a oil cost dropped from either $34 the barrel witharound 1981 to $9 a barrel in 1986, & the Denver economy dropped sustaining it, allowing about 15,000 oil industry workers in the area unemployed (including city manager John Hickenlooper, a previous geologist), & a greatest professional vacancy rate in the united states (30%). Energy & mining come however significant inside Denver's economy now, by having corporations like Newmont Mining, Patina Oil and Gas, and Western Gas Resources.

Denver's west-central geographic location in a Mountain Instance Zone (UTC -7) besides advantages the telecommunications industry by leaving communication by owning two Northerly Our contries coasts, South America, Europe, & Asia in the equivalent business day. Denver's location on a 105th meridian at assibilate Ace mile around elevation as well enables it to become the big city in the U.S. to offer the 'of these-bounce' real-period satellite uplink to Half a dozen continents in the equivalent business day. Qwest Communications, EchoStar, Starz-Encore, and Comcast are just two or three of the telecommunications corporations using operations in the Denver front yard. These & more high-hi-tech corporations experienced the boom within Denver in the mid to late 1990s, but a technology bust in the freshly millennium induced Denver to lose several of people technology jobs. Recently the Denver vicinity has began making a comeback, sustaining an unemployment level of Little phoebe.3%, well lower than a Captain hicks.4% unemployment from either merely a year prior to. Denver government & industry leaders come attempting to diversify a Denver economy & then that these are less susceptible to boom and bust oscillations.

More corporations by using major operations in the Denver locality include: American Medical Response Frontier Airlines Coors Gray Line Janus Capital Group J.D. Edwards, now part of Oracle Corporation Quark, Inc. Quizno's Regal Entertainment Group Samsonite StorageTek Sun Microsystems Sports Authority First Data United Airlines

Transportation

Grid system
Virtually all of Denver has the straight send on northward-south, east-west street grid. Bars come commonly identified inside 100s from either a median streets. Colfax Avenue, the major even east-west artery across Denver, is Xv jams or 1500 northerly of the median value. Ellsworth Ave is the northward-south median value value, when Broadway is the east-west median. Two one streets come identified when "0." Avenues northerly of Ellsworth come numbered (by owning a notable exception of Colfax Ave. & two or three others). Avenues south of Ellsworth come known as. Completely streets come known as.

Yet, there exists besides an older downtown grid models that was designed to become parallel to the South Platte River and Cherry Creek. So, virtually all of the streets business district & around LoDo run northeast-southwest and northwest-southeast. A latter streets come numbered, when a previous come known as. A known as streets run at a intersection of Colfax Ave & Broadway by having a prevent hanker Cleveland Place. A numbered streets run underneath a Colfax & One-25 viaducts. There are Twenty-seven known as & 44 numbered streets on this grid. There are as well two or three trace of the old grid rules in the normal grid like Park Ave, Morrison Rd., & Speer Blvd.

Naturally, this makes Denver the somewhat confusing city to cause witharound, especially in areas in which these 2 grid systems meet. Typically, population might take a incorrectly turn & prevent higher in the wholly paired counsel it arranged. Fortuitously, downtown traffic around Denver is great deal calmer than around numbers of more big cities, & a mountains to the west provide an convenient navigational information.

Highways
Denver is primarily served per interstate I-25 and I-70. We-25 diarrhea northerly-south from either a New Mexico border through Denver to the Wyoming border. Also, We-70 diarrhea east-west from either Utah to Kansas. A intersection of a ii interstates around Denver has been locally termed "the mousetrap." In addition, I-76 intersects We-70 & I-25 upright west & n of the city, severally, & diarrhea northeast to Nebraska.

The main road expansion & transit task, dubbed "T-REX", is presently under construction. a task includes a addition of more superhighway lanes & a lightly railway line in the I personally-25 corridor between downtown Denver & the Denver Technological Center. A massive task is slated to exist as finished within fall of 2006.

Mass Transportation
Mass transport throughout a Denver subway metropolitan area is managed & coordinated by Regional Transport District (RTD). RTD presently operates to a higher degree 1,000 buses serving 10,000 bus stops within 38 municipal jurisdictions. In addition, RTD operates 2 light rail lines with the sum of Fifteen.Eighter from decatur miles of track & serving Xxiv stations. Todays RTD local fare is $1.Twenty-five. A recently passed FasTracks expansion project may allow lightly rail to serve cities like Lakewood, Golden, & Aurora. Commuter railway line might help Boulder, Longmont & a Denver International Airport.

Trains
Train service to Denver is provided by the Amtrak California Zephyr which runs from either Chicago west through Denver to San Francisco. In addition, there exists a Ski Train provided by the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad which takes passengers between Denver and the Winter Park Ski Resort. Trains prevent inside Denver at Union Station, where traveler could meet higher by owning RTD's 16th Street Free MallRide or even utilize lightly rail to tour a city.

Airports
Denver International Airport former Stapleton International Airport (replaced by Denver International Airport and closed inside 1995) former Lowry Air Force Base (flights stopped around 1965)

Denver's sister cities
Denver has a 2nd oldest sister city in the United States with its relationship with Brest, France started in 1948. Around 1947, Amandthe Knecht, a teacher at East High School, visited WWII pillaged Brest. After she come back, she shared her lives inside the city using her students, & her class raised $32,000 in vary to help rebuild them's wing of Brest's hospital. A gift was proceeded sustaining a development of the sister city program sustaining Brest. Denver's Sister Cities International develops programs to foster relations between all the cities. Everthing of Denver's sister cities stand parks in a city known as fallowing the children (except the newly sister city, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, which will yet use its have park).

A listings of Denver's sister (aka twinned) cities includes Axum (Ethiopia), Brest (France), Chennai (India), Cuernavaca (Mexico), Karmiel (Israel), Kunming (China), Nairobi (Kenya), Potenza (Italy), Takayama (Japan), and Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia).

Education

Public Schools
Denver's public schools come operated by Denver Public Schools. the 1st school was a log cabinside in the corner on 12th street between Market & Larimer streets that opened in 1859. Presently, DPS operates 73 elementary schools, 15 K-8 schools, 17 Middle Schools, 14 High Schools, and Nineteen Charter Schools. It too work magnet software & schools including a Denver School of a Arts, a Center for International Studies, the Emily Griffith Opportunity School, an International Baccalaureate program, a Extremely Gifted & Talented Program, & others. DPS likewise operates the Balarat Program, the outdoor education, american history, & environmental studies program at a 720 acre places in the mountains northwest of Boulder [http://balarat.dpsk12.org/].

Around aggregate, DPS educates some 73,000 students. A ethnic/racial composition one students come:

U.s. Indian: Unity.2% Asian: Triad.1% Black: Nineteen.1% Hispanic: 57.3% White: Nineteen.3%

A graduation rate of DPS students is 76.9% using the dropout rate of 4.6%. (A rest of a percentage may be attributed to students moving away from the dominion).

There come 13,452 employees of DPS, 4,061 are teachers. [http://www.dpsk12.org]

Colleges and universities
Colorado School of Mines (in Golden) University of Denver Metropolitan State College of Denver University of Colorado at Denver Johnson & Wales University Regis University Community College of Denver Teikyo Loretto Heights University Westwood College

Culture
Landmarks

Brown Palace Hotel, the city's oldest hotel Buckhorn Exchange, Denver's oldest restaurant, the historic old-west steakhouse Civic Center, a neoclassical park, & a cultural, art and governmental center of Denver Colorado State Capitol Confluence Park, where a city began at a confluence of the South Platte and Cherry Creek. D&F Tower, when it was built in 1910 the tallest building west of the Mississippi Denver Art Museum Denver Botanic Gardens Denver Mint Denver Museum of Nature & Science Denver Performing Arts Complex - The 2nd big performing arts center in the U.s.a. when New York City's Lincoln Center. Denver Public Library, serving Denver's educational & amusement needs from either Xxiii locations & the bookmobile. Four Mile House, an important prevent on the Cherokee Trail and the oldest standing residential building in the metropolitan area Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art, A museum featuring works of Vance Kirkland and others. Molly Brown House, where Molly Brown lived in Denver Denver Aquarium Red Rocks, This Denver owned park and outdoor amphitheater Xv miles west of Denver touching Morrison, CO is world illustrious for its awe-awful red rock formations & its amphitheater by owning close hone acoustics that has featured famous concerts by U2, The Beatles, Neil Young and others. Richthofen Castle, a castle built by the uncle & godfather of the Red Baron Six Flags Elitch Gardens - A uncommon downtown Amusement Park Tattered Cover, a super popular independent bookstall by using deuce locations inside Denver (LoDo, and Cherry Creek), and 1 in the suburban area of Highlands Ranch. Union Station, a brilliant 3-story building & a hub of the recently FasTracks commuter rail network. Wells Fargo Center, a.k.the. a "cash register" or even "mailbox" building.

Sports
Understand as well: U.S. cities with teams from four major sports

Sports teams
Denver Broncos of the National Football League (American football) (1960-) Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association (1967-) Colorado Rockies of Major League Baseball (1993-) Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League (1996-) Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer (1996-) Colorado Crush of the Arena Football League (2003-) Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League (2003-) Denver Gaels of the North U.s. County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (1996-) Denver Bears former minor league (AAA) baseball team (1948-1992) Denver Zephyrs originally, the Denver Bears (moved to Future Orleans, 1992) Denver Spurs former World Hockey Association team (1975-76) Colorado Rockies former National Hockey League team (1976-82); now called a New Jersey Devils Denver Gold former United States Football League team (1983-1985) Denver Dynamite former Arena Football League team (1987, 1989-1991) Denver Grizzlies former International Hockey League team (1994-1995)

Hosting
Awarded a 1976 Winter Olympics, which voters rejected due to the 300 percent rise within costs & worries just about environmental impact The 1998 Major League All-Star Game at Coors Field The 2001 NHL Everthing-Star Game & FanFest at Pepsi Center 2005 NBA All-Star Game at the Pepsi Center 2008 NCAA Frozen Four Tournament Denver is carrier to the annually race on the Champ Car World Series circuit, the Grand Prix of Denver

Hostels
Denver International Youth Hostel InnKeeper of the Rockies Melbourne International Hotel & Hostel

Famous Denverites
Tim Allen Victor Amaya - pro-tennis player India.Arie - Neo-Soul singer, born India Arie Simpson Phillip Bailey - R&B lead singer with Earth, Wind & Fire. Late manufactured pop tunes by having Phil Collins among others, graduated from Manual High School Chauncey Billups Richard Butler (born in Bennett, Colorado) Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. David Fincher Pat Hingle John Kerry (born at Fitzsimons Army Hospital in Aurora, Denver's eastern neighbor) Joseph C. Phillips Actor and political commentator Dean Reed Karl Rove Reese Roper Michael Ruffin - Pro-basketball player Alan K. Simpson Jill Sobule Paul Whiteman Jan-Michael Vincent Famed non-native residents Neal Cassady - the beat generation icon was innate inside Salt Lake City, Utah, but was raised in Denver Don Cheadle - born in Kansas City, Missouri, graduated from East High School Judy Collins - folk singer, born around Seattle, Washington, graduated from East High School Madhuri Dixit - Indian actress married to Dr. Sriram Nene, the heart specialist, born around Bombay, India John Elway - Hall of Fame quarterback for the Denver Broncos, 1983 - 1998 NFL seasons (including the Very Bowl played around 1999) Bill Frisell Pam Grier - born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, graduated from East High School Vance Kirkland- artist Hattie McDaniel - First African-Our contries to win Academy Award for Gone with the Wind, born in Wichita, Kansas and raised in Denver Golda Meir - Former Prime Minister of Israel, lived in Denver for the instance as a adolescent. Her home is preserved when section of the Metropolitan State College of Denver campus. Pat Oliphant - editorial cartoonist, born within Adelaide, Australia Dianne Reeves - Jazz vocalist, graduated from East High School Mamie Eisenhower - Former Number one Lady, raised within Denver's Capitol Hill in the Doud Home. Calibrated from either Miss Wolcott's Finishing School.

Books on Denver

Rise & Dine, Breakfast around Denver & Boulder by Joey Porcelli. Fulcrum Publication, Golden, Colorado. ISBN 1555915094.

The big part of Jack Kerouac's beat classic On the Road takes place in Denver.