The Colorado State Capitol is a destination for many of our tour groups.  It is also the title of a thoroughly researched and well-written book by Dr. Derek Everett.  This book is a direct result of Derek’s long-time interest in the Capitol.  That interest includes his work as a student intern and summer guide at the Capitol.  He has continued as a volunteer Capitol guide through his years in graduate school and now as a college instructor at Metropolitan State College and Colorado State University.  Some of our RMGA members have had the pleasure of auditing Derek’s class at Metro.  Others will remember meeting Derek at our June, 2010, meeting at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge when he attended as a guest.

Derek’s book, The Colorado State Capitol, is available on-line through the University Press of Colorado.  It is available for purchase at the Capitol.  You also will find it at most local libraries.  

Guide Line Review


ON THE STATE CAPITOL GROUNDS. . .


RMGA members gathered in Baerrenson Room, Tivoli Student Union Building, Auraria Higher Education Campus, for February’s meeting.  The Student Union Building, formerly known as the Tivoli Brewery, is part of the shared campus of University of Colorado Denver, Metropolitan State College, and Community College of Denver.  Total enrollment at the shared location is about 45,000 full and part-time students.  About ½ to 2/3 of the students attend Metro. 


Our speaker was Derek Everett (PhD in History), a professor at Metro.  Derek has written a book, The Colorado State Capitol:  History, Politics, Preservation, emphasizing the symbolism and significance.  His talk was accompanied by slides showing the Capitol at various times over the past 100 years; these accentuated his lecture. 

The Capitol is considered the “center” of the State.  Construction took 15 years (1886-1901) with some delay due to the Silver Panic of 1893.  By then, only the exterior of the building was completed.  The Building had been designed to hold every office of state government from the Governor’s office to the State Assembly to the Historical Society, to Railroad and Mining Commissions.  Prior to combining all in the Capitol, there were state government offices rented all over the City of Denver.  Today the Capitol complex includes a dozen other structures which house state government.  It was/is a unifying force for the political community which includes many diverse interests and peoples. There has been almost no restoration to the exterior with exceptions of several Dome re-gildings. 

It is a place where State legislators gather to decide what and how the State’s business should be and be dealt with.  Currently the State House of Representatives and the State Senate are in their 120-day Annual Session.  The Capitol is used also as a gathering place to celebrate great events of the times, such as the end of the Spanish-American War in 1899.  Any display here gives more importance to the person or group presented.  The Capitol is the most prominent place to get your point across.  Any protest staged here (example:  the Westboro Baptist Church) gives more importance to the protest.  Memorial services are held in the Capitol for the prominent/famous, such as that of John Evans (2nd Territorial Governor) in 1897.  Other prominent people have had memorials in the Capitol, including Silver King Horace Tabor, showman Buffalo Bill Cody (1917), and in more recent years, Vicki Buckley, a Secretary of State.

Eliza Routt, wife of John Routt, the last Colorado Territorial Governor and the first Colorado State Governor, was president of the Women’s group.  They wanted to donate artwork for the Capitol grounds. They chose a model of an American Indian standing over a slain bison.  Symbolism describes a meaning behind art work.  Such artwork includes Preston Power’s sculpture The Closing Era. Powers was an art professor at the University of Denver, and son of Hiram Powers, an influential and prolific artist whose many examples of sculptured busts are in Washington, D.C.  By 1895, grading began to beautify the grounds even though construction was not complete.  The sculptured piece was ordered.  The Closing Era was intended to be a tribute to the end of the American frontier.  Cast in Italy, it was ready for showing at the 1893 World Columbian Exposition (Chicago), and then on to Denver.  Two years in storage followed. The placing of it on the West front of the Building, facing the Rockies and the sunsets, created emotions related to conflicts with Indians, primarily on the Eastern Plains over a period of years.  There were still living relatives who had lost family members in various raids and confrontations.  In 1898, The Closing Era was placed on the East side (Grant St.) on a base of Cotopaxi granite.

Today, on the West side of the Building, rests a Civil War Monument.  In 1905 in Denver, during the 39th encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, there was no monument in Colorado commemorating the Civil War.  Colorado, as a territory, had remained part of the Union during the Civil War, though some Coloradans participated in battles for the Confederacy in New Mexico, Kansas and Oklahoma.  The Civil War Monument is a dismounted cavalry soldier designed by John Howland, a member of the Colorado 1st Cavalry in the 1861 Battle of Glorietta Pass (now in New Mexico).  That Battle stopped an attempt by the Confederacy to take over gold mines in Colorado and the West.  Money was needed to purchase goods and equipment to fight the War.  In 1905, the Monument base of Aberdeen granite (the same as in the Capitol) was set with three bronze plaques, with names of Coloradans who fought and died in the Civil War.  A fourth plaque refers to Colorado troops who took part in the Sand Creek Massacre November 29, 1864.  By 1909, the bronze statue of the soldier had been placed atop the base (Many towns in the Midwest have similar monuments in a place of prominence).

In early 2000, there was some debate about whether to keep the Sand Creek plaque--interpretations of the Sand Creek story have been debated over the years.  In 2002, another plaque admitting the infamy of that Battle was placed below--it more fully explains the Sand Creek Massacre.  Cheyenne and Arapahoe peoples had representatives at the setting of that plaque. The Capitol Dome is of cast iron which quickly rusts.  It was then painted gray.  Debate about how to decorate the dome--silver, gold or copper--followed.  Gold brought early settlers here, Silver kept them.  However, silver tarnishes, and 1893 Silver Panic memories effectively killed that idea.  The Dome was covered with copper plates--they soon began turning green.  Colorado’s economy had almost disintegrated.  However, the Cripple Creek gold strike in 1891 helped keep the struggling economy going.  By 1908, Colorado had raised 200 ounces of gold to cover the Dome.  The Dome was re-gilded in 1950 and again in 1980.  The last re-gilding took place in 1991 due to multi-millions of dollars damage from a 1990 hail storm which struck much of the metro area. That re-gilding took only 47 ounces of gold.

Currently scaffolding on the Dome is due to repair of rusting cast iron and buckling of plates--it will probably not be re-gilded, only cleaning.  The State has hired the same company which reconstructed the Michigan State Capitol, a the same architect designed both the Colorado and Michigan capitols' domes. 


We thank you Derek Everett for updating us on events at the Colorado Capitol and for arranging a location for the meeting.


Thank you Nancy Brueggeman.

COLORADO STATE CAPITOL


Colorado State Capitol