When the prospect of gold brought settlers to Denver in 1858, settlements began to develop along the South Platte River. Like numerous other cities and towns that began before the advent of plumbing, settling along a river provided the most convenient access to a water supply. That’s right, the first ‘plumbing’ in Denver was the South Platte River.
People got their drinking water from the same river that carried away what goes down your toilet nowadays. Don’t be too grossed out, though, this is how most every settlement started throughout the world, and unfortunately, it’s how a significant number of people still operate today.
After the promise of gold diminished, people still came to the area for other reasons: land and commerce being the top two. Denver, like any other city in the country, would benefit as infrastructures like trains and roads began to develop. Denver grew, in large part, because of the major roadways and railways that intersect here. As more people arrived, the access to water grew in importance and so did the infrastructure.
Plumbing Before Denver
The history of plumbing systems in the western portion of the United States can actually be traced to the Hohokam Indians who vanished before 1450, several years before Christopher Columbus discovered America. Native American descendants called them the Hohokam (“the people who have gone”). These ancient humans had developed a system of canals that spanned nearly 250 miles and were as much as 80 feet wide and 20 feet deep. This system was similar to the ancient Roman aqueducts that carried water to Rome. While there has been no evidence of any piping discovered, the canal system provided a way to move water from its source to other desired locations. After that, it wasn’t until the middle 1800s before water distribution systems and associated plumbing began to be developed.
The earliest pipes were made from wood, partly because other materials were not available and partly because wood was in such an abundant supply. Wooden pipes were typically made from logs that were about 10 inches in diameter. They were cut into 7-9 foot lengths, after which the center was bored out to create a pipe. A cone shape on the end would allow the sections to be joined together to create a water line. This was true across much of the world until cast iron pipes began to be used as early as 1804, when the city of Philadelphia installed a new water delivery system. The benefit of taking waste water away from homes and other structures originated in 1855, when Chicago built a sewer system.
Denver would benefit from the previous technological advancements first seen in Philadelphia and Chicago, but did not finish a large part of the infrastructure until tragedy struck:
On May 19, 1864, just over a year after the fire, the spring melt combined with heavy rains caused severe flooding on Cherry Creek. The flooding severely affected the low-lying Auraria, destroying the Rocky Mountain News building, the Methodist Church, City Hall, and numerous offices, warehouses, and outbuildings. Eight Denver residents had been killed, and enormous number of livestock had been drowned. Financial losses totaled approximately $350,000 and left many homeless. The water was badly contaminated and threatened a major epidemic. Despite these overwhelming losses, rebuilding began almost immediately. Ignoring the risk, many rebuilt well within the flood plain, and flood waters continued to engulf Denver in 1875, 1878, 1912, and 1933. It was not until the 1950s, when the Army Corps of Engineers completed Cherry Creek Dam, that the flooding was stopped.
— Wikipedia
As the new infrastructure grew, Denver’s plumbing systems could grow. New developments arrived when the first city water tower was constructed in 1869 in Chicago as well as the prior National Public Health Act that was passed in England in 1848. These beneficial innovations would influence water safety around the world and in Denver as well. The first water heaters in private homes began to be installed in 1870, but there was still much to learn about proper temperatures and safety practices. Those advancements in plumbing technology would take many more years.
The development of high tank water closets in 1880 was a significant benefit to families, but they were not without their problems. The lack of knowledge regarding vent pipes and how to prevent water from siphoning out of the traps made the odor unbearable in many cases. These original toilets used 10 gallons of water per flush. With improvements over the years, todays units use around 1.6 gallons per flush.
Significant developments that still impact how plumbing is utilized today include the invention of the single handle faucet by Albert Moen in 1937. It was not until 1991 that the first domestic set of lead-free plumbing products were introduced when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated the Lead Copper Rule.
Denver’s water supply today comes, for the most part, from rivers and streams that are fed from mountain snowmelt.
The city has a system of tracking the flow of these streams to ensure an adequate supply of safe drinking water is always available. That’s a great thing that we can all be grateful for as it is this basic cleanliness that keeps outbreaks of all sorts of diseases from spreading.
