Citizen's Guide to Colorado's Environmental Era

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J.� ,ed Flooding took a terrible environmental and economic toll on early Denver. Here Cherry Creek has washed a huge erosive channel through the middle of town. Denver Mayor Robert W. Speer cleaned up, channeled and landscaped Cherry Creek and began work on making the South Platte River a parkway drive. and citizens' groups with technical assis- tance, trail planning, and coordination with other agencies. ( Waterway, restoration also received t )' a lift in 1992 when Coloradans voted to create the Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) Trust Fund. The GOCO Amendment to the State Constitution allows a state lottery whose proceeds . ; help preserve and enhance parks, rivers, trails and open spaces. Since it began awarding grants in 1994., GOCO has conferred almost $500 million for more than 2,100 projects statewide, including many waterway improvements. River restoration and reclamation projects are occurring all around the state of Colorado. In many instances, it's as easy as heading to the nearest water- way to discover local improvements., t South Platte River Both the North and South Platte rivers are born in Colorado, cradled respectively in mountain -rimmed North Park and South Park. Two French explorers, the brothers Paul and Pierre Mallet, en route to Santa Fe in 1739 dubbed it La Riviere Platte (flat or shallow). Major Stephen H. Long, who-first officially explored the South Platte for the U.S.; was, like Mark Twain, underwhelmed by -this Western river whose valley he mapped as "The Great American Desert." Long argued that Colorado's waterways would not support Agriculturally-minded Americans. Nevertheless, the South Platte river- bank became the most traveled immigrant trail into Colorado during the Gold Rush. From a foot and wagon path, it evolved into the state's main railroad and indus- trial corridor. The stream that Stephen Long described in 1820 as clear, cool and delicious became murky with smelter, stockyard, factory and other waste. By 1900, Denver's South Platte River and Cherry Creek had been declared unsafe health hazards. Some proposed cover- ing the streams over and officially con- verting them to the public sewers they had become. Fortunately, Denver Mayor Robert W. Speer had a better idea. He cleaned up, channeled and landscaped Cherry Creek and began work on mak- ing the South Platte River a parkway drive. Speer's plan much later became reality thanks to Mayors Bill McNichols, Federico Pena and Wellington Webb, -who gave Denver the state's first greenway park and trail system. The transformation of waterways to greenway trails for non - motorized trans- portation began in Denver after June 16, 1965.. That day the normally tame river, swollen by rain, overflowed its channel, washed out 26 major bridges and destroyed more than $300 million in property. After the 1965 flood, Denver Mayor William H. McNichols, Jr., State Senator Joe Shoemaker, and others began the cleanup. Shoemaker, who had been Denver's man- ager of public works and then a state sena- tor and head of the powerful Legislative Joint Budget Committee, took a keen inter- est in the South Platte Bottoms. He noted that the South Platte was the city's longtime dump. In his book, Returning the Platte to rtg yYS F/; , "Ugly things do not please. It is much easier to love a thing of beauty —and this applies to cities, fountains, statues, lights, music and parks make people love the place in which they live, "proclaimed Denver mayor Robert Speer in 1916.