William N. Byers

(b. 1831-d. 1903; b. Fairmount Cemetery)

The greatest Denver booster of all, William Newton Byers was born on an Ohio farm but he did not stay put long. He headed west to Iowa and then to Omaha, the great jumping-off place and home base for the Union Pacific Railroad. Byers had helped lay out Omaha, which became the largest town between St. Louis and San Francisco. Succumbing to gold fever, he abandoned Omaha in 1859 for the Cherry Creek gold rush settlements. He wrote one of 17 1859 guidebooks to the new promised land, selling himself as well as thousands of others on the golden gamble called Denver City.

Byers published Denver’s first newspaper, The Rocky Mountain News, on April 23, 1859. The News puffed Denver as the pre-ordained metropolis of the Rockies, even imagining river traffic for the high, dry city on the shallow South Platte. Byers also used the News to promote agriculture. He offered free seeds to anyone stopping by his office, and publicized agricultural experiments. In the first issue of the News. The irrepressibe promoter championed irrigated farming as the way to make the Great American Desert bloom.

Newspapers attracted newcomers and capital to upstart towns such as Denver. Byers became the spokesman for Denver and outlasted dozens of ink-stained competitors. He was the voice of the city and might well have been elected mayor or governor or senator—except for an indiscretion with a woman not his wife. Yet he stuck with Denver—and his wife stuck with him. He helped to organize a Chamber of Commerce and tirelessly promoted Denver as the queen city of the Rockies.

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