Documentary History of American Water-works

Denver

Denver, Colorado

Denver was established in 1859.

The Capitol Hydraulic Company of Arrapahoe County was incorporated in 1860 by A. C. Hunt, Charles H. Gratiot, John A. Clark, Thomas Pollock, Henry Allen, William M. Slaughter, Richard Sopris, A. P. Vasquez, A. Sagendorf, W. N. Byers, H. H. Scovill, Jr., J. A. McDonell, F. Z. Solomon, and John H. Wing "to conduct the water from both said streams by canal or ditch across the plains or intervening lands to the cities of Auraria, Denver and Highland, in the county of Arapahoe, territory of Kansas, and have the exclusive privilege of using and controlling the same for mechanical, agricultural, mining and city purposes."

The first waterworks were built by the Denver City Water Company in 1872.

The Denver Union Water Company was bought by the Denver Water Board on August 6, 1918 for $14 million.

The waterworks are currently owned by the Denver Board of Water Commissioners.

References
1860 An act to incorporate the Capitol Hydraulic Company of Arrapahoe County. February 21, 1860.

1867 An act to change the name of the Capitol Hydraulic Company. January 10, 1867. Shareholders authorized to change name to Platte Water Company.

1872 The Rocky Mountain News, January 4, 1872, Page 1.
Our streets were enlivened yesterday by the first practical working exhibition of the Holly water works. Hose were attached to three hydrants in F street, and water thrown to a distance of about ninety feet, with a pressure of one hundred pounds at the works and one boiler under fire. A stream wis thrown at least one hundred and twenty feet into the air at the works. The exhibition attracted large crowds.

1872 "The Holly Water Works," The Rocky Mountain News, January 7, 1872, Page 1.
Yesterday afternoon a grand experimental test was made of the Holly water works system which has just been introduced into our city, and the result was most satisfactory to the thousands of tax payers, and excessively gratifying to the score of stockholders who gathered to see “how the old thing works."

1881 Report of Colorado State Board of Health
Page 63: History of an Epidemic of Typhoid Fever in Denver, Colorado, by H. A. Lemen

1881 Denver, Engineering News, 8:469 (November 19, 1881)

1882 Denver from "The Water-Supply of Certain Cities and Towns of the United States," by Walter G. Elliot, C. E., Ph. D.

1885 "Denver Water Works," Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the American Water Works Association 6:119-120 (June, 1886)
A description of the Denver Water Works as published by the Company April 15, 1885.

1888 "The Denver Water-Works," by S. Fortier, Engineering News 20:222-224 (September 22, 1888)

1888 "Denver," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 1.

1890 "Denver," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 2.

1891 "The Denver City Water Works Company," Commercial and Financial Chronicle 52:975-976 (June 27, 1891)

1891 "Denver," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 3.

1892 "The Water System of Denver," Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, 74(1894):387+ (January 2, 1892)

1893 Wooden stave pipe for high water pressure : the great Colorado invention, by Charles P. Allen

1894 "The Water Works of Denver, Colorado," by James D. Schuyler, Read September 20, 1893, Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers 31:135-173 (February, 1894)

1897 "The Denver Union Water Company," Fire and Water Engineering 22:233 (July 10, 1897) | Also here |

1897 "Denver," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 4.

1898 "The Denver Union Water Company," Fire and Water Engineering 23:68 (February 26, 1898) | Also here |

1904 "Lake Cheeseman Dam and Reservoir," by Charles L. Harrison and Silas H. Woodward, Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers 53:89-209 (December 1904)

1918 City and County of Denver v. Denver Union Water Co., 246 U.S. 178, March 4, 1918, United States Supreme Court

1962 "Denver," from Public Water Supplies of the 100 Largest Cities in the United States, 1962, US Geological Survey Water Supply Paper 1812, by Charles Norman Durfor and Edith Becker

1966 History of the Denver Water System, by Earl L. Mosely | also here |