Jewish Denver 1859 1940

In 1859, during the Pike's Peak gold rush, at least 12 Jews joined the great migration to Colorado in search of gold and a brighter future. The unpredictability of mining and a growing demand for supplies encouraged many of these Jewish settlers to establish small businesses in Denver and in towns and mining camps across the state. By the early 1870s, Jewish benevolent societies and a congregation were established. Denver's dry, mild climate attracted patients with tuberculosis, and two Jewish sanatoriums were opened in the city around the beginning of the 20th century. Many of the predominantly Eastern European Jews who came in search of better health made Denver their home, thus augmenting the early Jewish population significantly. Today Jewish life flourishes in Colorado, and Jewish citizens continue to play a vital role in its culture and development.

In the early days on the Colorado frontier, women took care of family and neighbors because accepting that "we're all in this together" was the only realistic survival strategy-on the high plains, along the Front Range, in the mountain towns, and on the Western Slope. As dangerous occupations became fundamental to Colorado's economy, if they were injured or got sick there was no one to care for the young men who worked as miners, steel workers, cowboys, and railroad construction workers in remote parts of Colorado. So physicians, surgeons, nurses, Catholic Sisters, Reform and Orthodox Jews, Protestants, and other humanitarians established hospitals and-when Colorado became a mecca for people with tuberculosis-sanatoriums. Those pioneers and the communities they served created our community-based humanitarian healthcare tradition. These stories about our Wild West heritage honor the legacy of our 19th-century healthcare pioneers and will inspire and entertain 21st-century readers. Because we can be inspired only if we understand the facts-and because facts are more likely to be understood when presented in context-this chronology includes national and international developments that establish an indispensable frame of reference for understanding how our pioneers created the local-community-based healthcare system that we've inherited.

Moving portraits of eighteen independent women who helped make Colorado what it is today Remarkable Colorado Women profiles the lives of eighteen of the state’s most important historical figures—women from across Colorado, from many different backgrounds and from various walks of life. Read about Julia Archibald Holmes who became the first white woman to ascend to the summit of Pike’s Peak in 1858; Frances Wisebart Jacobs, the compassionate housewife who devoted her life to supporting Colorado charities in the late nineteenth century; and Mary Elitch Long, founder of the famed pleasure grounds known as Elitch Gardens. The third edition features new biographies of frontier teacher Mabel Barbee Lee, who left a lasting impact on the students of Cripple Creek; Mo-Chi, the first female warrior of the Cheyenne; and Mildred Montague Genevieve "Tweet" Kimball who became the Cattle Queen of Colorado's Front Range in the twentieth century. With enduring strength and compassion, these remarkable women broke through social, cultural, or political barriers to make contributions to society that still have an impact today.

For most of its history, thanks to its geography, Northwest Denver has felt like a world apart from the rest of the city. West of the South Platte River, and with much of its land elevated above the rest of Denver, the northwest side attracted people who wanted to leave behind the dirt and sins of early Denver to improve their physical and moral health. As time went on, successive waves of immigrants endowed the area with their own cultural traditions, many of which continue to thrive. Northwest Denver has also been a pleasure ground, home to the Elitch Gardens, Lakeside, and Manhattan Beach amusement parks, beautiful lakes, and other amenities. Today, Northwest Denver, encompassing such varied neighborhoods as Highlands, West Highlands, Berkeley, Sunnyside, Sloan's Lake, and Jefferson Park, is experiencing renewed popularity as newcomers and longtime Denverites discover its charms.

Colorado’s Mile High City sits atop a mountain of Old West history—from stories of fortune seekers to captains of industry, immigrants to activist women. Founded in an unlikely spot where dry prairies meet formidable mountains, Denver overcame its doubtful beginning to become the largest and most important city within a thousand miles. This tour of the Queen City of the Plains goes beyond travel guidebooks to explore its fascinating historical sites in detail. Tour the grand Victorian home where the unsinkable Molly Brown lived prior to her Titanic voyage. Visit the Brown Palace Hotel suite that President Dwight and First Lady Mamie Eisenhower used as the “Summer White House.” Pay respects at the mountaintop grave of the greatest showman of the nineteenth century, Colonel William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody. From the jazzy Rossonian lounge where Ella scatted and Basie swung to gleaming twenty-first-century art museums, author Mark A. Barnhouse traces the Mile High City’s story through its historical legacy.

Moving portraits of eighteen independent women who helped make Colorado what it is today Remarkable Colorado Women profiles the lives of eighteen of the state’s most important historical figures—women from across Colorado, from many different backgrounds and from various walks of life. Read about Julia Archibald Holmes who became the first white woman to ascend to the summit of Pike’s Peak in 1858; Frances Wisebart Jacobs, the compassionate housewife who devoted her life to supporting Colorado charities in the late nineteenth century; and Mary Elitch Long, founder of the famed pleasure grounds known as Elitch Gardens. The third edition features new biographies of frontier teacher Mabel Barbee Lee, who left a lasting impact on the students of Cripple Creek; Mo-Chi, the first female warrior of the Cheyenne; and Mildred Montague Genevieve "Tweet" Kimball who became the Cattle Queen of Colorado's Front Range in the twentieth century. With enduring strength and compassion, these remarkable women broke through social, cultural, or political barriers to make contributions to society that still have an impact today.