4 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
broad streets, great manufacturing plants, large stores, numerous © 
business blocks, Ss hotels and residences, and beautiful 
boulevards and. 
The carer ies thst led to the founding of the city of Denver, 
like those that led to the founding of many other cities, is shrouded __ 
more or less in mystery. Gold was certainly the lure that brought a 
the explorers here, but when and where gold was first discovered in 
what is now Colorado are not certainly known. There are many 
legends that the precious metal was found in the foothills and the 
mountains of Colorado prior to 1850, but most of these legends are 
vague and unreliable. What appears to be the first authentic ac- 
count of an exploration in this vicinity is a story that a party of 
Cherokee Indians, in the spring of 1849, went to the Pacific coast by - 
way of the old trail up the Arkansas Valley across the Squirrel 
Creek divide (just east of Palmer Lake), and down Cherry Creek 
to the South Platte at the site of the present city of Denver. The 
story goes that the Indians found some gold in the Rocky Mountains 
but not enough to deter them from continuing their trip to Cali- 
fornia. When they reached the coast they did not find gold as 
abundantly as they had expected, so they returned to Georgia fully _ 
convinced that there were opportunities in the Rocky Mountains just 
as promising as they had seen in California. = 
In 1858 the Cherokees again organized a gold-seeking expedition, 
which was joined by many white men. This party, which was known 
as the Green Russell party, went to Cherry Creek, where the Indians 
had found some gold on their previous visit. They prospected along 
Cherry Creek and South Platte River, and many people flocked to _ 
their camp. Little gold was found, but the camp persisted, and sev- 
eral settlements sprang up on or near the site later occupied by the 
city of Denver. The first town established in this vicinity was on 
South Platte River 6 miles above the mouth of Cherry Creek. It — 
was called Montana and consisted of about twenty log cabins, but 
it did not survive a year. The first town on the actual siteof Denver _ 
was called St. Charles. It was organized September 24, 1858, and, 
like most towns of this period, it existed at first only on paper; it 
was not until October that the first structure was erected. This struc- 
ture consisted of a few logs piled up and surmounted with a wagon — 
cover, and this was probably the first building on the site of Denver. — 
About the middle of October Georgians established a town on the — 
west side of Cherry Creek which they called Auraria, after a small — 
mining town in Georgia. ; 
The town of St. Charles made no progress until the 17th of No- 
vember, when Gen. William Larimer and Richard E, Whitsett at- 
rived there and rechristened it Denver City, in honor of Gen. J. W. 
Denyer, the governor of the Territory of Kansas, which then in- 
