The Water Supply Infrastructure of Early Denver
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6007589 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael Kolb (0000-0002-5417-6816, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA, corresponding author), Gene Wheaton (Community College of Denver) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 51 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 268-287 |
| Publication date | 2025-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Urban History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0096-1442 • E-ISSN: 1552-6771 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00961442231197438 |
| OpenAlex | W4386569487 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
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 archeological 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, and reservoirs) using a systematic documentation review of the Denver newspaper citations between 1860 and 1929. This is corroborated through contextual investigation and archeological 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
Agriculture · Archaeology · Business · Civil engineering · Corporate governance · Documentation · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Excavation · Flood control · Flood myth · Geography · Sanitary sewer · Sewerage · Water resource management · Water scarcity · Water supply · American Environmental and Regional History · Archaeology and Natural History · Engineering · Environmental Engineering · Environmental Science · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |