The history of the Old West is everywhere on the streets of Denver.
Take the origins of the peculiar street layout of a small section in the city’s Highlands neighborhood. Denver resident Larry Baker asked Colorado Public Radio to find out why the area doesn’t align with the rest of the city’s grid.
“I always, when driving around the area, recognize that the roads were a little unusual there, but I didn’t realize until the other day, just looking on a map and seeing how in that small square, those roads were just completely … seemingly arbitrarily just laid out that way,” Baker said.
To find the answer, CPR traced the area’s roots back to right around the time Colorado became a state in 1876. That’s when business partners William Jackson Palmer and Dr. William Bell were plotting out their vision for the hilly area north of city limits…