Denver International Airport Site, Between Fifty-sixth & 128th Avenues, Buckley Road & Box Elder Creek, Denver, Denver County, CO

Significance: The Denver International Airport site has a Euroamerican history that can be traced to the early nineteenth century. Today, cultural remains and archival information exist to explain and interpret that history. The primary past land uses of the airport site offer an easily comprehensible vehicle for viewing the history of the area. The earliest uses Euroamericans found for the airport site and the lands around it were connected to the development of a Colorado plains transportation network. The second, and more pervasive, use was for agriculture. The agricultural uses represent many specializations including ranching, dryland and irrigated farming, dairying and cattle feeding in preparation for marketing. The relative importance of these activities changed over time as did the methods different individuals used. Closely associated with agriculture have been shifts in land ownership patterns. By 1910 most of the land had passed from the public domain into private ownership. After that transition occurred, the most significant change has been growth of tenant farming. In many ways the Euroamerican history of the airport site study area is a microcosm of the history of the larger northeastern Colorado plains area.
Survey number: HABS CO-123
Building/structure dates: 1992 Initial Construction