Colorado Magazine - Spring 2021

COLORADO
HISTORY COLORADO | SPRING 2021

the
magazine
E PLURIBUS
COLORADO
IMMIGRATION MYTH and REALITY
Imagining a Great City / “Curse of a Nation” / Colorado’s Early Golf Champion
BUILDING DENVER
Visions of the Capital City
HISTORY COLORADO
W hile many of you know me as the
executive director of History Colorado,
you may not realize that I’m also a licensed BOARD OF DIRECTORS
architect. I am, of course, particularly interested AND LEADERSHIP
in all the ways that history and architecture
Tamra J. Ward
collide and overlap in Colorado and help inform Chair, Board of Directors
our past, who we are today, and what the future
may hold. We’ve launched a comprehensive Ellen S. Roberts
initiative that explores these ideas of architecture, Vice Chair, Board of Directors
design, planning, and policy in the formation of
our capital city. Marco Antonio Abarca
Luis Benitez
Building Denver: Decisions that Define a City is a sweeping retrospective, Cathy Carpenter Dea
present-day examination, and bold look ahead. In exhibitions, experiences, Cathey M. Finlon, Chair Emeritus
Donna Lynne, Ph.D.
and programs, we’re exploring the ways in which Denver has been designed
Robert E. Musgraves
and the consequences that have emerged in our physical, social, and Alan Salazar
emotional spaces. Stephen F. Sturm
Mary Sullivan
While the marquee exhibit Building Denver: Visions of the Capital City opens Penfield W. Tate III
on May 29 at the History Colorado Center, the initiative has already started. Ann Alexander Walker
View Narkita Gold’s incredible photography exhibit Black in Denver at the
same venue. Listen to a special exhibit-inspired podcast, Living Denver, that Steve W. Turner AIA
features four Denver poets who share odes and experiences of their Denver Executive Director
neighborhoods. Join a history-based walking tour in one of Denver’s and State Historic Preservation Officer
diverse neighborhoods. Bring the family to build your own city in our new
Makerspace. Throughout the summer and into the fall, we’ll keep creating State Historian’s Council
new ways for you to engage with compelling speakers, immersive installations, Dr. Duane Vandenbusche, State Historian
thought-provoking publications, and more! Western Colorado University
Dr. Nicki Gonzales
Most importantly, Building Denver creates opportunities for community Regis University
dialogue to envision a healthier, more inclusive, and more equitable Denver. I
Dr. Tom Noel
personally would love for you to join us!
University of Colorado Denver
Steve W. Turner Dr. Jared Orsi
Executive Director and State Historic Preservation Officer Colorado State University
Dr. William Wei
University of Colorado Boulder
The Colorado Magazine (ISSN 2765-8856) contains

articles of broad general and educational interest that
link the present to the past, and is distributed quarterly
to History Colorado members, to libraries, and to
institutions of higher learning. Manuscripts must be
In the spirit of healing and education, we acknowledge the 48 contemporary documented when submitted, and originals are retained
in the Publications office (publications@state.co.us). An
tribes with historic ties to the state of Colorado. These tribes are our partners. Author’s Guide is available at HistoryColorado.org.
We consult with them when we plan exhibits; collect, preserve, and interpret History Colorado disclaims responsibility for statements
of fact or of opinion made by contributors. | Postage
artifacts; do archaeological work; and create educational programs. We paid at Denver, Colorado
recognize these Indigenous peoples as the original inhabitants of this land. © 2021 History Colorado
HistoryColorado.org / 2
PUBLISHED SINCE 1923 / For more Colorado history: h-co.org/publications
This publication was supported in part by the Josephine H. Miles Trust.
2 Building Denver by Steve W. Turner / 4 The Forum / 6 Collective Loss, Collaborative Recovery by Ernest House, Jr. /
8 Waiting for Someone to Listen by Peggy O’Neill-Jones / 12 Leadville’s Silver Dollar Saloon by Joseph Saldibar /
14 Immigration to Colorado by William Wei / 24 Cruising Colfax by Armando Geneyro / 26 Imagining a Great City
by Anna Mascorella / 32 “Curse of a Nation” by Ann Sneesby-Koch / 36 Agnes Wright Spring by Kaylyn Mercuri Flowers
FIVE POINTS PLUS: NEIGHBORHOOD MEMORY PROJECT opens at the History Colorado Center on June 25.
In this image, photographer Burnis McCloud captures a moment inside a Five Points hair salon. History Colorado, r132-2020-008.
HISTORY COLORADO MEMBERS RECEIVE THE COLORADO MAGAZINE AS A BENEFIT OF MEMBERSHIP.

Individual subscriptions also available, $45 per year (four issues) / Join or subscribe: h-co.org/join
ON THE COVER / The O’Khiro family in 1910. Photo by Oliver E. Aultman. History Colorado, 2001.41.759.
THE FORUM
We love hearing from you
Visiting History Colorado “Going Back to Trinidad” Colorado Day by Day included in
museums I really enjoyed the podcast of Lost The Colorado Sun’s “50 Books of
Mom, can you bring me to the Highways featuring Dr. Stanley Biber. the West”
Colorado history museum because Having grown up in Trinidad, I so Your book was a daily ritual in
I’m learning about Colorado history. wanted to add all the little anecdotes our 2020 Covid-19 year. You
I thought it would be kind of cool to that I know. This man, who was inspired several day trips for us and
go there. prolific in transgender surgeries, also enlightened us on otherwise unknown
—Unidentified Colorado kid, via put stitches in my 5yo brother’s eyelid events of Colorado’s past. Thank you
Instagram when a piece of metal launched by an for being with us on our lockdown
M80 firecracker landed in his eye. My journey and sharing your love of
First time out for us to a museum... brother suffered no long term effects. Colorado history—made more
we have gotten our Covid shots. We Dr. Biber was an amazing man. special by this recognition!
were extremely excited by the Apron —Leeann Fabec, via Facebook —Kim Smagala, via Facebook
Exhibit (WOW), the Black in Denver
photo gallery (another WOW) and
then Borderlands (A Triple WOW). “Nine of Our Favorite New
Had lunch in the cafeteria...no one Additions to the Collection”
but us sitting down. Was a heavenly Quite a range of artifacts, from the
and liberating experience. big and dramatic of coronavirus
—Sam and Jean Guyton, via email and Elijah McClain to the smiling
memories of Blinky. Thanks for
sharing! Steve Grinstead, Managing Editor
“Dr. Richard Corwin and —Derek Everett, via Facebook Lori Bailey, Editorial Assistance
Colorado’s Changing Racial Katie Bush & Jori Johnson,
Divide” Photo Services
When will the “powers that be” History Colorado Releases the
in Pueblo deal with the issue of Newly Digitized KKK Ledgers Dawn DiPrince,
buildings and institutions that bear “I want my son to know where we as Chief Operating Officer
his name? people fall down and where we rise Jason L. Hanson,
—Mary Tinkcom, via Facebook up, not only as a family but also as Chief Creative Officer
members of the larger group, that is,
as humanity. If [our family] name is EDITORIAL TEAM
“Federalism and Democracy” there, I’ll own it and make amends.”
John Eding
with Gale Norton and Cynthia —Jenni Liem, via Facebook
Megan Eflin
Coffman
Devin Flores
I thought this was the best of all the “It’s one thing to know about KKK
online programs I have seen. Thank politicians but it’s really telling when Maria Islas-Lopez
you so much. you see thousands of everyday Aaron Marcus
—Marion Howley, via email names in these books...30,000 entries Chelsea Párraga
made less than 100 years ago. It’s Jessica Pierce
a shameful history, but a necessary Adriana Radinovic
history to talk about for our future. Keith Valdez
Bravo, History Colorado.” Zach Werkowitch
—Jeremy Jojola, via 9News Next Bethany Williams
COLLECTIVE LOSS,
COLLABORATIVE
RECOVERY byERNEST HOUSE JR.,
UTE MOUNTAIN UTE TRIBE
SINCE 10,000 BCE,
MY ANCESTORS, THE UTE “NUCHU” PEOPLE,
HAVE CALLED COLORADO HOME.
GREEN BEFORE GREEN WAS COOL,

WE SURVIVED FOR GENERATIONS
BECAUSE OF OUR RESPECT AND CARE FOR THE LAND.
W
e sustained ourselves and reptiles has dropped 68 percent er lands to be co-managed between
for thousands of years by since 1970. Last year, Colorado saw tribes and the state or federal gov-
knowing where the game, up close and personal what happens ernment, which allows traditional
fish, and medicine were located and when nature is deprived of its ability land uses to occur, and acknowledges
respecting their abundance. The first to function naturally. Wildfires and ancestral homelands in establishing or
Ute reservation was established in extreme bouts of weather were updating place names.
Colorado in 1868, and by the 1900s regular reminders that something is When it comes to land, water,
our reservation was reduced to a wrong. and wildlife, Indigenous communities
sliver, remotely located in south- The threats to our lands are know more than anyone how quick-
western Colorado. In a matter of intertwined, but so are the benefits of ly you can be displaced from it all.
forty years, we lost our access to the protecting them. Larger conservation Even though we’ve been displaced,
natural resources that fed our exis- efforts like 30x30 plans, which are our histories are written on the land,
tence. Today, two federally recognized frameworks to conserve 30 percent our songs are embedded in the trees,
tribes in our state, the Southern Ute of land by 2030, have been presented creeks, and riverbeds all waiting to
and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribes, are and supported across the nation with tell a story. The threats our lands face
managing nearly one million acres of more and more tribal leaders offering today require all of us to act. If we’re
land, with the latter proudly managing support. Even newly tapped Interior going to succeed at conserving our
a 125,000-acre Tribal Park near Mesa Secretary Deb Haaland has proposed natural resources, we must summon
Verde, where we emphasize conser- and supported 30x30 resolutions. In- our collective will to accelerate the
vation and stewardship of Ancestral dian Country cheers her appointment, pace and scale of conservation. There
Puebloan culture sites. as we have been waiting for genera- is no time to waste.
Currently, our society is losing tions for this opportunity to have our
our land almost as quickly. Despite voice elevated and represented at this This article is part of a series written in
our efforts and those of the conser- prestigious federal level. Today, only partnership with the Colorado Commission
vation community, Colorado’s lands, 10 percent of our lands are con- of Indian Affairs to elevate Indigenous
waters, and wildlife are facing serious served. Protecting 30 percent of our perspectives and reflections.
threats. According to the Center for land by 2030 will take the collective
American Progress, since 2001 we efforts of all of us, who must work Ernest House Jr. is a member of
have collectively lost over 500,000 together to identify lands and waters the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the
acres of natural lands to development in our own backyards as well as in the senior policy director and director of
caused, in part, by energy extraction more distant corners of our state. American Indian/Alaska Native Pro-
and sprawling housing. Nationally, it’s As we all work together in con- gram at the Keystone Policy Center.
even worse: the United States loses a servation efforts, we need to ensure
football field’s worth of nature every tribal engagement and consultation PHOTO / The Elkhorn-Pingree prescribed burn in
Poudre Canyon on March 8, 2020. Such burns are
thirty seconds, or about 1.5 million early and often. They should also part of the year-round effort by wildland firefighters
acres a year. Globally, it’s catastroph- require engaging communities histor- in Larimer County to stave off and contain wildfires.
ic: according to the World Wildlife ically ignored and excluded from the Photo by Mark T. Spring. History Colorado
halls of power, including Indigenous 2021.28.
Federation, the average population
of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, voices. As a start, we should consid-
Waiting for PEGGY
O’NEILL-JONES
by
Someone to
Listen
REDISCOVERING
ONE OF AMERICA’S
GREAT GOLF CHAMPIONS
I
MAGINE hiding in a corner for the trophy aside and kept working.
decades waiting for someone to The trophy would have met the
listen to your story. same box-it-up, put-it-in-storage fate
You would never know it was as the other items but it was too big
there. Hidden in the back of a pantry, and heavy to fit in a box. My daughter
the basement door opened to poorly Kerry looked at the sad metal ob-
lit spiraling stairs. No one ever both- ject sitting on the counter and said,
ered to put up a handrail. For good “Do you have to take that home? It’s
reason, generations of children called gross.” My concern focused on safely
it the “scary basement.” shepherding delicate china and crystal
Jane Mohan, the last of the orig- into a storage unit, so I asked my
inal family, lived in the comfort and husband Preston to clean the trophy
memories of a house that had been when he got home.
in my family for seventy years for as The twenty-six-inch, heavily tar-
long as she could. Finally, she was too nished trophy sat on my dining room
frail to stay. The family assembled. table interspersed with my grandson’s
Sort it out. Pack it up. toys, an odd juxtaposition for a tired
To everyone’s relief, my brother warrior. Slow, careful wipes of a
Pat O’Neill and his wife Ann took on polishing cloth revealed a story. First,
the scary basement. Unfinished ce- an elegantly engraved cypress tree
ment walls, light bulbs hanging from surrounded by water and the name PHOTO / The Golden Vase Golf Trophy was
Pebble Beach emerged. Another wipe. designed to commemorate the first major tournament
thick, black wires, old trunks, papers sponsored by the newly opened Pebble Beach Golf
and boxes. In the midst of the moving A name appeared. Preston stepped Links in 1920. Tournament organizers designed
chaos, Ann brought a badly tarnished away from the trophy the way you the trophy to resemble the prestigious Saint Andrews
golf trophy upstairs with dust so thick jump back when you cannot register Golf Cup in Scotland. Courtesy of the author.
it hung like tassels on a shawl. what you are seeing. “You need to
Another golf trophy, another look at this,” he said. in the scary basement? I found the
day. My grandfather, Louis O’Brien, A name was printed on the tro- trophy in 2014, but the 2020 pandem-
caddied for Denver Post publisher phy’s base: M.A. MCLAUGHLIN. ic pushed me to write the story. A
Fredrick Bonfils in the early 1900s Michael McLaughlin vaguely history sleuth by nature and occupa-
and went on to become one of the drifted through my childhood mem- tion, I was finally on the case.
best amateur players in Denver. My ories. I had heard stories about his Driving a few days later, I was
other brother, Tim O’Neill, lives wealth and saw remnants of his ele- talking to Tim on the phone when
and breathes golf in Raleigh, North gant lifestyle, but I never heard about I asked him and if he wanted any-
Carolina. Golf trophies decorated my golf. How did the coveted trophy thing from the house. “Nah,” he
childhood like lamps on a table. I set travel from Pebble Beach and end up said. Then, he thought for a moment,
“Maybe something small.” I told him country. Mac managed the team and ried in 1892, they were a matched set:
I had found a golf trophy he might played center field. Standing in the ambitious, tenacious, and determined.
like. I would send a picture when center of his team photo, Mac’s eyes Mac’s early life was hardscrab-
I got home. Tim was having lunch are intense. His stance is cocky and ble. A railroad clerk at eleven, by age
with his North Carolina golf friends confident with a charismatic air. fifteen, Mac owned the McLaughlin
when the image came through. First Company and was an agent for Sand-
a text or two. Then, the text messages
picked up speed like a frantic tele-
graph operator pounding out SOS.
E lla carried a slight build on
a five-foot frame. A picture
of Ella, when she was about thirty
en Electric. Around 1899, the Mc-
Laughlin Company transformed into
Dr. McLaughlin’s Electric Belt Com-
“Please send the trophy,” Tim texted. years old, shows her walking in one pany. Mac and Ella moved to San
Winning at the fabled Pebble direction when her head suddenly Francisco to promote the business.
Beach Golf Links is a golfer’s dream. turns with a glare at the camera that Within a few years, Dr. McLaughlin’s
Renowned player Arnold Palmer seems to say, “Oh yeah, watch me.”— Electric Belt ran ads in fourteen US
never got a win at Pebble and leg- an observation that later became cities and three countries. The money
endary golfer Jack Nicklaus said that prophetic. When Mac and Ella mar- rolled in.
if he could play one more round, he
would play it at Pebble. Eager to see
the trophy, Tim and his golf buddies
planned a celebration for its arrival
and sent a personal message to me:
“Thank you for not turning the tro-
phy into a flower pot.”
Michael A. McLaughlin, known
as “Mac” to his friends, was my
great-great-uncle. Mac and his wife
Ella were born around 1869, just after
the Civil War ended. Mac was born
in Iowa and Ella in Maryland. Their
families met in Iowa and moved
to Denver together around 1880.
Both were children of immigrants
fleeing the Great Irish Famine and
first-generation Americans. Ella’s
sister, Mariah Moffat Cronin, was my
great-grandmother.
Looking back, Ella and Mac’s
spirits have been tapping on my
shoulder for a long time. Wondering
if their childhood homes still stood, I
Googled their old addresses. The lit-
tle red marker on the map landed on
top of where I work. A classroom on
the Auraria Campus near downtown
Denver now stands in the footprint
of their former homes.
Cranking through years of histor-
ic Denver newspapers on microfiche,
I slammed to a stop when some-
thing came across my eye. Mac was a
baseball player too. The book Baseball
in Denver describes Mac’s team, the
Sanden Electric Baseball Club, as
one of the top amateur teams in the
PHOTO / Ella and Mac McLaughlin, around 1915. Courtesy of the author.
great-grandmother, Mariah Cronin,
gave birth to the last of her eleven
children, Ella took over the care of
her sister’s baby as if she were her
own. Mac and Ella formally adopted
baby Alice and her older sister Anna
in 1903. My grandmother, Frances
Cronin O’Brien, was child number
ten. As kids, we joked about missing
the rich life by one birthplace. When
Ella’s sister Frances Moffat moved in,
Ella’s family was complete with two
children and a live-in golf partner.
As Mac’s life came into focus, an-
other surprising picture emerged. Ella
was no shrinking violet. She was a
fierce competitor. Mac, Ella, and her
sister Frances Moffat were a golfing
juggernaut whose stories dominated
Denver newspapers during the 1910s.
Ella and Frances helped to establish
the Colorado Women’s Golf Associ-
ation. The sisters competed against
each other in tournaments. Ella won
the first Colorado Women’s State
Championship in 1916 and came
PHOTO / Ella (left), Mac, and Frances Moffat putting, around 1915. Courtesy of the author. back to win again in 1917. Frances
won the championship in 1918. To
round out the decade, Mac won the
You can take the boy out of setting them on course for extensive Colorado State Golf Tournament in
baseball, but you can’t take baseball travel in Europe and a chance for 1919. Colorado State Championship
out of the boy. Mac’s playing days Mac to burnish his reputation on the trophies stayed in the McLaughlin
were over, but he still got a kick out international golf circuit. Mac earned family for five consecutive years. Still
of hitting things and seeing them fly. his golfing chops in Europe but his legendary in 1970, Ella’s early contri-
Golf piqued his interest so he found home remained the United States. butions to golf were highlighted in a
Scottish golf pro James Melville at Mac and others founded the Denver Post story. And, of course, the
the renowned Del Monte Hotel in Lakewood Country Club in Lake- story commented on her stylish attire.
Monterey, California and took lessons wood, Colorado, in 1908. According Meanwhile, a world-class golf
every day for a week. to the Rocky Mountain News, “Mac course was under construction. Over-
Mac laughed when he later de- was runner-up in more tournaments looking stunning views of the Pacific
scribed his first encounter with golf than any man in the West,” includ- Ocean in Monterey, California, the
for a Denver newspaper. Drawing on ing the prestigious Trans-Mississippi new Pebble Beach Golf Links opened
his natural athleticism and confidence, Golf Tournament in 1914. Mac won in 1919. The Gold Vase Tournament
Mac entered a tournament the next the Colorado State Golf Champion- began a year later with an elaborate
week and was paired with an older ship in 1915 and 1916 and served as gold-plated trophy that would list the
man. Mac “chestily” teed up and the president and founding member of names of each year’s winner. Mac was
ball went everywhere. At the end of the Colorado Golf Association. Golf going back to where golf had begun
the day, the scores were tallied. Old in Denver described Mac as a “colorful for him. And he was going to put his
Gentleman 129; Mac 139. Humbled investment banker” who was one of name on that trophy.
by the experience, Mac said that if he the top amateur golfers in Colorado. Winning was not easy. The 1920
had developed “any bump of conceit, One particularly vivid memory is tournament ended in a three-way tie
it was taken out of him that day.” the story of when Mac and Ella ad- between Mac, Kenneth Monteagle,
Their passports arrived in 1903, opted my two great-aunts. When my and R. Walker Salisbury. Another
eighteen-hole playoff match left Mac emotions, his talent, his fallibility. A Michael McLaughlin died on
and Salisbury in a two-way tie. Mac fifteen-foot putt headed toward a August 2, 1938. Ella followed on
finally took the tournament with a three-and-a-half-inch cup on Febru- November 2, 1939. The Denver Post
third eighteen-hole playoff win. News ary 22, 1923. A collective inhale and headline read “Former State Champ
accounts highlighted well-known golf the ball rolled in. That old Pebble Dies.” Mac’s picture still hangs on
names but when Mac won the 1920 magic glittered down around Mac. the wall at Lakewood Country Club.
tournament, he was described as the At 54, M.A. McLaughlin was the first M.A. McLaughlin was posthumously
“visitor from Colorado.” One win was person to win three Pebble Beach inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall
not enough. tournaments. In a nod to the future, a of Fame in 2003.
When Mac returned in 1921, young Pebble Beach caddy named Al- I asked Mac and Ella’s grand-
press accounts described him as the fred Santos might have been watching daughter, Jane, about her grandparents,
most prominent player, along with a Mac’s game that day. In 2019, Santos’ who died when she was around eight.
number of other well-known out-of- grandson, golfer Phil Mickelson, Reminiscing, she recalled Mac’s pres-
state players. Mac started with a one would overtake Mac’s feat and win ence filling the room when he picked
handicap and defeated scratch player a record-setting fifth tournament at Jane and her sisters up for a party. Jane
A.H. “Bunker” Vincent in the final Pebble Beach. lived in the house for seventy years but
match. A score of eighty gave Mac his Back in Denver, the local papers she never saw the trophy.
second Gold Vase win. A few months celebrated Mac’s victory. The Denver Appraised at $75,000, the tro-
later, Ella won the 1921 Colorado Post headline read, “Denver Man Wins phy’s value extends beyond recogniz-
State Women’s Championship and Beautiful Trophy for Third Time and ing Mac’s achievement. The trophy
reclaimed the title for a third time. Is Bringing It Home; Colorado Gives connects us to history and symbolizes
With two tournament wins under Coast Laugh.” Tournament rules the contributions golf has made in the
his belt, the sparkling trophy was stated that only three-time winners United States and around the world.
within reach. Wind, rain, and an un- took the big trophy home. Stunned In all, I have found six trophies: the
healed arm injury dashed a third win by watching the elegant cup leave the large Gold Vase and the three small
in 1922. Mac placed second behind state, especially with a no-name player, replicas; the 1915 Men’s Colorado
Robert Hunter. Pebble Beach commissioned a new State Championship trophy; and one
Golf is an elusive game—players, trophy and changed the rules. No one seven-inch gold plated trophy without
courses, weather—they all change. took the trophy home again. engraving. I dubbed the unadorned
Golf isn’t about chasing a little white Mac and Ella lost their fortune trophy “The Spirit of Ella”—fearless
ball, it’s about chasing that pinnacle around 1924, which explains why entrepreneur, championship golfer, a
moment when everything comes Mac never returned to defend his woman ahead of her time.
together. In 1923, a telegram arrived title. Still loving golf, Mac and Ella Sitting quietly in a basement
in early February at Pebble: the two- continued playing in regional tour- corner for seventy years, the Pebble
time champion was returning. Mac naments throughout the 1920s. Mac Beach Gold Vase trophy kept the
recalled that he had not been able founded the Colorado Senior Golf remarkable story of Michael and Ella
to practice for three weeks prior to Association in 1935 and won the McLaughlin alive. Patiently waiting
leaving Denver. Arriving just few days senior tournament in 1937. for someone to listen.
before the tournament, a San Fran- As their lives wound down, Mac’s
cisco sportswriter characterized Mac’s heart disease worsened and Ella Peggy O’Neill-Jones, Ed.D.,
preparation this way: developed cancer. They moved in is professor emeritus of journalism
Nobody knows with Ella’s sister, Bert Zook, in 1937. and media production at the Metro-
Where Tosti goes Worried about the state of his own politan State University of Denver.
When Tosti says goodbye. health, Mac feared that Ella would She began her career as a newspa-
outlive him. per photographer, then moved to
No one knew where Mac went to “How I dread the feeling that broadcast, corporate, and educa-
take lessons and polish up his game. she is praying that she will not leave tional media. She was awarded MSU
But every year he came back better me, because, in her unselfish love, she Denver’s first-ever Extraordinary
than ever. would protect me from grief,” Mac Service Award in 2016. She serves as
With a four-stroke lead heading said. “If she is praying for that, and executive director for MSU Denver’s
into the final hole, Mac had already I am praying that I shall outlive her Library of Congress Western Region
closed out his opponents. Now, Mac for the same reason, we are praying Teaching with Primary Sources
was playing against himself—his against each other.” program.
RESTORING by JOSEPH SALDIBAR
“PRINCELY PALACE”
GLORY IN THE CITY AMONG THE CLOUDS
“IT IS TO THIS PRINCELY PALACE THAT STRANGERS ARE

INVARIABLY FIRST TAKEN,” the Leadville Herald Democrat wrote
of the Silver Dollar Saloon in 1887, “the object being to astound and bewilder
them at the very outset…with the high standard which genteel sporting has
reached in the city among the clouds.”
A t the time, the Silver Dollar was
known as the Board of Trade
Saloon, and the bulk of its “genteel
brick corbelling and decorative metal
cornice that surround the weathered
board siding provide a glimpse of
two-story interior, and a possible
expansion into neighboring buildings.
Colorado’s Commercial Historic Tax
sporting” came in the form of two Leadville’s glamorous past. Credit—currently available through
full stories of semi-legal bunco and Fourteen decades of hobnail 2029—now offers rehab projects in
poker tables. An enormous bar, boots and high-heeled shoes would Leadville and other rural communi-
specially ordered from the Brunswick take a toll on any floor, and the sa- ties up to $1 million in state income
Company and hauled by train and loon is no exception. For many years, tax credits. Up to 35 percent of
wagon from Missouri, dominated the “solution” at the Silver Dollar and rehabilitation costs can be received in
the front half of the first floor; its predecessors was to place another the form of these credits, which the
plate glass windows showed off the layer of flooring—often whatever owner can either use or sell to other
elegance (but not the gambling) to was at hand—on top of the damaged taxpayers.
strangers and locals alike. one. By the time the current owners
The Silver Dollar opened in 1935 had started a rehabilitation project in If you think tax credits might
to a city newly freed from Prohibi- 2018, the original pine and English apply to your own palace res-
tion and in the midst of a miniature tile floors were buried under five lay- toration or any other historic
Depression-era mining boom. Today, ers of wood, linoleum, cork, and tar. rehabilitation project and you’d
several boom-and-bust cycles later, With financial help provided by the like to learn more or discuss, go to
the gambling tables are long gone. federal and state historic tax credit HistoryColorado.org/preser-
But drinks are still served from the programs, they restored the Bruns- vation-tax-credits.
same mahogany and oak bar where wick Company bar and the historic
Doc Holliday dispensed cold beers wood and tile floors to their original JOSEPH SALDIBAR is the archi-
and shots of whiskey to thirsty “princely palace” glory. tectural services manager at History
miners during his stint as a bartender. Future plans for the Silver Colorado.
The large plate glass windows along Dollar include siding and chimney
Harrison Avenue are gone, but the work, continued restoration of the PHOTO / Sandra Foyt, Shutterstock.com
Immigration
to Colorado
MYTH AND REALITY by WILLIAM WEI
PHOTO / Wedding portrait of Santiago “James” Ocaña and Eulalia “Lillian” Garcia, July 29, 1908.
HistoryColorado.org / 14 Photo by Oliver E. Aultman. History Colorado, 93.322.1529.
I
mmigrants have played an War. There was growing recognition
that the United States’ immigration
policy was at odds with its foreign
important role in making policy, and America needed a policy
that proved it was a just nation, one
Colorado what it is. They that served as a positive influence
on the rest of the world. The United
States also realized that its existing
have been an integral part immigration policy was inimical to its
economic interest since it impeded
of Colorado’s political and the movement of people who were
essential to its future growth in the
socioeconomic development. emerging global economy. Conse-

quently, Congress passed the McCar-
ran-Walter Act in 1952.
Without immigrants and Even though McCarran-Walter
continued the inherently discrimi-
their descendants settling in natory National Origins system, it
ended the exclusion of immigrants
the Colorado Territory, it is on the basis of race. Applicants from

the Asia-Pacific Triangle were given
a token quota of 2,000. More im-
doubtful that Colorado would portantly, the act also ended all racial
restrictions on naturalized citizenship.
have attained the population The third and most significant
shift was the passage of the land-
mark Immigration and Nationality
necessary to become the Act of 1965, or the Hart-Celler Act.
Hart-Celler fundamentally changed
nation’s thirty-eighth state the basis of the nation’s immigration
policy from an essentially exclusive
on August 1, 1876. approach to an inclusive one.
While the United States never
returned to the free immigration
policy of the eighteenth and ear-
Besides contributing to this historic laws during the 1920s, nativists were ly-nineteenth centuries, Hart-Celler
milestone, immigrants significantly able to limit the number of so-called did eliminate many of the discrimi-
boosted the Centennial State’s eco- inferior peoples entering the country. natory features of the Immigration
nomic growth. It took World War II and the Cold Act of 1917, the Johnson-Reed Act
In the nineteenth century, immi- War to eliminate these prejudicial laws
grants laid the foundation of Colora- and replace them with fairer ones.
do’s development. They extracted the
state’s raw materials from the ground, Reforming the Immigration is ever-
especially gold, silver, and coal. Then Immigration System relevant in the United
they built the road and railway infra- The first shift occurred during World States and Colorado.
structure required to transport such War II, when people recognized the Here, our former State
commodities for local and national incongruity of excluding the citizens
consumption. of China, a wartime ally, from immi- Historian continues the
Despite the many contributions grating to the United States. As a re- history of immigration in
made by immigrants to the country sult, Congress passed the Magnuson Colorado that he began in
and to Colorado, a nativist movement Bill in 1943, repealing the Chinese
the pages of our Fall 2020
to end free immigration emerged in Exclusion Act of 1882 and allowing
the second half of the nineteenth cen- an annual quota of 105 Chinese to issue, bringing the story
tury and reached maturity in the early enter the country. from World War II up to
decades of the twentieth. With the The second shift unfolded the present.
passage of discriminatory immigration during the early years of the Cold
(1924), and the McCarran-Walter Act.
It abolished the previous immigra-
tion system based on national origins
quotas and eliminated references to
race in its preferences. In doing so,
Hart-Cellar corrected inequities that
had limited the number of Southern
and Eastern Europeans emigrating
to the United States. It instituted a
more equitable system that allowed
an annual visa limit of 20,000 per
country and an overall global ceil-
ing of 290,000 in 1976. Equally
important, Hart-Cellar replaced the
previous ethnic criteria, designed to
keep people out of the country, with
a family reunification program and
skills criteria designed to attract select
immigrants.
While the architects of the
Hart-Celler Act sought to make the
country’s immigration policy more
equitable, the substantial increase in
immigration from around the world
was unforeseen; proponents of the
bill thought that far fewer immigrants
would take advantage of the new
equal quotas than actually did. Sena-
tor Edward Kennedy, who facilitated
the bill’s passage through the Senate,
did not expect Hart-Celler to change
the essential ethnic makeup of the
country or enable a meaningful influx
from the most heavily populated and
economically impoverished countries
in the world. PHOTO / Members of the Comisión Honorifica Mexicana de Brighton, Colorado, pose in 1927 with a banner
Given America’s history of an- for the Cruz Azul Mexicana, a women’s charitable organization that aided low-income families.
ti-Asian sentiments and its identity as Photo by Oscar E. Lindevall. History Colorado, 99.270.255.
a predominantly white nation, Hart- immigrating to the United States, as the United States and which countries
Celler supporters thought few Asians comparatively few took advantage they emigrated from. Hart-Celler
would make use of the opportunities of the new immigration law. By 1965 marked the return of mass immi-
that this immigration reform offered. Western Europe had largely recov- gration to the United States as the
Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, ered from the ravages of World War total entering the country expanded
for instance, thought that, at most, II, so most people there had little in- enormously. While there were 9.6
there would be about 5,000 immi- centive to leave home. Among those million immigrants in the country in
grants from the Asia-Pacific region who did leave were Germans, having 1970, there were 44.4 million in 2017,
the first year after the passage of fled their defeated country that was most coming from the developing
Hart-Celler, with declining numbers subsequently divided into West and countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin
afterwards. East Germany. Because of the Iron America.
Curtain, people in the Soviet Bloc Equally noteworthy is that the
The Changing Face countries of Eastern Europe were percentage of those foreign-born
of Colorado unable to leave for America, even living in the United States has reached
Advocates of Hart-Celler were both though many of them wanted to. its highest level since 1910 because of
right and wrong. They were right Proponents were wrong about Hart-Celler’s “family reunification”
about the number of Europeans the number of immigrants coming to provision that awards 75 percent of
World War II. As American workers
joined the armed forces or found
better paying jobs in war industries,
an average of 200,000 Mexicans
came annually as temporary workers
to make up for the labor shortage in
factories and on farms. Though the
program ended in 1964, the demand
for low-wage Mexican migrant work-
ers continued unabated.
Hart-Celler made it difficult to
meet that demand readily since it
imposed a quota of 120,000 in total
for the Western Hemisphere, with no
more than 20,000 admitted from any
one country. The ceiling on admis-
sions encouraged Mexican migrants
desperate for work to cross the US
southern border without permission,
giving rise to the current crisis of
undocumented immigrants. Working
in the US underground economy,
undocumented immigrants are often
exploited and always vulnerable to
apprehension, detention, and depor-
tation. Between 1965 and 1985, the
United States deported more than
13 million immigrants, most of them
Mexicans. Though Hart-Celler sought
to make the American immigration
system fairer for all immigrants, it
had the unintended consequence of
criminalizing many of them—mainly
Mexicans.
Mexican immigrants and mem-
bers of the broader Colorado Latinx
community make up about 22 percent
of the state’s population. This is
the visas to the spouses, children, and Colorado residents was foreign-born. four percent higher than the national
parents of American citizens. This And a similar number (9.4 percent) average, making Colorado one of
has become a primary principle of of native-born US citizens have at just nine states with a Latin American
the American immigration system, least one immigrant parent as a result population of more than 1.2 million
allowing fortunate family members of intermarriage. In 2015, among the people. Latinx Coloradans are the
to obtain “green cards,” become per- top five groups that had immigrated largest ethnic group in the Centennial
manent residents, and then become to Colorado, European Germans State, representing one in every three
citizens. The provision began as a represented 3.2 percent. The other Denverites and one in every two resi-
humane gesture that has enhanced four groups were from Mexico (43.3 dents in the San Luis Valley. By 2040,
America’s reputation around the percent), India (4.4 percent), Vietnam it is estimated that more than one-
world ever since. (3.2 percent), and China (3.1 percent). third of Coloradans will be Latinxs,
Colorado has been a beneficiary up from one-fifth today.
of the return to mass immigration. In Mexican and Latin American Mexican and other Latin Ameri-
1970, immigrants made up only 2.7 Immigrants can immigrants are joining Colorado’s
percent of the state’s population; by Prompted by the federal govern- long-established Hispano community,
2000, that number had increased to ment’s Bracero Program, immigration which Mexican colonists incorporat-
8.6 percent. By 2010, about one in ten from Mexico has been ongoing since ed into the United States as a result
of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
(1848). The first and largest group
outside of American Indians to settle
in Colorado, many Hispanos had orig-
inally been enticed with land grants to
settle in what is now southern Colora-
do. However, the influx of land-hun-
gry American colonizers, with the
complicity of the American judicial
system, appropriated much of these
lands through questionable means.
Mexican Coloradans living in the
state’s rural south worked as farmers
and ranchers. As Colorado became
integrated into the national economy
through the transcontinental railroad
system after 1870, poorer Mexican
Coloradans moved north in search of
better job opportunities. There they
worked in the mining industry, the
steel mills, and the beet fields. After
World Wars I and II, their numbers
were augmented by returning Mex-
ican Coloradan servicemen who
moved their families from rural com-
munities in the south to such major
cities as Pueblo, Denver, Greeley, and
Fort Collins, where they enjoyed big-
city amenities and social life.
The city of Aurora is notable for
attracting Mexican and other Latin
American immigrants. According to
recent Census data, 28 percent of
Aurora’s population is comprised of
Latinx Coloradans. Aurora has earned PHOTO / Joe Y. Tani and his extended family pose in Denver in 1925. History Colorado, 89.451.1622.
a well-deserved reputation for wel-
coming new immigrants and refugees
with its affordable housing and job Mexican Coloradans became an immigration. According to one poll,
opportunities. Besides Front Range important part of the state’s culture 63 percent of Latinx Coloradans
cities, Mexican and other Latin Amer- and a powerful political force. Like personally know someone who is an
ican immigrants have also moved to other ethnic groups, they have sup- undocumented immigrant and 35
Colorado’s countryside, where they ported ambitious politicians emerg- percent know someone who has been
are helping to revive local communi- ing from their communities, such deported or detained for immigration
ties. Indeed, they have been a critical as Federico Peña, mayor of Denver reasons. In Colorado, 4.9 percent of
factor in slowing or reversing pop- (1983–1991); Ken Salazar, US Senator the state’s workforce is comprised of
ulation decline in many rural areas. (2005–2009) and US Secretary of the undocumented immigrants, most of
In some communities their numbers Interior (2009–2013); and John Sala- whom are Mexican.
now approach those of the white zar, US Representative (2005–2010). Mexican and other Latin Amer-
population. In 2017, in Fort Morgan Mexican Coloradans combined with ican immigrants have become an
in northeast Colorado the population other Latinx Coloradans currently integral part of the state’s economy.
was 48 percent white and 45 percent make up 15.9 percent of the eligi- Many are employed in the construc-
Latinx. (The remaining population in ble electorate, a figure that will only tion industry (22.6 percent of all
Fort Morgan included Somalis and increase with time, growing to an workers); also in administrative and
other East African immigrants, who estimated 34 percent by 2040. support, waste management, and
made up four percent.) One of the issues most con- remediation services industries (20.6
cerning to Latinx Coloradans is percent of all workers). In short,
be seen in the census record. In 1960,
Asians constituted only 0.5 percent
of Colorado’s population. By 1990,
they had grown to 1.7 percent of
Colorado’s population; by 2000, to
2.2 percent; by 2010, 2.8 percent; and
by 2020, 3.1 percent (or an estimated
169,556 people). In the national con-
text, however, these figures are less
impressive. In 1960, Asian Americans
comprised less than one percent of
the total US population. By 2000, the
Asian American share of the total US
population had grown to 4.5 percent;
by 2010, to 4.8 percent; and by 2020,
to about six percent.
Compared to other immigrant
groups, old and new, the percentage
and number of Asian immigrants in
the country is low. This is due to past
discriminatory laws, which prevented
most Asians from replenishing their
community with fellow immigrants,
or from founding families and pro-
ducing a second generation born in
America. Asian Americans are now
making up for lost time.
Significantly, Asian immigrants
coming to Colorado are no longer
just Chinese and Japanese but instead
comprise a diverse group that more
or less mirrors the demographic
distribution of Asians throughout
the Interior West and the nation as
a whole. Indeed, recent Asian im-
migrants are among the most varied
ethnically. They include immigrants
immigrants from south of the border residents—parents, as well as spous- from East, South, and Southeast Asia,
play a major role in essential occupa- es and children—were exempt from as well as various parts of the Pacific.
tions in the state. the established ceiling of 170,000 In the 2010 decennial census, the Chi-
immigrants from outside the West- nese, the state’s oldest Asian group,
Asian Immigrants ern Hemisphere. Asian immigrants are once again the most numerous;
Under Hart-Celler, large numbers of were among the fastest to become Japanese, the state’s second oldest
Asians applied for the visas available naturalized citizens. As soon as they Asian group, are now the fewest.
to them to escape the economic could, Asian immigrants became Between them are four other groups,
deprivations and political instability citizens so that they could bring their with slightly more Vietnamese and
of their homelands. They came with families to America, starting a chain Koreans than Asian Indians, and
the intention of settling permanently migration process that has continued slightly more Filipinos than Japanese.
in the United States, taking advantage to the present. Family reunification Decades after Hart-Celler, Asian
of the immigration act’s emphasis on has remained an essential element immigrants are now the fastest grow-
family reunification. in American immigration policy and ing racial group in the nation and in
For the first time in American has withstood various challenges the state. As one of America’s “new
history, the country’s immigra- from anti-immigration opponents to growth” states, Colorado has attract-
tion policy gave priority to family degrade it or eliminate it altogether. ed large numbers of them. By 2010,
members. Immediate relatives of The effects of Hart-Celler on the Asian population increased more
American citizens and permanent Asian immigration to Colorado can
than four times, growing by 43.3 prise 5.5 percent of the city’s popu- gave them a decided advantage over
percent while the rest of the country lation. Aurora’s diverse Asian popu- other skilled foreign workers, includ-
grew by only 9.7 percent. According lation is also reflected in its schools, ing other Asians. Consequently, many
to a Pew Research Center study, the where Asian/Pacific Islander students Asian Indians were given H-1B visas
number of Asians immigrating to make up 5.1 percent of the student reserved for highly skilled workers,
the United States had surpassed that population and speak approximately allowing them to work in the United
of Latinxs by 2012. By that year, an 38 different Asian/Pacific languages. States. Indeed, the Immigration and
estimated 136,882 Asians lived in Among the various pull factors Naturalization Service reported that
Colorado, which was markedly more that have shaped Asian migration to almost 48 percent of all H-1B visas
than before World War II. Colorado, economics continues to be issued from 1998 to 2000 went to
Some of the Asians coming to the most significant, offering a higher Asian Indians. This opened a path to
America and Colorado are refugees standard of living for families and citizenship for many; an estimated
seeking asylum rather than immi- better educational opportunities for 40 percent of H-1B visa recipients
grants seeking economic opportu- children. Asian Coloradans are no lon- sought green cards as a preliminary
nities—political refugees who have ger restricted to low-wage occupations step to becoming naturalized citizens.
come to America as a result of the and can be found across the entire By the twenty-first century,
Cold War, as well as the hot wars economic spectrum of the state. previously denigrated racial groups
fought in Korea and Vietnam. Most Colorado’s information technol- arriving in Colorado were instrumental
of the recent refugees have come ogy industry, which has developed in building and maintaining the state’s
from Southeast Asia, fleeing Vietnam, rapidly in recent decades, is a major technological and physical infrastruc-
Cambodia, and Laos in the wake of draw. As early as 1998, about 84 in ture and sustaining its crucial agricul-
America’s 1975 defeat in the Vietnam every 1,000 Coloradans worked in the tural sector. Now, Asians and Latinxs
War. By 2000, Colorado was home high-tech industry, making Colo- work in all types of occupations and
to 15,457 Vietnamese, 1,451 Cam- rado the state with the highest per are part of all levels of society. They
bodians, and 2,156 Laotians, along capita number of technical workers are also raising the next generation of
with 3,000 Hmong, who had fought in the country. Because the demand Coloradans who can be expected to
alongside American troops in South- for qualified personnel outstripped play a part in the ongoing development
east Asia. Together, these Southeast the domestic supply, the IT industry of the state’s economy and culture.
Asians represent a very small part of sought a skilled labor force abroad in
Colorado’s population, 0.5 percent. countries like India, with its extensive Anti-Immigration Redux
Less visible are many other, smaller system of technical colleges. Contributions of immigrants to the
Asian ethnic groups such as the Bur- This need for technical exper- development of the country in gener-
mese and Bhutanese, who constitute tise became particularly acute when al and Colorado notwithstanding, re-
a large proportion of refugees to Colorado’s high-tech industry needed cent years have seen a resurgence of
the country in the early twenty-first systems analysts, engineers, and scien- anti-immigration sentiment reminis-
century. They fled their native lands tists able to perform a wide variety of cent of the 1920s. This phenomenon
to escape oppressive rulers, civil wars, tasks related to the “Y2K” problems has been closely identified with Pres-
or government violence. They have expected in the year 2000. Compa- ident Donald J. Trump, who made
come to Colorado for protection, but nies using computers (and that meant opposition to immigration a central
with little or no idea what the future most of them, large and small, includ- policy initiative. Both the issue and
may hold for them. ing the government) were concerned policy are metaphorically associated
Asian immigrants and refugees that the existing software was unable with his promise to construct a 2,000-
can be found geographically through- to differentiate dates at the end of the mile wall preventing Latin American
out the state, though most live in millennium, potentially resulting in the emigrants from entering the United
the urban Denver metropolitan area wholesale failure of their computers States. Trump sought to capitalize on
and Colorado Springs. Even though and the collapse of the country’s com- what many Americans considered the
they still prefer to gather in ethnic puter-dependent infrastructure. To most important problem facing the
neighborhoods like other immigrant remediate this unprecedented disaster, nation: immigration.
groups, they are no longer restricted companies began hiring large num- Trump’s policy was a reactionary
to segregated ethnic enclaves. One bers of computer specialists. one that would, at the very least, have
popular place is the city of Aurora, Asian Indians were prime aimed to maintain the extant racial
which has been a magnet for Asian candidates for recruitment because hierarchy in which people of color
immigrants ever since it began ex- many of them had the necessary are subordinate. The administration’s
panding in the 1950s. According to computer training and most spoke policies were largely shaped by
the latest census data, Asians com- English to a certain extent, which Trump’s longest-serving aide, Stephen
PHOTO / Shushanna, Helen Ayze Naing (far right), Mah Zin (left), and HaShing Mu during an English class for Burmese refugee women, taught by Jill Toffa, in
Aurora, Colorado, September 17, 2014. Photo by Angela Buckley. History Colorado, 2016.84.14
Miller, an anti-immigration hardliner threat to American society or are a President Trump also banned
responsible for masterminding such financial burden on the country. H-2B visas for seasonal nonagricul-
policies as separating thousands Since Trump’s anti-immigration tural workers and J-1 visas for cultural
of children from their Central agenda was thwarted by a gridlocked exchange programs. Banning these
American parents at the US-Mexico Congress unable to create more two visas adversely affected such sec-
border. Former Colorado Governor restrictions, he resorted to the expe- tors of the economy as landscaping
John Hickenlooper aptly called diency of issuing executive orders to and winter tourism. The H-2B visas
the Trump administration’s family accomplish this in piecemeal fashion. allow landscape companies to hire
separation policy tantamount to One example of this was his June foreign workers willing to do the kind
“kidnapping.” The Southern Poverty 2020 executive order to suspend of physical work—shoveling gravel,
Law Center added Stephen Miller to H-1B and other temporary work visas digging trenches, planting trees—
its “Extremist Files” for his far-right for skilled workers such as the Asian that most Americans are unwilling
white supremacist ideas, rhetoric, and Indians who were recruited to work to do. The J-1 visas allow ski resorts
actions. in Colorado’s high-tech industry. He to recruit foreign students as resort
As we have seen, historically issued his order ostensibly to protect staff—operating ski lifts, working in
anti-immigration politicians and their American jobs lost during the ongo- restaurants and hotels, and serving on
supporters are often driven by fear. ing pandemic, but the order would maintenance crews. In 2020 Colorado
In this case, President Trump, Miller, hinder businesses competing in the employed more than 11,100 of these
and their supporters may have feared global economy, and the American seasonal workers.
the inexorable demographic change workers who are part of it. Fortunately for Colorado’s agri-
set to make America a “majority mi- Unsurprisingly, high-tech industry cultural sector, Trump’s executive or-
nority” nation by 2045, and the con- leaders pushed back. As the case of der did not apply to H-2A agricultural
comitant loss of power and privilege Colorado has shown, the H-1B visas workers such as the Latinx laborers
that comes with being the majority have proven useful in filling positions working in the state’s fruit and vegeta-
population. Consequently, nativists not easily found in the American ble fields. (Interestingly, the executive
have called once again to minimize or workforce, and industry heads have order also exempted medical workers
exclude the entry of certain groups, been advocating for an increase in combating the coronavirus and sci-
notably those coming from non-Eu- H-1B visas so they can recruit highly entists involved in Covid-19 research.
ropean countries. Predictably, they skilled immigrants. In 2019, US com- Many of the health care workers are
have used the same tired arguments, panies submitted more than 201,000 Asians and Asian Americans. Even
alleging that these groups pose a applications for just 85,000 spots. though they are estimated to be about
For Colorado’s peach growers and other farmers, the future
looks bleak due to the diminishing number of migrant workers
available to do the onerous field work.
six percent of the country’s 2020 Action for Childhood Arrivals) pro- are desperate—desperate—for more
population, they represent 18 percent gram to protect young undocumented people. We are running out of people
of the country’s physicians and 10 immigrants without citizenship or to fuel the economic growth that
percent of its nurse practitioners.) residency status (usually referred to we’ve had in our nation over the last
Ending Latin American immigration as “Dreamers”) from deportation by four years. We need more immigrants.”
would have a devastating impact on granting them temporary legal status. (Emphasis added.)
Colorado’s agricultural economy. As In June 2020, the US Supreme Court Upon becoming president, Joe
Harry Talbott, the patriarch of Tal- ruled that the Trump administra- Biden sought to reverse his predeces-
bott Farms, the largest peach opera- tion could not arbitrarily end DACA sor’s policies restricting immigration
tion in the state, has observed, “With- because it failed to provide adequate through executive actions and with
out [them], we would not have a justification for doing so. If the Su- an immigration reform bill to mod-
peach harvest in Colorado…Period.” preme Court had supported Trump, it ernize the immigration system. Using
For Colorado’s peach growers and could have resulted in the deportation his presidential powers, Biden halted
other farmers, the future looks bleak of an estimated 14,000 young Colo- border wall construction between
due to the diminishing number of radans, de facto Americans by their Mexico and the United States, ended
migrant workers available to do the upbringing. Equally unjust, it would the ban that restricted travel from
onerous field work. According to the have forced many of them to live in fourteen predominantly Muslim
American Farm Bureau, there were the shadows of what they considered countries, and issued an executive or-
only 243,000 workers in the country their own country to avoid deporta- der directing the federal government
on temporary visas in 2018 to fill 2.4 tion to a foreign one. to maintain the DACA program.
million farm jobs. The bureau found Trump’s anti-immigration pol- Biden has also sent to Congress one
that 40 percent of farmers were icies were out of step with the sen- of the most comprehensive immigra-
unable to hire enough workers in the timents of most Americans. Weeks tion reform measures since 1986, the
previous five years. before Trump decided to ban the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021. Among
While the number of Mexican H-1B and other visas and when the other things, the bill provides a path-
migrant workers has declined, many US Supreme Court ruled against his way to citizenship for undocumented
Central Americans from Guatema- attempt to end DACA, a Gallup poll workers and employment-based visas
la, Honduras, and El Salvador are reported a seismic shift in American and green cards.
looking for work and presumably attitudes toward immigration. Ac- Predictably, there was pushback
willing to perform the intensive labor cording to a poll conducted between from the conservative members
required on America’s farms. If the May 28 and June 4, 2020, 77 percent of Congress who wanted to retain
past has taught us anything, the new- of Americans surveyed agreed that Trump’s more restrictive policies,
est immigrants are hardly a threat and immigration was good for the coun- calling Biden’s policies a massive am-
will more than pay their way through try. Further, 34 percent of Americans nesty program for illegal immigrants.
taxes and other means. And as with actually wanted to see immigration Given Democrats’ narrow control of
previous generations of immigrants, increase—the first time that Gallup Congress, the odds of Biden’s immi-
they are likely to work their way into respondents had favored expanded gration bill passing are slim. As a po-
the fabric of US society and become immigration. This was the highest litical strategy, the Democratic-con-
as American as the immigrants who support for increased immigration trolled House of Representatives has
preceded them. since 1965, when the country traded passed the Dream and Promise Act
Some of Trump’s executive or- its discriminatory immigration system and the Farm Workforce Moderniza-
ders were deemed inappropriate and for an equitable one. tion Act, two components of Biden’s
even illegal by US courts—the only Ironically, the desirability of larger immigration reform bill, with
branch of government able to prevent more immigrants was expressed by hopes of Senate passage.
him from carrying out his anti-im- none other than Trump’s former In an April 5, 2021, video mes-
migration agenda. Perhaps the most acting chief of staff, Mike Mulvaney, sage to newly naturalized citizens,
emotion-laden part of this scheme two months earlier. According to the President Biden thanked them for
was his effort to rescind the Obama Washington Post, at a private gathering coming to the United States. “You all
administration’s DACA (Deferred in February 2020 Mulvaney said, “We have one thing in common—cour-
age,” he said. “The courage it takes to socially. Certainly, this has proven For Further Reading
sacrifice and make this journey. The true for Colorado historically. There Works referenced include Rafael Bernal,
“Trump Says He’ll Sign Order with ‘Road to
courage to leave your homes, your is no gainsaying that immigrants Citizenship’ for DACA Recipients,” The Hill,
lives, your loved ones, and come to a have contributed significantly to the July 10, 2020; Chantal Da Silva, “Stephen Miller
nation that is more than just a place Centennial State’s agricultural and Makes Southern Poverty Law Center’s List of
but rather an idea,” in which everyone industrial growth, enriched its culture, ‘Extremists,’” Newsweek, July 17, 2020; Michelle
“is created equal and deserves to be and diversified its society, making it Hackman, “How Trump Has Worked to
Restrict Immigration,” Wall Street Journal, June
treated equally.” much more inclusive and stronger. 18, 2020; Nancy Loftholm, “In the Age of ‘Go
They do so today and will continue to
A
Back Where You Came From,’ Palisade Carries
nti-immigration do so tomorrow. on Tradition of Thanking Orchard Workers
hardliners, whether Before They Leave,” Colorado Sun, September
10, 2019; Bryan Kirk, “Three-Quarters of
knowingly or unknowingly, Part One of this essay appeared in the Fall Americans Say Immigration Is Good Thing
implicitly raise perennial questions 2020 issue of The Colorado Magazine. for U.S.: Poll,” Newsweek, July 1, 2020; Nick
about who are, and who should be, The essay is adapted from “Immigration Miroff and Josh Dawsey, “Mulvaney Says U.S.
Americans. Are Americans members to the Intermountain West: The Case of Is ‘Desperate’ for More Legal Immigrants,”
of a particular race or ethnic group? Colorado,” presented at the Ninth Annu- Washington Post, February 20, 2020; Joe Rubino,
“Ban on Program Stings Colorado,” Daily Cam-
Are Americans people committed to al Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences & era (Boulder), July 13, 2020; Mohamed Younis,
a set of values that transcend race Education Conference, Honolulu, January “Americans Want More, Not Less, Immigra-
and ethnicity? It is the very absence 2020. It has been published in the confer- tion for the First Time,” Gallup, July 1, 2020;
of a definitive and widely held answer ence’s online proceedings. American Immigration Council, “Fact Sheet:
Immigrants in Colorado,” June 9, 2020; Camp-
to these questions that periodically bell Gibson and Kay Jung, “Historical Census
gives rise to nativist anti-immigrant WILLIAM WEI was the Colorado State on the Foreign-Born Population of the United
attitudes and actions. Historian in 2019–2020. His book States: 1850 to 2000,” Working Paper No.
What is unquestionable is that Becoming Colorado: The Centennial 81, Population Division, State Demography
immigrants have been integral to State in 100 Objects, from History Colo- Office; Latino Decisions, “Hispanic Voters and
Colorado Politics,” June 2014; Statistical Atlas,
the nation’s economic development rado and the University Press of Colorado, “Race and Ethnicity in Aurora, Colorado.”
and have enhanced it culturally and will be out this fall.
PHOTO / Cruising Colfax, by Armando Geneyro.
Portrait of Ralph Sanchez of Out of Control C.C.
cruising in his 1968 Impala down Colfax Avenue,
on view this summer as part of the Brick & Soul
exhibition at the History Colorado Center.
PHOTO / Mayor Federico Peña signs Lower Downtown’s landmark designation papers in 1988.
Courtesy Historic Denver, Inc.
Imagining a
Great City
Denver, 1980–2020
by ANNA MASCORELLA
Mayor Federico Peña’s campaign vision to “Imagine a Great

City’’ catalyzed the development of Denver and its region from
the 1980s onward. Against the backdrop of a boom-and-bust
economy, major public projects shaped the trajectory of the
city along with its residents’ grassroots advocacy.
Denver’s rapid growth during the Lisa Purdy with Historic Denver, Inc.,
oil boom of the 1970s resulted in a had started campaigning to designate
very congested Sixteenth Street, a key Lower Downtown as a mixed-use Building Denver:
downtown strip of businesses, shop- historic district like Larimer Square, Visions of the
ping, and transit. I.M. Pei and Part- and city business leaders supported Capital City
ners re-envisioned Sixteenth Street as their efforts by encouraging a focus
a new transitway in 1977. Pei’s return on Denver’s future. In 1982, Lower Building Denver: Visions of
to Denver transformed the street Downtown was rezoned with incen- the Capital City explores
into a pedestrian mall, connecting tives for property owners to preserve the architectural and urban
this carefully designed commercial historic structures. Yet the bust of development of Denver
space downtown to the suburbs with the oil boom prevented owner-driv- from its founding in 1860
new public transportation that eased en preservation, as owners prefered onward through the lens of
traffic congestion. In collaboration demolition to paying for maintenance the many visions that have
shaped the city. The exhi-
with landscape architect Laurie Olin and taxes on historic properties.
bition takes as its point of
(Hanna/Olin) and lighting designer Upon his election as mayor, Peña departure the notion that
Howard Brandston, Pei and Partners and his administration concentrat- cities are the products of
designed the Sixteenth Street Mall ed on ways to revitalize downtown, intentional acts—that they
as a cohesive entity, resulting in a where 31 percent of the buildings are defined by decisions
pedestrian-friendly “place for people” were vacant due to the recession that begin as visions. Once
that changed the face—and use—of and the mass exodus of commerce realized, these city-defining
downtown. On the heels of the mall’s and the workforce outside the city decisions are built upon
completion, Mayor Federico Peña center. Peña believed that a vibrant and against, lived with and
took office, fundamentally altering downtown was the key to the city’s through, embraced and
rejected, confronted and
the direction of Denver’s develop- survival, and in 1984 his adminis-
transformed.
ment, and the region’s, in the decades tration worked on a fifty-year plan The exhibition is the
that would follow. that included the protection and centerpiece of of History
enhancement of the city’s historic
I
Colorado’s broader Building
n the midst of a recession neighborhoods. Four years later, the Denver initiative. Through
in the early 1980s, the young city designated Lower Downtown as exhibitions, programs, pod-
Chicano activist and state represen- a historic district. Tireless advocates casts, and more, the initia-
tative ran for mayor with a campaign like Barbara Sudler worked alongside tive merges issues of design
promise to “Imagine a Great City.” organizations like Historic Denver to and planning with the lived
Peña’s vision was intentionally bold, push the administration to make the experiences of Denverites,
offering a layered history of
as he wanted Denverites to envi- 1988 designation a reality, saving a
the city’s built environment
sion—and create—a city that was not total of 180 buildings in twenty-two and asking each of us to
simply good or workable, but great. downtown blocks, despite proper- share our own vision for the
Upon taking office in 1983, Peña ty-owner opposition. Ultimately, Peña Denver of tomorrow.
hired eleven planners to help realize and advocates believed that capitaliz- Excerpted here is a sec-
his vision and appointed designer ing on the city’s historic urban fabric tion of the author’s chap-
Ronald Straka as the city’s very first promoted economic development ter in Is This the City We
deputy director of urban design. and that preserving the city’s char- Imagined? Decisions That
The legacy of Mayor Robert Speer’s acter would enhance public morale. Define Denver, an anthology
early-twentieth-century City Beautiful They were right: a 1990 economic re- inspired by the exhibition
that offers perspectives on
vision for the city in part informed view revealed that Lower Downtown
Denver’s future from some
the Peña administration, as parks and had prospered. of the city’s key figures and
parkways and public works became a Despite Peña’s support for thought leaders, forth-
significant aspect of his vision. So too historic preservation, the city’s built coming this summer from
was the city’s historic urban fabric. environment continued to face History
PHOTO Colorado.
/ A mural on the side of Denver Sweet,
Peña threw the weight of his significant losses. The community an LGBTQ bar located on Lincoln Street in Denver,
office behind the grassroots push for came together in mourning at the April 14,On2020. The bar
view thiswassummer
temporarily closed
due to the novel COVID-19 pandemic and the city’s
historic preservation that Denveri- demolition of the Central Savings at the
lockdown. The sign reads, “Things Will Be Sweet
tes had mobilized in the preceding Bank, hosting a public wake for the Again.” History Colorado
History Colorado 2020.31.25
Center
decade. By 1981, preservationists, like building. Historic Denver also pushed
to save Pei’s hyperbolic paraboloid
structure at Zeckendorf Plaza, which
was ultimately razed in 1996.
Nevertheless, the LoDo designa-
tion had a lasting impact on the direc-
tion of Denver’s development, and
epitomizing the new infill-oriented
approach to city planning of the time
was the creation of Coors Field.
The siting of Coors Field in
Lower Downtown reflects the impact
of the district’s historic designation
on subsequent development. Major
League Baseball was one of Peña’s
visions for Denver, and, instead of
placing the ballpark outside the city
center, his administration advocated
for its placement at the edge of Low-
er Downtown. The context of the
neighborhood in turn shaped Coors
Field’s design. After encouragement
from the city and local architects, the
ballpark’s designers, HOK, clad the
stadium in local red brick to evoke
Lower Downtown’s industrial past.
The ballpark’s clock mimics Denver
landmarks like Union Station and the PHOTO / Denver International Airport in the 1990s. History Colorado, PH.PROP.5257.
Daniels & Fisher Tower. As the late
Jennifer Moulton, former Historic
Denver president and Denver plan- referendum to replace the original 1994, when its first line opened: the
ning director, once said, “Coors Field stadium, was built on the other side Central Corridor, which ran from
looks as good as it does because of of the South Platte River at Interstate Thirtieth Avenue and Downing Street
huge public participation. If we don’t 25. While these projects were real- through Five Points and downtown
demand the quality of development ized under Federico Peña’s successor, to I-25 and Broadway. Subsequent
of the public realm we want, we’re Mayor Wellington Webb, they were lines opened in 2000 and 2006,
going to get the kind of private devel- extensions of Peña’s larger aims for reaching the southern corridors of the
opment we deserve.” the city and the region. metro area. Promotional campaigns
instructed Denver residents on how
I
Coors Field fundamentally
changed Lower Downtown, raising ndeed, regional thinking to safely navigate the urban spaces
property values and leading to the was a major part of that the quiet light rail transformed
gentrification of downtown neigh- Peña’s vision, as reflected with slogans like “Look, Listen and
borhoods, but it also started the in the expansion of the Regional Live.”
trajectory of new sports arenas and Transportation District during these The most significant regional
districts. The Pepsi Center (today’s years. When RTD was established intervention, however, was Denver
Ball Arena), was built in 1999 at Speer in 1969 to take over the Denver International Airport, a key compo-
Boulevard on the north side of the Tramway Company’s bus routes, nent of Peña’s campaign promise
Auraria Campus. Like Coors Field, it strove to create a mass-transit to revitalize Denver and the metro-
it became a major part of down- plan for the seven counties of the politan area. Peña and supporters
town’s new identity, following the metropolitan region. The Sixteenth contended that a major international
1995 addition of the relocated Elitch Street Mall transitway bolstered airport would enable Denver to
Gardens amusement park. In turn, RTD’s presence downtown when it become an economically competitive
the 2001 Mile High Stadium, which opened in 1982. Yet already two years “world-class city.” The creation of
voters supported by passing a 1998 prior, RTD had proposed a light rail DIA required annexing land from
system. Service would not start until Adams County, which Adams County
John Hickenlooper. For the expan-
sion of the Denver Central Library,
funded by a 1990 bond issue that
won voters’ overwhelming support,
Denverites rallied to save local archi-
tect Burnham Hoyt’s original mod-
ernist 1955 library, and the City and
County held a design competition to
select the architect for the addition.
The renowned postmodern architect
Michael Graves won the competition
and was accompanied by Denver firm
Klipp Colussy Jenks DuBois Archi-
tects on the project, which opened to
the public in 1995. The cultural center
grew with the work of another star
architect when, in 2000, the Denver
Art Museum selected Daniel Libes-
kind to design the museum’s Frederic
C. Hamilton Building, which opened
in 2006. Clad in titanium panels, the
building’s complex design of sloping
planes draws upon the form of the
Rocky Mountains. On the north side
of the Civic Center across Colfax
Avenue, Tryba Architects’ 2002
Wellington E. Webb Building mod-
ernized an existing 1949 International
Style building to create an attached
voters approved in 1988. Denver mercial space, and over 1,000 acres twelve-story office tower. Holding the
residents in turn approved the prop- of parks and open space. Adhering city offices that shape Denver’s built
osition in 1989, with major support to the New Urbanism approach to environment, including Public Works
from business leaders and politicians. planning, Calthorpe created a sus- and Planning and Development, the
DIA opened in 1995, though not tainable, human-scaled urban design building connects the Civic Center to
without controversy, and the Denver for the neighborhood by focusing the city’s Central Business District.
firm Fentress Bradburn Architects on walkable streets, close proximity During this period, Denver also
(now Fentress Architects) designed between housing and shopping, and returned to the South Platte River
its innovative structure. The design accessible public spaces. Harkening with a system of parks, parkways,
exemplifies the firm’s emphasis on back to the area’s previous life as an and river reclamation that extended
using context to create identity, as the airport, the control tower remained, Speer-era aims while continuing the
airport’s dramatic, multiple-peaked punctuating the center of the neigh- tradition of grassroots city-build-
roof references the jagged forms of borhood’s Central Park. In 2020, the ing activism. Efforts to reclaim the
the Rocky Mountains. neighborhood took the name of the South Platte began after the flood of
DIA replaced Stapleton Inter- park after Denverites protested to re- 1965, which devastated the Central
national Airport, freeing up 4,700 move its “Stapleton” moniker because Platte Valley and rendered Denver’s
acres for redevelopment— the largest its namesake, former mayor Benjamin riverfront unsafe and inaccessible.
redevelopment opportunity in Den- Stapleton, had been a member of the In 1974, former state legislator Joe
ver’s history. In 1999, the city selected Ku Klux Klan. Shoemaker started a bipartisan group
Forest City Enterprises to develop Peña’s vision for Denver also of community activists and business
a master-planned community at the reprised Speer-era interventions by leaders to promote the construction
former airport’s site. There, planners expanding the cultural institutions of Confluence Park, among other
Calthorpe Associates designed a surrounding the Civic Center, many riverfront improvement projects.
neighborhood of more than 12,000 of which were completed under This group became the Greenway
homes, 13 million square feet of com- Wellington Webb and his successor,
PHOTO / Michael Benn Snidar and Bruce Hellerstein, “Field of Denver Dreams” poster, 1989.
HistoryColorado.org / 30 History Colorado, gift of Nick Rousis, 2016.23.1.
What might a resilient
and expand I-70 by lowering the
viaduct below the Swansea and
Elyria neighborhoods, adding
future Denver traffic lanes, and building a park

over a portion of the freeway, all
with the goal of decreasing traffic
look like? congestion. The plan replaces the
viaduct with a sunken freeway
three times as wide as the original
and, in the process, displaces
Foundation, which worked to reclaim to connect Civic Center park to the
fifty-six residences and seventeen
the land along the South Platte and proposed parks of the Central Platte
businesses in the Globeville, Elyria,
Cherry Creek through Denver and Valley. Civitas’ 1998 vision for the
and Swansea neighborhoods. The
neighboring counties. Mayor Federico Central Platte Valley further proposed
community group Ditch the Ditch
Peña supported the foundation while that the city could grow toward and
rose up to advocate rerouting I-70
in office and encouraged the devel- embrace the river with a chain of
along Interstates 76 and 270, arguing
opment of the Central Platte Valley parks, a vision directed by a public
that doing so would protect the
more broadly. process and the Central Platte Valley
neighborhoods’ residents from the
Indeed, when Peña took of- Steering Committee. Civitas designed
project’s environmental risks to air
fice, the Central Platte Valley, which three parks—Commons Park, the
and groundwater sources. While
stretches from Union Station to the City of Cuernavaca Park, and Centen-
the project is currently proceeding,
riverfront, was the last major area of nial Gardens—which were completed
this community activism forced
undeveloped land within Denver’s by 2003. The 2002 creation of the
an environmental health lawsuit,
city limits. The mayor supported Millenium Bridge in turn connected
supported by the Sierra Club and
the valley’s development by bring- the valley to downtown—and ulti-
which CDOT settled, agreeing to
ing together a coalition of business mately the Highlands—while serving
fund a study of the public health
leaders, historically underrepresented as a landmark for the area.
and environmental hazards in the
communities, and labor interests with The creation of the Union
surrounding neighborhoods.
the goal of creating new public works Station District with the revitalized
These major interventions have
that would in turn create jobs and Denver Union Station further trans-
all impacted Denver communities
bolster the economy. In 1989, Denver formed the Central Platte Valley. The
and raise the issues of housing, mo-
voters supported a $242 million bond redevelopment of the Union Station
bility, health, the environment, and
issue that would, among other things, neighborhood began in the early
the public realm within the decisions
build an infrastructure for the devel- 2000s with Continuum Partners as
that continually define Denver’s
opment of the Platte Valley. Conflu- the master developer of the area in a
future. While Denver has long been
ence Park had convinced Denverites massive public/private partnership.
considered a resilient city—as the
that the Platte Valley could become The renovation project was part of
setbacks of fire and flood and the
something other than an industrial a long-term vision to return Union
capriciousness of a boom-and-bust
landscape criss-crossed by viaducts. Station to its role as the heart of the
economy have shaped the city since
Parks advanced the redevelop- city, as it was in Denver’s infancy. The
its early history—it faces increasing
ment of the Central Platte Valley, newly refurbished station reopened in
challenges today.
with their capacity to create public 2014 as the gateway to a completely
What might a resilient future
spaces for recreation while spurring transformed Central Platte Valley.
Denver look like?
development. The Peña, Webb, and
T
Hickenlooper administrations saw he expansion of
the valley transformed by a mixed- Interstate 70, originally
ANNA MASCORELLA is the
use neighborhood plan, a renewed constructed in the
Temple Buell Associate Curator of
riverfront, and parks, with Richard C. 1960s, reveals how the extensive
Architecture at History Colorado and
Farley, as Denver’s deputy director of urban interventions of the
the lead curator of Building Denver:
urban design, and the local firm Civi- preceding decades continue to
Visions of the Capital City. She holds
tas leading the charge. Here, designers impact communities’ everyday
a Ph.D. in the history of architecture
envisioned the Central Platte Valley life. The Colorado Department of
and urban development from Cornell
as an extension of Speer’s parks Transportation’s Central 70 Project,
University.
and parkways system, with the idea first proposed in 2004, will replace
“Curse of a Nation”
Denver Black Newspapers Respond
to the Debut of Birth of a Nation
by ANN SNEESBY-KOCH
W
hen the film Birth of much ink to extolling the film’s mer- President Taft, sized up the film as
a Nation premiered in its. The Denver Sunday Times declared “Three miles of filth to blacken and
1915, it was a sensation. it “undoubtedly one of the best ever degrade and belittle us in the eyes of
Promotions billed it as the “Eighth made—it ranks among the highest in our neighbors, among the people and
Wonder of the World” and “the most photodramatic art.” The Elk Mountain citizens of this community,” in an
stupendous Dramatic Narrative Ever Pilot of Crested Butte was more effu- article urging against the showing of
Yet Unfolded on any Stage Since the sive in its praise: the film in Boston, Massachusetts. He
World Began.” Director and producer The magnificence of “The Birth and growing numbers of Americans
D. W. Griffith adapted the “photo- of a Nation,” the spirit and finish throughout the country opposed Birth
play” from Thomas Dixon Jr.’s novel of every detail, the greatness of of a Nation because of how Black
and play, The Clansman, which chron- its dramatic strength and beau- characters were depicted as ugly and
icled the assassination of Abraham ty startles the spectator. Now unfair caricatures, and members of
Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth and breathless with the intensity of the Ku Klux Klan as valiant and
the relationship between two families the production, now in tears, only gallant knights protecting their way
in the Civil War and Reconstruc- to break into laughter with the of life. The film, they said, amounted
tion eras over the course of several introduction of relieving humor. to “magnifying the faults of one race
years—the pro-Union Stonemasons The spirit and fire of the drama and glorifying the lawlessness of the
and the pro-Confederacy Camerons. finds echo in rousing cheers of other.”
The silent film was a marvel of enthusiastic patrons….“The Lewis’s article, and many others
moviemaking’s early era. It contained Birth of a Nation” is an inspira- beside, was reprinted in the Denver
5,000 scenes, featured 3,000 hors- tion, and at this time every father, Star, a Black-owned, written, and
es, cast 18,000 actors, and required, mother, son, and daughter should published newspaper that provided
for full effect, a twenty-five-piece witness the production and then a channel by which its readers could
orchestra to provide the soundtrack there will be a checking of the “voice their opinions, assert their
as it spun from twelve reels of film. war spirit in the hearts of men. rights, and demand their due recog-
The final run time clocked in at three nition.” The editor of the Denver Star,
hours and the $500,000 budget was The Lafayette Leader simply Charles S. Muse, opened his paper’s
staggering for a film of its time. It described it as “12,000 odd feet of pages to those who vociferously
was the first American film to be pictorial grandeur.” claimed that Birth of a Nation was
screened at the White House, where “Three miles of filth” coun- a “travesty on history, a breeder of
President Woodrow Wilson is said to tered William Henry Lewis, the first racial antipathy.”
have enjoyed it. Black US Assistant Attorney Gen- On that count, the film was
Many of Colorado’s newspaper eral. Lewis, one of four Black men being banned in places through-
editors were enthralled and devoted appointed to high office by then out the country. It was run out of
“Three miles of filth to blacken and degrade

and belittle us in the eyes of our neighbors,
among the people and citizens of this community.”
PHOTO / The Denver Star ran page-one coverage of the Black community’s outrage over Birth of a Nation on December 18, 1915.
Courtesy Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection.
Philadelphia in the wake of protests down the law and erects lawless- community and organizations, both
that turned violent. Kansas and Ohio ness, it glories in racial differenc- Black and white, together against the
banned the film outright. Detroit es, disputes and conflicts.... Can showing of the film in Denver. The
fought against it, responding to Denver afford to play with this... city’s other significant Black-owned
the call of the local chapter of the violence and destruction?... The newspaper, the Colorado Statesman,
Society of Advancement of Colored “Birth of a Nation” must not urged readers to appeal to the mayor
People to fight against “Dixon’s vile show in Denver. and city commissioners, “who have
‘Birth of a Nation’.” The Denver Star, the power to suppress such photo
in support, said “what an inspiring Denver’s Colored Citizens’ play, which will entitle us to protec-
sight and lesson it is to our children League led the charge against the tion against denial of civil rights and
to see the various Negro and white exhibition of Birth of a Nation, send- digraces constantly heaped upon us.”
organizations line up and clear for ac- ing a petition urging the mayor, Dr. Denver’s Black newspapers galva-
tion.” Denver’s Black community and William H. Sharpley, to not allow the nized the community to fight against
white allies soon took up the cause. showing of the film, declaring that the showing of Birth of a Nation. On
On December 4, 1915, the Denver Star “everything should be done away December 11, the Denver Star rallied
wrote: ahead of time to prevent the exhi- its readers:
It is not so much what is in bition of this play.” The Denver Star Denver is seething with interest
the play...but it is the damnable called upon its readers to “Arouse in the success or failure of the
influence that it leaves behind your white friends...get them inter- peaceable law abiding citizens
to spread and the seeds of lies ested in protest...convince them that of color either suppressing or
it sows in honest unsuspecting if they are your friends...to aid you in partially obliterating the “Birth
hearts and minds. It finely makes suppressing that abominable film, of of Nation,” more properly called
enemies out of neighbors, creates prodigy of lies and race hate.” Mass “The Curse of the Nation”....
doubts and suspicions where meetings at some of Denver’s pre- Now we must fight harder than
none heretofore existed, tears dominantly Black churches called the ever before. Do not weaken. The
be cut out of the film
entirely. Speer agreed,
and the Denver Star re-
ported with satisfaction
on August 18, 1917, that
“The Mayor with the
power to regulate and
bar such pictures, took
this view and permitted
the Denver Star and the
N.A.A.C.P. to request
certain eliminations,
most of which were
eliminated.”
The Denver Star,
steadfast in its stance
PHOTO / Montrose Enterprise, February 24, 1916. Courtesy Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. against Birth of a
Nation, tells a story of
resilience and activism,
Curse of the Nation must not movie houses across the state and the bringing together voic-
show in Denver.... And as a last social columns of Colorado newspa- es from Black Coloradans to protest
extremity if everything fails, let pers teemed with mentions of people a divisive film that preyed upon the
us organize a street parade to go traveling to see the photoplay. The worst stereotypes predicated on our
up and down 15th, 16th, 17th Denver & Rio Grande Western Rail- country’s painful history of racism
streets to let everybody know road offered special excursion fares and white supremacy. The Denver
while that hellist play is exhibiting from Montrose to Grand Junction, Star and its counterpart, the Colora-
that we are protesting. where it played under the auspices of do Statesman, capture this important
the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel and moment of Black history, docu-
With controversy stalking the was accompanied by an orchestra of ment Black life in early Denver as it
film and opposition growing, city twenty-five musicians. happened, and preserve it for future
officials approved a temporary police When the movie ended its run in study and retelling.
action to suppress the show in Den- Denver in January 1916, the Denver Star
ver movie houses. The ban was short assessed the damage the showing had
lived, however, as the court respond- done to Denver’s Black community.
ed with an injunction preventing fur- No Negro within the confines Note: You can read all about it for
ther interference by the police. Birth of Colorado nor white man, for yourself in both the Denver Star and
of a Nation premiered in Denver at that matter can truly and cor- the Colorado Statesman, as well as
the Palm Theater on West Colfax, on rectly estimate the insidious and papers from throughout Colorado
December 14, 1915. The Denver Star silent harm done to the Negro dating back to 1859, in the Newspa-
printed its response on December 18: and the American principles of per Collection at the Stephen H. Hart
There is no compromise in our government, as has been done by Research Center at History Colorado,
opinion of this play; it is outra- the production of the “Birth of a or online on Library of Congress’
geous in the extreme; outrageous Nation” in Denver and Colorado. Chronicling America and the Colora-
in the extreme; pernicious...; do Historic Newspapers Collection.
suggestive of the poisonous One of the most controversial
black domination, and has for its movies ever made, Birth of a Nation
purpose and intent the widening was also one of the most commercial-
of the breach and the stirring up ly successful, selling out movie houses Ann Sneesby-Koch is the Project
of prejudice between the white in limited engagements across the state Manager for the Colorado Digital
and black races of this state and and around the country. But in Den- Newspaper Project, a National
nation. ver, the fight against the film contin- Endowment for the Humanities-
ued. Anticipating its return to Denver funded grant project to digitize
Birth of a Nation went on to play after its initial run, Black organizations historic Colorado newspapers, and
at the Tabor Opera House, where appealed to the new (and former) the assistant curator of serials at
more than 100,000 people took in Mayor Robert Speer that the most History Colorado.
the spectacle. The film was shown in objectionable and inflammatory scenes
AGNES by KAYLYN MERCURI FLOWERS
WRIGHT SPRING
Author. Historian. Advocate.
PHOTO / Young Agnes Wright (left) and her sister, Lucille. Courtesy American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Agnes Wright Spring wrote, “During my years in public life I always

worked harder than my staff and tried to justify the confidence placed
in me by the nine governors whom I served, regardless of politics. I
thoroughly enjoyed my work for more than half a century in a Man’s
World—or since I worked in Wyoming and Colorado perhaps I should
say—in a Women’s World, too!”
AGNES WRIGHT SPRING was an author, a suffragist, and a historian.
On one hand, her impressive career can be attributed to her tireless work in the fields of applied
history and the history of the American West as an author and education advocate. On the other
hand, as a woman who refused to be defined by the gender stereotypes of her day, her tenacity and
determination served her well in these and other endeavors. Among other roles throughout her
career, Spring held the positions of State Librarian of Wyoming, director of the Federal Writers’
Project in Wyoming, and State Historian of Colorado. Additionally, she authored over 500 articles
and twenty-two books on topics surrounding the history of the American West.
Her efforts represent the dedication of a well-educated, socially in-tune woman who wanted to
change the trajectory of history—as well as history as a discipline. As a woman studying and writing
about history in the early twentieth century, Spring challenged the boundaries of traditional “Man’s
World” practices, forged a path for other women in the field, and shaped the public’s perception of
western history for years to come through educational programs and written publications. But her
work has garnered relatively little recognition.
A
gnes Wright Spring was appointed his wife, Myra, as postmis- boarded with local families during the
born in Delta, Colorado, tress. The tiny post office was barely academic year. Spring excelled aca-
in 1894. She was the second large enough to hold packages. Spring demically, starting school at a third-
of four daughters born to Gordon referred to it as a “doll’s house” in grade level and quickly moving up to
L. Wright and Myra May Dorset her 1974 publication, “Stage Stop on preparatory school—the same year
Wright. Her parents were wholesale the Little Laramie.” After a few years, as her sister, who was two years her
fruit shippers, and Spring remem- Gordon built a two-story log home senior. According to records in the
bered riding in wagons full of apples. for his family and expanded his busi- Wyoming State Archives, after only
In 1903 the Wright family moved to ness to include dude ranching. three years of taking high school level
Little Laramie River, Wyoming, and With the stagecoach stop, post of- classes at the Laramie Preparatory
operated a stagecoach stop from a fice, and ranch, the Wrights now had School, Spring submitted an applica-
two-room log building. Myra and her plenty of company. It was through tion to the University of Wyoming.
daughters helped run the stage stop her interactions with their visitors that The university accepted her, and she
by greeting travelers and arranging Spring developed her love of narra- started college courses at just fifteen
household affairs. Spring specifically tives and writing; travelers always had years of age. Though it was not un-
was in charge of raising chickens and stories to share, and Spring recorded common for students to take univer-
cutting ten-cent portions of tobacco them in her journal. In her book Near sity courses at younger ages at that
to sell to travelers. the Greats, she looked back on these time, Spring’s ambitious study habits
The Wright family and their memories with fondness. She credited propelled her forward into a four-year
neighbors near the stage stop peti- those evenings with inspiring her as a degree.
tioned for a post office in the vicinity. writer and instilling in her an apprecia- At this point in her life, Spring
Gordon Wright “wrote to Washing- tion of the West. was determined to become a topo-
ton,” asking for authorization to set Spring could read from a young graphical draftsman and enrolled in
up a United States Post Office on age and enjoyed learning in school. engineering courses, becoming the
his property. Granted permission, he She and her older sister, Lucille, first woman to do so at the University
named it the Filmore Post Office and went to grade school in Laramie and of Wyoming. She had been intro-
PHOTO / The Wright family. Courtesy American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
duced to mapmaking by a traveler at women in the West. She enrolled in gender and the understanding that
her dad’s stagecoach stop, and was engineering college courses with ease, their place was in the home and not
interested in the process of charting even though it was a male-dominated in a professional field.
land. However, Spring quickly learned field at the time. All it required was Spring was fortunate to grow up
that being a woman and doing field proof of her prerequisites from pre- in two western states that allowed
work did not mix conveniently. The paratory school. Spring found ways women the right to vote in larger
tools of the trade did not comple- to get around the socially accepted numbers than their eastern counter-
ment Spring’s attire, as she soon re- dress code for women while doing parts. Wyoming granted women the
alized that her steel corset caused the field studies. She was not forced to right to vote and hold public office
compass to give incorrect readings. withdraw from the course based on in 1869, before it gained statehood.
Though she persisted in her courses, her sex and the gender stereotypes (Honorable mention goes to Utah.
fellow classmates dubbed her “Old of the time. Opposingly, women in Although Wyoming Territory was
Ironsides.” She adjusted her outfits eastern states did not enjoy access to first in the nation to grant voting
for her engineering classes, and con- courses and occupational training in rights to women in December 1869,
tinued on with her major. fields that were deemed masculine. Utah Territory did so several weeks
Spring was able to pursue engi- Women in the East were barred from later, on February 12, 1870. Since
neering because diverse educational most engineering, law, mathematics, Utah held municipal elections and a
paths were more readily accessible to and science courses because of their territorial election before Wyoming
did, Utah women earned the distinc- as she believed all women should be Service Examination in 1913, which
tion of casting ballots first.) Other able to do. However, as Spring would certified her mapmaking abilities,
territories, such as Utah, Colorado, later find out, this was not the case Spring found herself torn between
Washington, and Montana, followed across the nation. the world of story-sharing and the
close behind by letting women vote in While in school, Spring con- world of charting. Interestingly,
different capacities. When Wyoming tinued her love of story-sharing by both options could be considered as
was added to the Union in 1890, it working in the campus library and ways of remembering. Mapmaking
became the first state to allow women writing for the Wyoming Student, a gathered tales of people and growth
to vote. Colorado, coming in second, university publication that featured through distances and destinations,
held a referendum and passed a wom- student authors and campus news. and presented them in a visual
en’s suffrage law in 1893. After publishing a few articles, Spring landscape. Nonfictional writing also
Though romantic ponderings of was introduced to the editing pro- featured collected stories, but pre-
the West rarely conjure progressive cess by a fellow student author. She sented them in much different ways.
images, Colorado and Wyoming were became heavily involved in editing Spring decided to follow her research
radical in their decisions to allow the publication until she finally took instincts, and Hebard’s advice. This
women voters before choice changed the tra-
1900. Suffragists across jectory of her life’s work.
the country, including After working a few
Susan B. Anthony, noted Spring’s understanding of women’s equality years in the Wyoming
that “men in the West Supreme Court Library,
were more chivalrous was shaped by the environment Spring went on to accept
than men in the East.” in which she grew up, and it a spot in the 1916 class
Spring grew up in a so- at the Pulitzer School of
ciety that largely viewed greatly affected her perception of the world. Journalism at Columbia
men and women as legal University. She moved to
equals, which was not New York City and was
the case in the majority Along with many women in the West recruited for the suffrage
of other states. This is movement. Her mentor,
after the 1890s, she believed she had
not to say that women Grace Hebard, was a
had achieved equality in the legal right to do anything a man could do. well-known suffragist
Colorado or Wyoming— and helped Spring get
far from it. However, connected within the
during the late 1890s and group. When she didn’t
early 1900s when Spring was grow- over the position in the fall of 1910, have class, Spring knocked on doors,
ing up, Colorado and Wyoming were becoming its first female editor. As distributed pamphlets, and collected
relatively progressive states. a freshman, Spring was hired as an petition signatures. She wrote about
Spring’s understanding of wom- assistant librarian at the University having witnessed wildly different
en’s equality was shaped by the envi- of Wyoming by Dr. Grace Raymond reactions to the idea of women’s suf-
ronment in which she grew up, and it Hebard. This four-year position, frage, from doors being slammed in
greatly affected her perception of the and the mentoring that came with it, her face to having several women hug
world. Along with many women in changed the course of Spring’s future. her. One day, Spring was knocking on
the West after the 1890s, she believed Dr. Hebard was the library’s founder doors when a woman yelled, “I hope
she had the legal right to do any- and head librarian. She was also a you never get the vote!” Spring re-
thing a man could do. While this had professor at the university, a Native plied, “I have the vote. I am from Wy-
societal limitations, it did not hold her American historian, and a suffragist. oming.” These contrasting reactions
back from entering male-dominated As assistant librarian, Spring gained left their impression on Spring, who
courses or professions. Spring was practical experience and formed a grew increasingly aware of the society
passionate about mapmaking and personal relationship with Hebard, in which she was now living—a less
writing, both positions that were typ- who encouraged her to pursue her equal one than she had known.
ically filled by men. She did not really affinity for story-sharing, writing, and Having grown up in the first two
perceive herself as breaking barriers, history. states that allowed women to vote,
though, because she had the legal Spring’s experiences at the Spring was consequently unprepared
right to work alongside the men in University of Wyoming essentially for how different life was in New
her fields, and her position of equali- prepared her for two very different York. In the late 1890s and early
ty allowed her to pursue her interests careers. While she passed the Civil 1900s when Spring was growing up,
she had never questioned her legal
right, or her civic duty, to participate.
Spring had, no doubt, heard about
suffrage movements in other states
through her education; but being
aware of something and experiencing
it are two very different things, as
Spring found out.
Two stories best exemplify
Spring’s formative experiences with
gender discrimination. During her
first year of journalism school, Spring
wanted to take a constitutional law
class so she could write articles
about the suffrage movement. She
went to the dean of the law school’s
office at Columbia University, where
she waited patiently and watched
for more than three hours as male
students were called in. Then, the
secretary came out from behind the
desk and said it was closing time,
locking up the office as Spring sat
there. Spring came back the next day
and, after waiting for another two
hours, demanded to be seen. When
she was finally allowed to speak with
the dean, she informed him that she
was very interested in joining the con-
stitutional law class. He curtly replied,
“My dear young woman, we have not
yet reached the enlightened stage of
admitting women to our law school.”
Spring left very disappointed in the PHOTO / The Wrights’ two-story log home, about 1909. Courtesy American Heritage Center, University of
Wyoming.
state of affairs at Columbia Universi-
ty, and the experiences that followed
did not help the situation. ism school, but her experiences there than most brides, and in her writings
In 1917, a male colleague of changed her. She brought what she she recalled how she decided not to
Spring’s was offered a job at the New learned back to Wyoming, where she follow the housewife lifestyle. Both
Bedford Standard but couldn’t accept the was hired as the State Librarian in Spring and her husband continued
position because he was called to war; 1917 and appointed as State Historian their careers after their marriage
he recommended Spring for the job in 1918. As Wyoming State Historian, and never had any children. During
and sent her to interview. Prior to her she was known as a woman of “tire- the 1920s, Spring published nearly
interview, he gave her all the details less efforts” who “devotes herself to seventy-five magazine articles and
of the position, including his prom- literary detective work.” Her main job many short stories in publications
ised pay. Spring, who was more than was to record the movements of Wy- such as the Wyoming Stock-Farmer, The
capable, interviewed and was offered oming servicemen during World War Post, and Sunset Magazine. She focused
the job—but at ten dollars a week less I. She held the position until 1920. more on stories about pioneers in
than her male counterpart. She was Over the next twenty years, western history, and found that they
outraged. Spring refused the position Spring refused to let her career sold more regularly than her previous
and told the hiring manager that she get sidelined. In 1921, she married work. Spring also published her first
was going back to the West, where Archer “Archie” T. Spring, a geolo- book, titled, in the language of the
they treated women the same as men. gist from Boston, and moved with times, Caspar Collins: The Life and Ex-
Spring indeed returned to the him to Fort Collins, Colorado. At ploits of an Indian Fighter of the Sixties,
West. She never completed journal- twenty-seven years old, she was older in 1927. Collins, as Spring understood
PHOTO / Knitting poster, 1917. Courtesy Library of Congress.
venating tourism to help the country
bounce back from the Depression.
Dr. LeRoy Hafen, Colorado State
Historian, was named director of the
Federal Writers’ Project in Colorado
and wanted Spring on his team. He
had been following Spring’s work
over the previous few years, and the
two ran in similar social circles. Hafen
wanted to hire researchers and writers
who were willing to go the distance to
capture stories from every part of the
state. He knew Spring was thorough
and hardworking. In the fall of 1935,
Hafen called Spring out of the blue
and offered her a research position
with the Colorado Federal Writers’
Project. Spring was thrilled and
immediately accepted. However, her
bubble burst when the State notified
her that she was ineligible for the job.
According to the State of Colorado,
Spring was not poor enough to re-
ceive the aid, as it was a WPA-funded
position. Hafen was frustrated by this
setback, but his hands were tied.
Spring was disappointed but not
out of hope or options. She utilized
her whole network to sell her written
work and brainstormed more ambi-
tious pieces. Records in the Wyoming
State Archives indicate that she com-
piled a proposal for a comprehensive
narrative of Wyoming’s history—one
with topics no one had ever studied
before. She wanted to study the wom-
O
it, “played a great part in the settle- nly the Great Depression en of Wyoming, who, as she wrote,
ment of the West” by commanding could slow Spring’s mo- accepting equality as a matter of
Fort Laramie during the Civil War mentum. Many publishing course, have taken their place side
and contributing to the study of houses struggled during the 1930s. by side with the men in building
Indigenous tribes and their languages. The Works Progress Administration up a great western empire. Theirs
The book was a success, showing that (WPA), created to aid struggling is a story of courage, of isolation,
Spring had mastered her writing style. workers during the Great Depression, of struggles and privations, of
initiated the Federal Writers’ Proj- political intrigue, of initiative and
Drawing gaily bedecked Indians riding ect in 1935 to help underemployed leadership, of national recogni-
down imaginary trails was a favorite authors and historians. Each state set tion—filled with romance and
pastime of the boy, Caspar Collins…. up a Federal Writers’ Project head- color.
Little did he dream, as he drew or quarters within the WPA state office,
painted, that some day a fort, a frontier selected a director, and started hiring Spring drew up a brochure on
town, a mountain and a stream in researchers, ethnographers, and writ- this idea and dropped it off at every
Wyoming would bear his name…. ers from across the state. The pur- academic institution she could think
—Agnes Wright Spring, Caspar pose of the project was to put profes- of, including the State Library of Wy-
Collins: The Life and Exploits of an sional writers to work by paying them oming. She happened to be visiting
Indian Fighter of the Sixties, 1927 to write histories and guidebooks for the library to do some research for
their state. These books aimed at reju- another article when a new librari-
an, who did not work under Spring Guide to Wyoming: The Cowboy State, Though Spring’s books and articles
when she was State Librarian there, Wyoming: A Guide to Its History, High- were considered easy reading, they
saw potential in the pitch. The librar- ways, and People, and Wyoming Folklore: did not lack responsible and thorough
ian passed the brochure on to the Reminiscences, Folktales, Beliefs, Customs, research. LeRoy Hafen, then the State
Wyoming Department of Education, and Folk Speech. All were published Historian of Colorado, recognized
where the education committee and in 1941, after which Spring set her the promise of Spring’s career. He
the Wyoming State Librarian reviewed sights on publishing more of her own and Spring had previously collabo-
it. Both parties agreed that Spring’s writing and working with educational rated on The Colorado Magazine, and
project was important and well-devel- institutions. he asked her to take over for him as
oped enough to be part of the Wyo- State Historian while he was away on
ming Federal Writers’ Project mission. We simply could not believe our eyes. a year-long fellowship at the Hunting-
Three weeks later, after the WPA None of us had ever thought much ton Library in California. She accept-
had reviewed the Wyoming State about folklore and when we received ed and became Acting State Historian
Librarian and Department of Educa- an index to folklore subjects listing of Colorado in January of 1951.
tion’s plea to hire Spring for the Wyo- “Animal behaviors and meanings, such Through this opportunity, Spring be-
ming Federal Writers’ Project, Spring as rooster crowing, dog barking, cattle came the first female State Historian
received an appointment notice. Not lowing, etc.,” we thought it was the big- of Colorado, where she oversaw the
only was her book proposal accepted, gest piece of malarkey we’d ever seen. functions of the State Museum (at
but she was also being offered the —Agnes Wright Spring, circa that time located at Fourteenth and
position of director of the Federal 1936, quoted in Wyoming Folklore Grant Streets in downtown Denver),
Writers’ Program in Wyoming. Elated edited and published The Colorado
and a bit surprised, Spring readily Soon after, Spring moved back Magazine, maintained the historic col-
accepted. She did not downplay her to Denver, when she accepted a lections of the museum, and helped
excitement or pride in having been position as assistant librarian at the run the Colorado Historical Society
offered an equal position to that of Denver Public Library. Her time in (today’s History Colorado). The op-
her colleague, LeRoy Hafen, a career the library reignited her passion for portunity catapulted Spring into the
shift that she did not take for granted. history and historic collections, and public gaze, and she worked diligently
Spring moved to Cheyenne in the she published three books: William to do her best and prove herself.
spring of 1936, where she pursued Chapin Deming of Wyoming: Pioneer
her research goals and fulfilled other Publisher, and State and Federal Official: I think it is fine that you can write the
requests from the State with a team A Biography, The Cheyenne and Black fiction stories, too, but to my mind the
of eager researchers, writers, his- Hills Stage and Express Routes, and true stories outshine the fiction these
torians, and artists. Together, they Seventy Years: A Panoramic History of days.
compiled a list of counties, towns, the Wyoming Stock Growers Association. —Agnes Wright Spring, in a
cities, historic sites, and points of Spring also started collaborating on letter to Colorado Pen Women,
interest in Wyoming per the instruc- articles for The Colorado Magazine circa 1959
tions from the national WPA office and eventually became editor of the
in Washington, DC. She admitted publication in 1950. She was the first Because she was Colorado’s first
to deviating a bit from the national woman to do so. female State Historian, Spring cared
Federal Writers’ Project instructions, about how she was perceived by the
though, as she found them too lim- The Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage public. Following World War II, the
iting for her research aims. Instead, and Express routes [carried] thousands nuclear family ideal gripped the Unit-
she arranged for researchers to scour upon thousands of passengers, tons ed States. Highly educated women
the archives and libraries in Cheyenne upon tons of freight and express, and were not the norm. According to the
and Laramie for existing information millions of dollars worth of treasure. US Census Bureau, only 3.8 percent
about pioneers, statehood, wom- —Agnes Wright Spring, The of women earned or were earning
en’s suffrage, ranching, and histor- Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage and college degrees in the 1940s. Having
ic battles. She then instructed the Express Routes, 1949 a woman in a public and academic
researchers to piece together what position was even more unusual. As
they did not know by conducting State Historian, Spring consulted with
T
interviews and oral histories all over he network of historians that many Colorado legislators about bud-
the state, gathering firsthand accounts Spring regularly worked with get decisions and statewide events.
from several communities that were was steadily growing. They She was required to advocate for the
historically underrepresented. Spring’s respected her detail-oriented research Colorado Historical Society and the
team produced three books, The WPA and audience-friendly writing style. importance of history to the state, and
she kept those discussions and propo- of the State Historical Society, which to submit pieces.
sitions as politically neutral as possible. oversaw the financial and program Additionally, Spring was a believer
Regardless of her efforts, Spring planning of the museum. With this in the inclusion of technology in his-
had to navigate highly politicized new department came a new position, tory and schools. As State Historian,
topics, such as funding for history Executive Assistant to the President. she helped fund a project that created
programs that welcomed all races and Following LeRoy Hafen’s return as dozens of filmstrips of Colorado
petitions to expand the staff by hiring State Historian in September of 1951, artifacts that were exhibited at the mu-
more women, with authority fig- Spring was chosen as the executive seum and lesson plans to accompany
ures who sometimes questioned her assistant. She left the position in 1954 them. Through the mail, these film-
ability because she was a woman. In when she was unanimously chosen as strips were available to schools across
one instance, Spring had to petition State Historian. the state for a small rental fee. Her
for her own ability to oversee a mail During the years that Spring goal was to reach as many children as
order filmstrip program she, herself, served as State Historian (1954 to possible, including those who couldn’t
had designed. Spring did not want 1963), she advocated for the expan- come to the museum, and to encour-
to be petty, but also wanted to stand sion of history curriculum in Colora- age them to write about history. She
up for herself. She penned a pointed do schools. She used her position to accomplished this through the film-
letter to the president of strips but also through
the Colorado Historical television and radio pro-
Society, James Grafton grams. Spring participat-
Rogers, and made copies ed in several educational
for legislators who Spring had to navigate TV programs that took
supported the program’s viewers on a special tour
funding initiatives. She highly politicized topics, of the State Museum’s
eventually was given the such as funding for history programs exhibits. She was also fea-
go-ahead to manage the tured in dozens of radio
program. that welcomed all races and petitions to interviews on local Den-
Additionally, as expand the staff by hiring more women, ver stations about new
State Historian, Spring exhibits, museum events,
received dozens of with authority figures who and The Colorado Magazine.
letters from the State sometimes questioned her ability She informed teachers
Capitol addressed “Dear about these broadcasts
Sir,” even after she had because she was a woman. in hopes that they would
been announced in the assign listening to the
position. Nonetheless, radio or watching the TV
Spring persevered. She program for homework;
worked hard to respond to all public collect historic artifacts and photo- she worked hard to encourage the in-
requests, whether it be to review a graphs that would benefit visitors clusion of more history into the state’s
book in The Colorado Magazine, find to the State Museum and students. school curriculum.
a photo for someone’s family tree She worked with the Department Though Spring’s overarching goal
research, or oversee a budget for an of Transportation to add bus lanes was to expand historical learning for
important event. (Once, second grader next to the State Museum in order to all students, she sometimes found it
Anna Hawthorne of the Cheyenne allow schoolchildren to safely unload. necessary to emphasize that this in-
Mountain School wrote for help with Spring also oversaw a program called cluded female students. One notable
a history project on Bent County. Junior Historians, in which students example of this happened live on the
Spring replied with fifteen pages of of all ages submitted short written air during her time as Colorado State
information and nearly a dozen copies pieces about something in history Historian. In a 1958 radio interview
of photographs.) As a result, Spring they had studied, whether it be a on KFG Radio the host, known as
was well received by the public and her topic in school or an artifact at the “Sergeant Y,” asked Spring if she
colleagues. museum. Spring helped the students had any advice for boys hoping to
Executives at the Colorado State conduct responsible research and write their own stories. Although
Museum and the Colorado Histori- edited their writing, selecting a few to transcripts of interviews alone can-
cal Society, such as historical society publish each year in the Gold Nugget. not bear witness to the host’s tone
president James Grafton Rogers, This student-authored publication or intent, Spring’s response made
appreciated Spring’s work ethic. They was well-supported by Colorado everything clear: “I encourage all stu-
created the Executive Department teachers, who advised their students dents to keep their interests alive by
writing often and reading western history.” Without being
too harsh, Spring advocated for female students among the
hopeful future writers. It would have been easy for her to let
something like this go, but she did not.
Spring was not only an advocate for girls becoming
historians and writers, she was an example of it. From the
1940s to the 1970s, she published sixteen books while also
contributing articles to the Denver Woman’s Press Club,
the National League of American Pen Women Inc., the
Colorado Authors’ League, the Western Historical Associ-
ation, and the Western Writers of America. Somehow she
fit research trips and writing time into her State Historian
schedule. After she retired from her role as State Historian
of Colorado in 1963, Spring continued to write and publish
books, and she remained on advisory boards for the Colora-
do State Historical Society. Spring was inducted into the
Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1973 for her work on the history
of the American West.
W
riting for the Cheyenne Eagle, a young re-
porter once wrote that at 5’2”, Agnes Wright
Spring was “one of the human landmarks
of the Rocky Mountain Region.” Spring successfully
connected history across state lines and professional fields,
blending her career as an author with her career as a histori-
an of the American West. She shaped her career to include
her passion for history and writing. As author of twen-
ty-two books and well over 500 articles, Spring was able to
keep doing what she loved while also greatly contributing
to the history of the American West, a powerful figure in
Colorado in so many arenas.
Agnes Wright Spring was an advocate for women, his-
tory, and education. Programs she created as State Historian
still exist today at the History Colorado Center. Collections
she curated in Colorado and Wyoming still enlighten curi-
ous minds. She passed away in 1988, but her life’s work lives
on in the extensive records she left behind and the impact
she had on so many budding historians’ careers.
Kaylyn Mercuri Flowers holds bachelor’s degrees in histo-

ry and political science from Furman University. She com-
pleted a master’s in public history from the University of
Colorado Denver in 2019. After years of pursuing her love
for the museum field she now works in outreach services at
the Louisville Historical Museum in Louisville, Colorado.
For Further Reading

Readers can get a sense of Agnes Wright Spring’s research and writing
style by finding her earliest books, Caspar Collins: The Life and Exploits
of an Indian Fighter of the Sixties and The Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage and
Express Routes. See also Near the Greats, Spring’s own record of her life
through the lens of interviews she conducted.
Interested readers may enjoy Buffalo Bill and His Horses and William
Chapin Deming of Wyoming: Pioneer Publisher, and State and Federal Official—A
Biography. Many of Spring’s oral history interviews are available online
through the American Heritage Center, Laramie, Wyoming. Unfortunate-
ly, many of Spring’s other works are out of print.
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COLORADO

HISTORY COLORADO | SPRING 2021

The Colorado Magazine (ISSN 2765-8856) contains

HISTORY COLORADO MEMBERS RECEIVE THE COLORADO MAGAZINE AS A BENEFIT OF MEMBERSHIP.

GREEN BEFORE GREEN WAS COOL,

“IT IS TO THIS PRINCELY PALACE THAT STRANGERS ARE

socioeconomic development. emerging global economy. Conse-

the Colorado Territory, it is on the basis of race. Applicants from

Mayor Federico Peña’s campaign vision to “Imagine a Great

future Denver traffic lanes, and building a park

“Three miles of filth to blacken and degrade

Agnes Wright Spring wrote, “During my years in public life I always

Kaylyn Mercuri Flowers holds bachelor’s degrees in histo-

For Further Reading

Fishers Peak (Colorado’s newest state

Become a Member today!

Members receive free tickets to

Through exhibits, programs, and experiences,

Make history with us and join FRONTERAS,

HISTORY EDUCATION HAS THE POWER TO TRANSFORM LIVES

FOR SCHOOLS: Aligned to academic standards and anchored in meaningful discourse,

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