Pike's Peak gold rush

Placer gold found in 1858 near present-day Englewood led to the founding of Auraria and Denver City on opposite banks of Cherry Creek that year. Possibly 100,000 people headed for the Rockies under the slogan "Pikes Peak or Bust," and although many went home by mid-summer 1859, enough stayed for Congress to create Colorado Territory in February 1861. This was Cheyenne and Arapaho country. The 1861 Treaty of Fort Wise tried to make them give up most of northeastern Colorado, and the Sand Creek Massacre followed in 1864. Denver, the camp that outlasted the rush, is now Colorado's capital.