Denver has had its share of secret societies over the years trying to avoid police investigation, but none was more colorful than a gang of criminals known as “The Soap Gang.” It was led by a handsome, black-bearded scoundrel named Jefferson Randolph Smith. Or “Soapy Smith” as he came to be known. Soapy arrived in […]
In the opening of The Reservoir, the narrator, Josh, wakes up to a gorgeous sunrise over the waters of Cherry Creek Reservoir, 14 miles southeast of Denver. It’s a fitting place to begin a play that takes place in Denver because Cherry Creek is also where Denver’s story begins. The pretty creek that flows into […]
One of the key plot twists in Back to the Future involves the Hill Valley Court House clock tower. In the year 1955, time would have been measured in this clock tower by Earth’s position in relation to the sun, moon and the heavens. The time on every clock in the world was based on […]
This article was originally published on February 4, 2022 Of course, Alexander Hamilton never visited Denver. The city wasn’t even founded until 54 years after his death. But if Hamilton did come to Denver today, what would he visit?
From the archives: this post was originally published on December 14, 2021. People have been buying alcoholic drinks in England for more than a thousand years in taverns, ale houses, coaching inns, and grog shops – but what we think of today as a typical English pub didn’t happen until 1830. To counter distilled spirits […]
In 1889, the same year the Moulin Rouge opened on the edge of the red light district of Pigalle in Paris, a red light district out on the frontier of the American West in Denver, Colorado also saw a grand opening. Jennie Rogers was a tall, slender brunette, who had gone through several names and […]
The word “Tejano” has slipped into the American language, meaning someone of Mexican descent living in Texas. There’s Tejano food, music and culture. But the phrase, “Neomexicanos,” not so much. For one thing, there were simply not many of these people – the Spanish and Mexican colonists who ventured into Northern New Mexico and Southern […]