Downtown History Tour

The building continues as a bank today and is on the National Register of Historic Places.  

A small creek named Little Dry Creek runs past the Surplus Store in Englewood. A tributary of the South Platte River, Little Dry Creek runs for approximately 10 miles and has historically been used for irrigation.

It was here, in the summer of 1858 that prospector William Green Russell from Georgia and his party of miners found $400 worth of placer gold (valued today at around $10,000) in the creek near where it joins the South Platte River. It was the first significant gold discovered in the Rocky Mountain region and it sparked the Colorado gold rush.

Within a few days of the discovery, John Cantrell, a traveling salesman from Kansas City, Kansas, had sold his whiskey supply and received payment in gold. He returned to Kansas City to restock, and showed the gold around. The following day, August 26, 1858, newspaper headlines proclaimed, “Gold in the Pikes Peak Region,” “The New Eldorado” and “Gold in Kansas Territory.”  

Within six months 40,000 people came to the area. Miners were followed by farmers, shop-keepers and town-builders. Within a year, the area counted 100,000 residents who built homes, stores and roads, began farming to supply food to resident and established Colorado’s first territorial government.

Irish immigrant Thomas Skerritt arrived in Colorado in 1860. Skerritt farmed in the lowland near Santa Fe Drive until a giant flood on Little Dry Creek in 1864 washed his farm away. Undeterred, Skerritt moved to higher ground next to the newly built Denver City Ditch, where he could obtain water. There he planted fruit trees and built a home, calling it Orchard Place.  

In 1864, wanting a road from Orchard Place to Denver, Skerritt hitched up his horse and dragged a large log perpendicular to the horse northward across the plains. Today we call that road South Broadway. 

The great western migration and development of Englewood had begun; and Little Dry Creek took its important place in the history of Englewood, Denver and Colorado!

This brochure is created by the City of Englewood in partnership with the Englewood Historic Preservation Society to showcase and celebrate Englewood’s rich history. 

We hope you will discover and explore the amenities offered at Englewood CityCenter and its surrounding area. 

Be sure to also pick up the Downtown Englewood History tour brochure to learn more about the unique history of our downtown area and take advantage of the shopping, restaurants, and activities it has to offer.