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Were There Other Non-Native Settlements Here Before Denver? In 1857, a year before Denver was founded, Spanish-speaking prospectors settled along the South Platte near where Florida Avenue crosses the river today, according to Jerome Smiley’s 1901 “History of Denver.” Called Mexican Diggings, their settlement is gone without a trace, and not even a historical marker currently identifies the place of one of Denver’s earliest non-Native settlements.
- Courtesy "Dr. Colorado" Tom Noel