While transplants often move to Denver in search of fresh mountain air, the Mile High City has always struggled with pollution. News reports of Denver’s smoggy atmosphere date back to the 1800s, shortly after the city’s founding.
By the 1980s, the brown cloud hanging over Denver had a national reputation. After the Denver Broncos were blown out in Super Bowl XXII in 1988, CBS Evening News reporter Bob McNamara got in one more dig, saying the 42-10 loss to the Washington Redskins (now the Commanders) must be hard to swallow “for a town that’s never been number one in anything but carbon monoxide levels.”
Conditions have improved in recent decades, but the city’s persistent haze continues to confound Coloradans to this day. Rob in Arvada asked: “Looking east from the foothills, why is downtown Denver often surrounded by a dirty-looking grey cloud? Is it pollution or something else? How come it’s worse some days than others?”…