As a rough gauge of what matters most to people, or at least what grabs their passions, crowd size certainly deserves a place on the podium.
A turnout of 1,000 at a public forum, for instance, reflects more interest in whatever is on the agenda than a gathering of 100. And 10,000 indicates even more.
By this measure, the 50,000-plus expected at Denver’s version of a national immigration-rights march today could make the event the weightiest political rally in Colorado history. The “We Are America” march begins at 10:30 a.m. at Viking Park, West 29th Avenue and Federal Boulevard.
By comparison, peace demonstrations here during the Vietnam War pulled in perhaps 15,000. And even the biggest Martin Luther King Day marches of the past 20 years have drawn no more than about 30,000.
Still, the throng at the state Capitol on this occasion may hardly be a contender in Denver’s overall crowd-size sweepstakes. In past years, what has caused people to pour into the streets were not issues, but idols – sports heroes, especially.
When the Colorado Avalanche won the
Stanley Cup in 1996, fans stood eight-deep on 17th Street to watch the players parade past on fire trucks. Police estimated the size of the crowd at 450,000 – enough to fill 25 hockey arenas the size of the Pepsi Center.
Two years later, after the Denver Broncos won their first Super Bowl, a mob of 650,000 turned out, “giving new meaning to the words Orange Crush,” as Denver Post writer Erin Emery put it.
The only event to rival those two celebrations in size was the appearance of Pope John Paul II at an open-air mass at Cherry Creek State Park in August 1993. That gathering attracted some 400,000 – enough to fill Red Rocks 40 times over.
There have been plenty of other sizable turnouts in the Mile High City. Among them: the “V-J Day” celebration at the end of World War II (many thousands), the funeral of “Buffalo Bill” Cody in 1917 (25,000), the dedication of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in 1912 (20,000), and the original Festivals of Mountain and Plain in the years 1896-99 (up to 100,000 annually).
“The overall numbers at those events were lower (than in modern times), but the proportion of the population involved was higher,” says Stephen J.
Leonard, chairman of the history department at Metropolitan State College and co-author of several books on Colorado and Denver history.
Percentagewise, he reports, the biggest crowd ever may have been the 15,000 to 20,000 who showed up to witness – gulp – the last legal public hanging in the city, in July 1886. That represented about 30 percent of Denver’s population at the time.
“If you had 30 percent of the metro area show up today,” says Leonard, “you’d be talking about 700,000 people.”
Staff writer Jack Cox can be reached at 303-820-1785 or jcox@denverpost.com.
