General William Larimer, Jr.

(b. Pittsburgh, PA, 1809-d. Leavenworth, KS, 1875)

General William Larimer, Jr., founded the upstart Denver City by crossing cottonwood sticks at the center of a square mile town plat on November 22, 1858. Larimer chose the east side of Cherry Creek because it was higher ground and on the more accessible side of the Cherry Creek and South Platte River trails. Larimer named the newborn metropolis for James W. Denver, governor of Kansas Territory, to help ensure that it would be chosen as the county seat of what was then Arapaho County, Kansas Territory.

In a letter to the wife and nine children whom he had left behind in Kansas, Larimer boasted that: "It is well the Pilgrims landed upon Plymouth Rock and settled up that country before they saw this one or that would now remain unsettled. Everyone will soon be flocking to Denver for the most picturesque country in the world, with fine air, good water, and everything to make man happy and live to a good old age."

Larimer fancied calling himself "General" after capturing that title in the Pennsylvania State Militia. The "general" did not discover gold or found the first town at the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte. He had merely followed the Russell party, which first discovered gold and platted the original settlement—Auraria on November 1, 1858. William Green Russell and his group of Georgians headed back to the South to join the Confederate Army. Larimer, the claim jumper, proclaimed himself Denver’s founding father. Without false (or true) modesty, Larimer boasted "I Am Denver City."

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