City tours takes you to denver. We will visit Historic Sites in colorados capital. People drive past the denver mint all the time. It is right on a major thoroughfare, but people dont know very much about its history. It has a fascinating history, and it was a story that needed to be told. Capitol,lorado state like any capital, serves as the heart of its community. It is where history is reserved. There are murals, paintings, stained glass windows that celebrate and educate the people anybody whoand comes to see the state. Announcer john murray talks about denver today and shows us some of the historic neighborhoods. This is downtown denver, colorados capital city. Lived downtown for over a decade. The city has changed. T is a city on the move this is john murray, the city hall reporter for the denver post. While we were in town on our cspan cities to her, he took a ride along in our vehicle cities tour, he took a ride along in our vehicle. Give me a sense of the city. Denver is a city that was a rigidly a silver and gold, boom and bust originally a silver and gold, boom and bust city. In recent years, it has been a western city on the rise. It has a tech sector. Growth has been the biggest dynamic here for the last 30 years or so. What is denvers economic makeup . John denver is going through a lot of economic change because the cap is widening so quickly. Affordability is an issue here. People who make good salaries live comfortably. People who are middleclass and below are struggling to keep up with property taxes or rent. That is pricing some people out of the city. Teachers,c is that firefighters, middleclass employees are finding it harder to stay in denver. Its much more expensive. Denver has added 80,000 people in five years. It is growing very quickly. People here . Inging the strong economy, the quality of life. Keep going straight. You will meet so many people here who have moved here in the last few years. Tell me about the neighborhood we are about to head into. John you are about to meet the part of denver that has changed the most in the last few years. The riverfront area and union station, and downtown. Union station just reopened a couple of years ago after a 500 million renovation. It has a new transit center, new bus center, rail lines going in. Some will be opening in the next couple of years. Been a number of buildings going around. What was it like previously . 25 years ago, 30 years ago, this whole area was a big railyard. It is now fashionable neighborhoods. Who lives here . It is not all millennials, it is millennials with College Educations and good paying jobs. It is a pricey neighborhood. And then you get to emptynesters and people of retirement age. It is mostly apartments, but there are some condos. Is that changing the look of denver . It is a beautiful city. The Rocky Mountains backdrop. See warehouses over here, but i see new construction. Making central denver into a much different place. Light rail lines, heavy rail lines, a train to the airport that starts right over here. That just opened in the last couple of months. All of these changes are giving denver a more urban character and more urban feel. We are still a city in transition. What is the downside of living in denver . Renting anre apartment, you dont know how much rent is going to be going up. Digits went up by double percentage wise last year. That is hard to deal with when your salary is not going up that much. The cost of living is rising but what you are making is not. Right. Its like the rest of the country. Denver is a diversifying city. It has always had diversity. There are some africanamerican neighborhoods and strongholds, one of which we will be going to. Most of the Ethnic Diversity though has been hispanics. We have a large latino population. Is that some of these newer neighborhoods that are overpriced are also mostly white. I have to say, it is a beautiful city, but i have seen a lot of homeless. What is the solution to that . It is kind of similar to the homeless dynamic you see in portland or austin. Denver is known as a cold city, it is not east coast cold. Its pretty temperate. Just as we are a draw for millennials and people on the higher economic demographics of society, it is also a draw for ,omeless and, quite honestly there are people who move here and dont realize how expensive it is and get forced out onto the streets. Have the issue of younger people who are homeless because they might have greg issues. They might be drawn here by the legal marijuana. Issues. Might have drug they might be drawn here by legal marijuana. The city is still working on trying to solve some of those issues, but we havent gotten very far. Historicallys africanamerican neighborhood. When the rest of the city wasnt so welcoming to africanamericans, it was formed. It has jazz clubs and social clubs. Black has large communities as a lot of big cities do. It was a very closeknit community and still is in many respects. What are some of the that old from neighborhood . Quite a few people have lived here their entire lives, but it is a rapidly changing neighborhood. You will see some construction. Is in five points now . This is an historic. Ntersection there is washington. There is welton. , but alsousinesses some new restaurants, some like, hipster joints, and a lot of white people live in this neighborhood now. There are africanamerican people who move here worth their latino with their spouses. That does diversify it, but it is mostly white people moving in. If you were to have come to five points 20, 30, 40 years ago, what would you have seen . I think you would have seen a much moreod that was africanamerican, much more culturally proud. It is still culturally proud, in the 1960s and 1970s, it was a city that was a neighborhood that was struggling a lot compared to the rest of denver economically. Tell me about that struggle. And 1980s,70s denver was part of the oil boom and bust cycle. The economy hit the floor, and so you had a downtown that was parking lot than an office park. It was a less urban downtown or central denver area. That all has changed. So, you are on the government beat. What are some of the shifts you have seen . On the city council, we had elections last year, and we had a lot of turnover because there are term limits here. One thing you did see was a lot of younger councilmembers. And 40s,n their 30s whereas it used to be, as in any urban city council, it tends to be older folks, retirees. Now you have younger folks representing a little bit more of the millennial residents and their points of view. Some are on the preservationist bandwagon, but some are more in favor of the marijuana industry. There are concerns and they try to balance those concerns. I think you see a loosening on the city council of attitudes. So, we went under i 70. Is there a distinction that we are in a different neighborhood . Yes, this is a hilarious once this is a neighborhood south of the highway. Urbankind of a classic story. It was a very proud, workingclass neighborhood, and then the federal government built a highway through it and toward a part and it has not recovered since. Is still an area of high home ownership. It has a fairly large latino population, spanishspeaking population. On the left, you have the show. Al western gun show big state fair. You have a rodeo. People come from all over the country. There are all kinds of competitions. So in this pretty urban area, youre going to bring your tle the stock show draws tons of people. Its kind of a weird dynamic. Here you have a Marijuana Production facility. Because of zoning requirements, they are in industrial neighborhoods. Industrialarea where and residential mix and that has been a problem. There has been a push back because industrial is taking over all of these spaces. There is a concern about neighborhood growth in the future. I am sure people in colorado get sick of being known for, hey, thats the place where marijuana is legal, but it is kind of fascinating, coming from there is some legality, but when you drive through denver, there are dispensary signs everywhere. Its like an apple store. There are more dispensaries than starbucks and mcdonalds combined. , this building is a production house for marijuana. Will turn left. This was the first victim of neighborhood push back. Came up for renewal in thelast couple of months, city agreed that it was a Bad Influence on the area. So, they are going to lose their , and this is the first time the city has denied the renewal of a license. There has been some pushback. Also, you are supposed to only use it privately. You cannot use it in public. Violate that law. Then there is a question about whether people should be allowed to vape or use edibles. And then people are applying for permits for bars to pick consumption areas within their buildings. So it will be like the old days when you went into a restaurant and had a smoking or nonsmoking section. So, we have been to three. Ifferent neighborhoods what is next for denver . Where do you see your city . Denver has become a bigger, more vibrant city. A lot of people are moving here. In a lot of ways, it is a success story, but it has a lot of challenge. The next decade will determine whether it becomes a city of economic equality or a city with a widening gap between the rich and the poor. Denver doesnt want to become San Francisco. It would love to have San Franciscos vibrancy, but it doesnt want the issues that exist economically there. It is a problem that a lot of cities are facing, but i think denver is hoping to put a stamp on these issues and solve them more than other cities have. ,nnouncer all weekend American History tv is featuring colorado. Ender is a distribution hub for many products, including beer denver is a distribution hub for many products, including beer. Learn more about denver all weekend on American History tv. People in denver drive past the denver mint all the time. It is right in downtown denver. It is on a major thoroughfare, but people dont know much about and its a story that needs to be told. In 1859, denver was founded. It was a wild west town. A tense city with lots of saloons and bordellos. Frominers would come down the mountains with bags of gold and and go into the saloon, in the saloon, the bartenders would reach into the gold dust bags and take out a fistful of gold to pay for the whiskey. So obviously, having fat fingers was a major requirement for a bartender. But a city cannot really survive on a bag of gold dust economy, so denver needed a mint. The mint provided reliable measures of gold for commerce and shipping. We are in front of the denver mint. 1904. Was built in , and itbegan in 1906 has been the pride and joy of denver ever since. Denver itself had gotten rich from mining, and it the queen citye of the planes, the center of commerce, the leader in the western United States. Fathers at that point decided that a mint they could be proud of was going to be proud of that process part of that process. Sover was the wild west, bankse industry, private stepped into field fill that void. Came in and set up a private mint. The federal government did not appreciate private bankers minting coins, but it was not illegal, so they could not do anything about it. Bought the mint in 1882 and begin manufacturing gold bars at the first denver mint facility. Congress passed an act to form a mint at denver, and that language would become very important years later. On aint was modeled Florentine Villa created for the med achieve family in europe in italy. Mily the grantor was expensive even in its day. Having such a beautiful grand facility that was all so a u. S. Mint put denver on the map. The denver mint has been robbed twice. The first time was an inside job. Orval harrington worked in the mint for many years. He was a trusted worker. He had been working at the mint for many years, handling gold every single day, but he knew he would never make more than four dollars a month, and it frustrated him. To steal one gold mint, and hem the was going to do it between iods so that no one would really be aware of the embezzlement. To dispose of the gold, he a gold planeasing in colorado, melting it down in colorado, melting it down, and claiming he had minded himself. Itwas an ingenious plan and might have worked. But he stole too many bars. Day, a coworker noticed him behaving suspiciously and alerted the authorities, in this local sheriff, and they confronted him, and he confessed he had a gold bar on him. He spent years in leavenworth, kansas, in the prison there. In the 1930s, the federal government decided to move the stored in San Francisco to denver. They did it for a couple of reasons. Probably first and foremost was the fact that they wanted to put a thousand miles of desert terrain between our gold reserves and the coast. While fort knox was under construction, virtually all of gold reserves restored at the denver mint. There has never been a greater amount of gold in the history of the planet then there was in denver during the great depression. During world war ii, the denver mint went to war just like every other factory in the country. The men who had been operating the factories went on to war and women filled their places. This was considered mans work. But women excelled at it. Production oft coins actually rose during world war ii, and of course, after world war ii, the men came home and came back to their jobs at the denver mint, and the women went home. Over the years, there have been several superintendence of the denver mint who were women. Were not working on the manufacturing floor, they were running the place. In the 1960s, the federal government decided they needed a new mint facility and they wanted to move the denver mint away from downtown denver. You can imagine the congressman from all over the country were clamoring to get the mint in their district. There was a movement to take the mint out of there. Denver leaders wanted to keep the mint, so they played the rd, thesional bill ca bill that called for a mint at denver. A huge fight in rep did as denvers leaders try to keep the mint right here in fight upted as denvers leaders tried to keep the mint right here in denver, and ultimately, congress decided it did not need a new mint facility, but that the mint could be upgraded and stay right here in denver. Our Comcast Cable partners work with cspan cities and staff when we travel to a explore its history. A group of prospectors turned denver into a gold mining town. Learn more about denver all weekend on American History tv. I think what is so unique and interesting about this refuge is that most of it is tallGrass Prairie. 600 species of plants. This is unique to north america colorado. Has of the front range experienced this at some level. To have eight tall Grass Prairie is pretty amazing. We are really looking forward to it. Ing people learn about it really is a story of transformation, how this land. As been used in some anyways in so many ways. I think this is an amazing opportunity to help people learn what our conservation future is. We do have porcupines at here. Areink a lot of people surprised to learn the porcupines live on the prairie. Elklso have mildew your and l deer. And milde common. Are occasionally, there is a bear. The connectivity of this open helps some of those larger animals, especially elk, because they do move from the summer to winter range. In the distance, you can see lindsay ranch. The house was constructed in 1949. Weically, the site history, thisnative americans use up until the property was taken over in 1951. We can go out and just look at the edge of the property where the department of energy still retains that interior core where the plant used to be. The Rocky Flats Plant was in operation from 19521992. It was a plutonium trigger. Roduction site this was one piece of the Nuclear Weapon production. Pieces were shipped for assembly and the final product was at the other site. It was one of 13 sites across armsountry supporting the race, so was a National Security priority to build these over time there were roughly 800 buildings on the site. Most of the activity was in the , andal part of the refuge by theow maintained department of energy. Missile technology at that time was inadequate. Reach land. National security was the reason this site was selected. It was avery National Security issue. People were concerned about safety and our countries countrys protection and security. There was a Larger Movement in the 1970s and 1980s, there was environmental interest and concern about what these materials plutonium has a very long life span, so there lot of concern in the community about proper disposal of whatever materials were used weapons. Tion of these there was an fbi raid of the plant based on concerns of the health and safety of workers as well as contamination. Production ceased at that time. In 1982, i believe that was the final year of production. A larget point on, effort was directed at cleanup of the site. The cleanup was an extensive with a lot of people, very organized and systematic. It was the buildings were taken down. The materials were transported offsite. Allard, senator wayne and senator mark udall of creatinghe idea a reserve out here. In 2000, they continued that effort. In 2001, they drafted and finalized the rocky flats act. Fish and wildlife began to manage this as a national refuge. The department of energy still maintains roughly 1300 acres of the site, and they have ongoing monitoring of the site. I think thats one of the Great Stories of this particular site is that this is a former production site that is now a. Ational wildlife refuge it is truly a story of transformation and i think the amazing diversity of how the land can recover after there has been a disturbance. Landscape and vegetation continue to evolve. Cspan is in denver, colorado, learning more about the citys rich history. Built onhigh city was the boom and bust of the gold and silver industries. Oflearn more about the crash 1893. In 1859, in denver, gold was first discovered. Silver mining really hit its payday in the 1880s, late 1870s, and really the 1880s with thever sherman silver act. That ensure the federal government would purchase a large quantity of silver at a fixed price. President Grover Cleveland repeal the silver inrman act, which he did 1883, and the price of silver immediately plummeted. People lost their fortunes overnigh