The Bottoms

The Bottoms. Panning Denver's History. , The rich bottomlands between the South Platte River and the rail yards have been called “the Bottoms” for over a century. At times, the site occupied a lowly place in Denver’s history. Today, however, the Bottoms are coming up., Life on the Edge , For thousands of years before the arrival of whites, many groups of native people camped here on the river’s edge. Since then, the site has been a gold mining camp, an amusement park, a truck farming community and a squatters’ camp. Rich in soil and history, the Bottoms are flourishing once again with the revitalization of the Central Platte Valley. , Global Shanty Town , At first, Colorado's railroad and mining companies hired Irish and Chinese workers to perform their hardest labor. Later, they recruited Italians, Poles and other Eastern Europeans. The Bottoms became home for poor people from many nations, especially after the Italians migrated to North Denver. , "Junkers" began to camp in the Bottoms at night, roaming the city's alleys by day in search of discarded treasures. Mostly of Eastern European descent, these early environmentalists recycled rags, bottles, scrap iron and other trash for a few pennies. , Hard Times , When the Great Depression struck in the 1930s, droves of unemployed people set up camp colonies in the Bottoms. Living in shacks, tents and cardboard boxes, whole families struggled to survive the hard times. , One squatters' camp along the river near Alameda Avenue was "home" to 303 people, including 63 women and 74 children. A Rocky Mountain News reporter investigated the camp and found it clean, orderly and staffed with a volunteer doctor and nurse. The camp's residents were patriotic and family-loving, seeking only food, shelter and jobs. , Denver's First Little Italy , Many of the settlers along this part of the South Platte came from Italy. Here some built wooden houses and planted vegetable gardens. The less fortunate lived under the viaducts or in tents and sold wild watercress and driftwood on Denver streetcorners. , The Bottoms was often the first stop for young Italian men who camped and worked in the rail yards. As the fortunes of the Italians improved, most moved further west into North Denver's more upscale "Little Italy" neighborhood near 36th and Navajo Streets. , Taking Back The River , By the 1930s, the quality of the South Platte's water was as poor as the quality of life on its banks. Untreated industrial and human waste flowed freely into the river. Although hundreds of people lived here, the Bottoms was a dangerously toxic no man's land. , New Deal programs put the unemployed to work cleaning up the south Platte flood plain. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civil Works Administration (CWA) hired thousands of Coloradans to take back the river. A new sewage disposal plant was built in 1939, and the city's typhoid, diarrhea and enteritis death rates began to fall. But tragedy returned to the Bottoms in 1965 when the worst flood in Denver's history killed 23 people. , Across The Fruitful Plain , The Italian farmers who settled the Bottoms found conditions here ripe for gardening: fertile soil, plenty of water and a sunny growing season. The flood plain quickly blossomed with truck gardens. Some growers saved enough to buy a horse and wagon. Their songs echoed through the streets of Denver: "Vegetable Man! Vegetable Man! Fresh tomatoes, celery and strawberries!" , [photo captions] , . During the Great Depression, many unemployed people spent days washing out sand from the South Platte River. None of these latterday gold prospectors struck it rich. But you can pan flecks of pay dirt from the sandy river bottom even today. , . Although the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes dominated the Colorado prairies in the 1800s, Ute hunters from the mountains also camped beside the South Platte. , . A Chinese family settles into life in America near the rail yards. , . Emily Griffith Opportunity School offered classes in the old-fashioned, labor-intensive process of gold placer mining. Some entrepreneurs set up their own panning operations. “Fred’s Gold Mine” at 38th Street on the Platte rented pans to greenhorn prospectors for a dollar. , . Growers produced bountiful harvests of vegetables, fruits and flowers to sell at local farmers’ markets. , . As the Mile High City grew, many truck farmers expanded their operations, opening restaurants, groceries, pasta factories and wholesale produce companies. Some of these firms still operate around the South Platte bottomlands and are run by descendants of Italian pioneers. , . Through the CWA, 1,000 men were employed to fortify the eroding banks of the South Platte and Cherry Creek. Thousands more found work cleaning out trash and debris from the river. , Photographs courtesy of The Denver Public Library and The Colorado Historical Society. , This project was made possible by a State Historical Grant awarded by The Colorado Historical Society. , Additional support was provided by the Department of Parks and Recreation, City and County of Denver, Wellington E. Webb, Mayor, 1993-2003; and the Mayor's South Platte River Commission.