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William Larimer, who was originally from Kansas, settled on the east side of Cherry Creek in 1858 with his son and 4 other men. Larimer’s group laid out the town and named streets after themselves. Wynkoop, Curtis, and Larimer are all founders of Denver. The Colorado area was part of the Kansas Territory, so he decided to call the town Denver City after James W. Denver who was the governor of the Kansas Territory. Ironically, Denver had resigned a few weeks earlier, unknown to Larimer. The state broke away from it in 1859 and formed the Territory of Jefferson at first, but then the 1861-Act of Congress organized the free Territory of CO." – Courtesy of Ornella Dettori