DID YOU KNOW?

William Larimer, Jr. (1809-1875) was a settler and land developer. He is most famous as the founder of Denver in 1858. Larimer often went by "General Larimer", having acquired the title in the Pennsylvania Militia.

In 1858 Larimer helped found the Denver City Land Company with the intention of creating a new city in the western part of the territory. On November 28, 1858, Larimer arrived at a hill overlooking the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River. Larimer staked his claim by laying cottonwood logs along a square-mile parcel of land on the hill. Larimer chose the name "Denver City" to honor the governor of the Kansas Territory, James W. Denver, with the intention that the city would become the county seat of Arapaho County.

Larimer platted the site and aggressively sold tracts to miners and other migrants traveling through the Rocky Mountains. In the first years, tracts were often traded for grubstakes and in gambling. Denver City merged with its rival Auraria . The true founder of Denver, William Greenbury Russell, went on to found another gold rush town, Russells Gulch. Larimer was instrumental in the formation of the Colorado Territory in 1861, and in making Denver its capital.

Larimer died in 1875 in Leavenworth, Kansas. He is commemorated in the city he helped found by Larimer Street in downtown, as well as Larimer Square.

NOW YOU KNOW.