Water Supply Infrastructure of Early Denver Michael J. Kolb 1 and Gene Wheaton 2 Accepted version, Journal of Urban History, 1–20, © The Author(s) 2023, DOI: 10.1177/00961442231197438 journals.sagepub.com/home/juh Abstract The City of Denver originated as a gold-mining town. Its geographic location and semi-arid environment posed unique challenges to the development of its water supply infrastructure. Multi-scalar historical and archaeological analyses, reveal how the city coped with the challenges of water scarcity and distribution over time, illustrating the evolution of water management practices, and the ways in which infrastructure and governance systems evolved to meet changing needs and priorities. Historical analysis maps the changes in urban water infrastructure (cisterns, ditches, sewers, artesian wells, reservoirs) using a systematic documentation review of the Denver newspaper citations between 1860 and 1929. This is corroborated through contextual investigation and archaeological excavations. Taken together, the research demonstrates how the residents of early Denver were forced to continually seek new water sources for distribution even after other provisional priorities such as sewage management and flood control were initiated. Keywords cistern system · Denver; water supply management · Denver; early modern · Denver; water infrastructure; cisterns; ditches; sewers; wells; reservoirs The abundant greenery and numerous reservoirs of modern Denver, Colorado, belie the city’s early water provision struggles during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Unlike many other cities in North America that were established near large bodies of water or major river systems, Denver was founded in 1858 as a dusty gold-mining boom town in the arid plains of the American West, at the confluence of the Cherry Creek and the shallow South Platte River. The early settlement was described by long-time resident and historian Jerome Smiley as an “uncouth” place, “presenting aspects of extreme dreariness” due to a lack of any noteworthy water source. 1 Barren of greenery except for a few stands of cottonwoods and shrubs, the confluence was better suited as a traditional meeting place for the nomadic Arapaho and Cheyenne peoples rather than an influential Euro-American settlement. Yet, the allure of the gold rush turned Denver into an instant city, enthusiastically described by travelers as the ✉ Michael J. Kolb mkolb5@msudenver.edu Gene Wheaton gene.wheaton@ccd.edu 1 Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Denver, USA 2 Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Community College of Denver, Denver, USA