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===The Transcontinental Railroad===
With investment once again flowing into the Denver area transportation became a greater concern. Transporting goods to and from Denver was a large expense, an expense that railroads could alleviate. In 1862 the United States Congress passed the [[Pacific Railway Act]] and Coloradans were excited at the prospect of the railroad crossing the Rockies Mountains through Colorado despite the dismal surveys by [[John C. Frémont]] and [[John Williams Gunnison]]. When the [[Union Pacific Railroad]] choose to go north through [[Cheyenne, Wyoming]] many at the time expected that Cheyenne would blossom into the major population center of the region. Thomas Durant, vice president of the Union Pacific, pronounced Denver "too dead to bury." Colorado Territorial Governor [[John Evans (governor)|John Evans]] declared that "Colorado without railroads is comparatively worthless."<ref name=
[[File:Denver Union Station; Front end - October 11, 2004.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Front exterior of [[Union Station (Denver)|Union Station]] in downtown Denver.]]
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The [[Progressive Era]] brought an [[Efficiency Movement]] typified in 1902 when the city and Denver County were made coextensive. In 1904 [[Robert W. Speer]] was elected mayor and initiated several projects that added new landmarks, updated existing facilities, or improved the city's landscape including the [[Denver Arena Auditorium|City Auditorium]], [[Civic Center, Denver|the Civic Center]] and the [[Denver Museum of Nature and Science]].<ref>{{cite news | title =Some Things Denver Owes to Speer | page = 3 | work = [[Rocky Mountain News]] | date = 15 May 1918}}</ref> City leaders went to Washington D.C. and after assuring the politicians there that Denver was no longer a frontier town, secured the first major party convention in a western state, the [[1908 Democratic National Convention]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/may/31/1908s-hot-ticket-was-to-dnc/ | title=1908's Hot Ticket was to DNC}}</ref>
Denver pioneered the juvenile court movement under Judge [[Ben Lindsey (jurist)|Ben Lindsey]], who gained national fame for his efforts. Through his efforts, an act was passed creating a juvenile court in Denver which represented an important advance in relation of the law to children.<ref>{{harvnb|Campbell|1976}}</ref> In 1914, Emily Griffith, a Denver school teacher, opened the Opportunity School which featured language and vocational instruction as both day classes and night classes so that non traditional learners would have the opportunity for self-improvement. Also during this period Denver's park system was expanded and land in the mountains was acquired for a future mountain park system.<ref name=
Labor unions were active in Denver, especially the construction and printing crafts affiliated with the [[American Federation of Labor]] (AFL), and the railroad brotherhoods. After being welcomed at the 1908 Democratic National Convention, the AFL unions, who formed the Denver Trades and Labor Assembly, generally supported Democratic candidates.<ref>{{harvnb|Webb|2007|pp=82,189,366}}</ref> In early 1913, members of the [[Industrial Workers of the World]], known as the Wobblies, conducted a [[Free speech fights|free speech fight]] in Denver. City authorities had refused to allow IWW organizers to speak to people on street corners. Union members challenged the policy, with the aim of filling the jails to put pressure on city leaders. The Wobbly tactic, which they had employed successfully for half a decade throughout the North and West, clogged the courts so they couldn't handle anything but free speech cases. Taxpayers complained that they were being forced to feed "whole armies of jailed Wobblies."<ref>{{harvnb|Boyer|1975|p=174}}</ref> In her autobiography, [[Emma Goldman]] wrote of twenty-seven IWW members, arrested during the Denver free speech fight, who were "tortured in the sweat-box for refusing to work on the rock-pile. On their release they marched through the streets with banners and songs..."<ref>{{harvnb|Goldman|1970|p=534}}</ref> The union eventually won the right to speak to workers, and within a year had formed two Denver "branches."<ref>{{harvnb|Brundage|1994|pp=161–162}}</ref>
On the brink of World War I, Denver mirrored the rest of the nation in wanting to stay neutral. But once America entered the war in 1917, Denver contributed what it could to the war effort. Clothing and supplies were donated, children enrolled in agricultural and garden clubs to free up young men for the war, and mining and agricultural interests were expanded to support the troops and the nation. As prices for goods rose with the demand from the war effort farmers began planting crops in greater numbers and mining companies opened new mines for [[molybdenum]], [[vanadium]], and [[tungsten]].<ref name=
With the United States fighting the Germans in Europe, anti-German sentiment in Denver was at an all-time high. Before the war Germans had been a very prosperous immigrant group, who often congregated in their own ethnic clubs. They had enough political clout to have a law passed in 1877 that required German and gymnastics be taught in public schools, and until 1889 all of Colorado's laws were printed in English, Spanish, and German. The Germans built churches and owned interests in mining and agriculture, but many in the [[temperance movement]] primarily associated them with the production and consumption of alcohol. Believing all evil began with the drink, prohibitionists cracked down on "un-American" activity and in 1916 alcohol was banned in the state. Many saloon owners and brewers lost their jobs and with the outbreak of World War I, many others were fired and ostracized. German stopped being taught in schools and many Germans abandoned their heritage to avoid conflicts.<ref name=DenverImmagrants>{{ cite web |url=http://www.denvergov.org/AboutDenver/history_narrative_4.asp |title=Mile High City - 4. Immigrants |author=Thomas J. Noel |publisher=DenverGov |date= |accessdate=September 23, 2013 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090729024525/http://www.denvergov.org/AboutDenver/history_narrative_4.asp |archivedate=July 29, 2009}}</ref>
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When World War I ended, the economy continued to be strong for a short period. But with less demand for goods, prices dropped and [[Post–World War I recession|1918 saw a short recession]], followed by a more severe one [[Depression of 1920–21|between 1920 and 1921]]. The mining industry was hard hit by decreasing prices and increasing foreign competition during the post-war recession years. [[Coal mining in Colorado]] was particularly affected as alternative sources of fuel were widely adopted and labor strikes hurt production. In 1928 Denver was on the receiving end of a major natural gas pipeline from Texas and as more households and businesses switched to gas, the more demand for coal fell.<ref name=LandofContrasts>{{cite web|title=Land of Contrast: A History of Southeast Colorado|publisher=BLM Cultural Resources Series|url=http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/blm/co/17/chap12.htm|accessdate=May 28, 2013}}</ref>
▲ | first = Thomas B. | last = McKee | first2 = Nolan J. | last2 = Doesken | first3 = John | last3 = Kleist | first4 = Catherine J. | last4 = Shrier | contribution = A History of Drought in Colorado; Lessons Learned and What Lies Ahead | contribution-url = http://www.cwi.colostate.edu/publications/wb/9.pdf | year = 2000 | pages = | place = | publisher = Colorado Water Resources Research Institute, Colorado State University }}</ref> This favorable weather combined with war-time demand saw farmers over plant during World War I and significant price drops after the war ended caused many farmers significant losses.<ref name=Ubbelohde/> Costs began to exceed profits and many farmers were forced to sell their land which was then rented to others or simply left abandoned. [[Dryland farming]] was common on the prairies though many farmers removed the native grasses that helped control erosion. In 1929 the national economy crashed leading to the [[Great Depression]]. In 1930 the weather turned dry beginning the most widespread and longest lasting drought in Colorado history, a period of time that would later be referred to as the "[[Dust Bowl]]."<ref name=DROUGHT/> Dry weather, soil erosion, and a depressed economy led to a huge social upheaval felt across the entire nation.
The Dust Bowl decimated agriculture and the Great Depression caused industries and mines to close, their workers laid off. Many of these unemployed came to Denver looking for work and a better life. It was estimated that in 1933 one in four Denverites was out of work. The Hoover administration promised that recession would be over quickly but the economy continued to worsen and [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] won the 1932 presidential election with his promise of a "[[New Deal]]". The New Deal brought funds and jobs to Colorado and to Denver. The [[Historic American Buildings Survey]] hired architects and photographers to document historic buildings and in the process inspired the nascent historic preservation movement. The [[Civilian Conservation Corps]] built trails and campgrounds in Denver's Mountain Parks. The [[Works Progress Administration]] build roads, fixed schools and funded artists to decorate government buildings. The new roads and trails encouraged tourism and combined with improvements rail and air travel made Denver a hub for transportation.<ref name=tjn>{{cite web |url=http://www.denvergov.org/AboutDenver/history_narrative_7.asp |title=Mile High City - 7. Denver's ups and downs |author=Thomas J. Noel |publisher=DenverGov |date= |accessdate=May 28, 2013 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091016223650/http://www.denvergov.org/AboutDenver/history_narrative_7.asp |archivedate=October 16, 2009}}</ref><ref name=NewDealColorado>{{cite web |url=http://www.historycolorado.org/sites/default/files/files/OAHP/crforms_edumat/pdfs/1622.pdf |title=The New Deal in Colorado: 1933-1942 |author= |publisher=Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation Colorado Historical Society |date=August 13, 2008 |accessdate=May 28, 2013}}</ref>
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==21st century==
With Denver experiencing so much growth, the large scale transportation projects it was undertaking needed to be successful. Fortunately, T-REX was completed in November 2006, 22 months ahead of schedule. The success of T-REX led to public support for the [[
Through the late 1990s the majority of Denver's economy was concentrated in a few key sectors: energy, government and the military, technology, and agriculture. Over the next decade Denver and Colorado attracted new industries and the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) says the state now has 14 core industries including health care, financial services and tourism. This diversification of the economy helped cushion the city and state from the [[Great Recession|global recession of 2008-2010]]. The fact that Denver's tax base is made up mostly of sales and income tax meant that it felt the economic downturn faster than others, but this meant it also recovered more quickly, helping Denver weather the recession better than many other U.S. cities reliant mainly on property taxes.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/print-edition/2013/09/27/what-really-happened-on-the-way-to-2013.html?page=all |title=What really happened on the way to 2013? |author= Paula Moore |publisher=The Denver Business Journal |date=September 27, 2013 |accessdate=November 14, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/morning_call/2013/11/study-finds-denver-had-faster-recovery.html |title=Study finds Denver had faster recovery from recession |author=Staff |publisher=The Denver Business Journal |date=November 12, 2013 |accessdate=November 14, 2013}}</ref>
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* {{cite book | last = Brown | first = Robert L. | title = The Great Pike's Peak Gold Rush | publisher = Caxton Press | year = 1985 | isbn = 9780870045332 | ref = harv}}
* {{cite book | last = Brundage | first = David Thomas | title = The Making of Western Labor Radicalism: Denver's Organized Workers, 1878-1905 | publisher = University of Illinois Press | year = 1994 | isbn = 9780252020759 | url = | ref = harv}}
* {{cite journal | last = Campbell | first = D'Ann |
* {{cite thesis | type=Ph.D. | last = Carver | first = Sharon Snow | title = Club Women of the Three Intermountain Cities of Denver, Boise and Salt Lake City between 1893 and 1929. | publisher = Brigham Young University | year = 2000 | id = DAI 61(5): 2000-A. DA9972727 | url = | ref = harv}}
* {{cite book | last = Collins | first = Sherah | title = Aurora | publisher = Arcadia Pub | location = Charleston, SC | year = 2008 | isbn = 9780738548241 | ref = harv}}
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* {{cite book | last = Jones | first = William C. |last2= Forrest | first2=Kenton | title = Denver: A Pictorial History from Frontier Camp to Queen City of the Plains | publisher = Colorado Railroad Museum | year = 1993 |edition = 3rd | isbn = 9780918654496 | url = | ref = harv}}
* {{cite thesis | type=Ph.D. | last = Kaufmann | first = Karen Malmuth | title = Voting in American Cities: The Group Interest Theory of Local Voting Behavior | publisher = University of California, Los Angeles | year = 1998 | id = DAI 1999 59(9): 3629-A. DA9906182 | url = | ref = harv}}
* {{cite journal |last1= Kaufmann |first1= Karen M. |last2= |first2= |year= 2003 |title= Black and Latino Voters in Denver: Responses to Each Other's Political Leadership |journal=[[Political Science Quarterly]] |volume= 118 |issue=1 |pages=107–125 |publisher= Academy of Political Science
* {{cite book | last = Kelly | first = George V. | title = The Old Gray Mayors of Denver | publisher = Pruett Publishing Company | year = 1974 | isbn = 9780871080783 | url = | ref = harv}}
* {{cite book | last = King | first = Clyde Lyndon | title = The history of the government of Denver with special reference to its relations with public service corporations | publisher = The Fisher Book Company | location = Denver, Colorado | year = 1911 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_zw4AAAAMAAJ | ref = harv}}
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