Next Saturday, Denver turns 150 years old.
She looks pretty good for an old lady, wouldn’t you say?
Denver, obviously, has come a long way since its birth and those early days that Tom Noel writes about in today’s Perspective. But what’s striking is how little we’ve actually veered from those pioneer roots.
Denver was born on a gamble, as prospectors sought their fortunes here in gold and silver. The small town’s ranks swelled as folks came here seeking a better life and clean air.
Today, we’re still gambling. We’re betting our rich mineral resources and a new energy economy of wind and solar will help us weather the coming recession.
We’re still mired in boom and bust cycles, yet the city and its surrounding suburbs continue to grow as people seek a better life here and a share in what’s left of our clean air.
One hundred and fifty years later, it’s still a pretty special place.
My wife and I took our kids to the Denver Zoo last Saturday and, as we left at dusk, I was struck again by how majestic the skyline looks when the sun dips behind the tall buildings, then settles in behind the mountains.
Unlike some cities across the country that are withering away, Denver is in constant motion. The huge construction cranes that dot the skyline tell you it’s a city that’s changing. The packed nightclubs that often spill their occupants onto city streets give it a youthful vibrance, even at 150.
It wasn’t too long ago that downtown sidewalks were rolled up at the end of the business day.
Those were simpler times. Well, I suppose no matter where you grew up, it felt like a simpler place or time. If you’re of a certain age, it was. No information superhighways. No terror alerts. No cellphones or e-mail or voice mail.
But it was definitely true of Denver. We were on our way to becoming a major league city, but it was still a place where shops would close on Sunday and, as they say, business was done on a handshake.
The only pro baseball in town was played at Mile High Stadium, originally known as Bears Stadium, which was built on the city dump.
I enjoy today’s Colorado Rockies (back then, the Colorado Rockies was a hockey team), but part of me still longs for those days when you could pull into the stadium parking lot and buy a ticket along the first- base line to watch the Denver Bears, one of the minor leagues’ most storied ballclubs.
Families could afford to go to the game without having to hawk the faux wood-paneled station wagon to pay for it. As the city came of age, we’d sit and watch future greats like Andre Dawson and Tim Raines come of age.
There was no pounding music between innings. No ski races on the Jumbotron. Just baseball, and simpler times.
Summer days were spent at Lakeside Amusement Park or Elitch Gardens, which was tucked away at 38th and Tennyson. Families could haul in coolers filled with food and relax under towering shade trees as kids played. Today, you’re forced to jockey for a $4 bottle of water by elbowing the crowds hustling along ribbons of asphalt.
Times change. I get that. And the past was never as rosy as it sometimes looks in the rearview mirror.
After all, it’s good that Denver has grown and changed.
In today’s nerve-racking economic climate, perhaps we can find some comfort in that, and in the hum of busy downtown streets and the thump, thump, thumping of musicians pounding on overturned buckets along the 16th Street Mall and the clanging bells of the rickshaws that glide tourists and citizens along downtown streets.
If you’re not growing, you’re dying. And Denver, at 150, is looking pretty good.
Editorial page editor Dan Haley can be reached at dhaley@denverpost.com.
