Elephant Corral

The name has no settled explanation. One account ties it to the gold-rush phrase seeing the elephant, which meant meeting something strange or wonderful for the first time and, for many who crossed the plains, finding the diggings far poorer than promised. Another credits a later owner, Robert Teats, who is said to have enlarged the business and renamed it around 1860. Charles Blake and Andrew Williams built the place as a trading post for teamsters and gold seekers, and reportedly sent men out along the trails to steer arriving wagons to it.

What the plaque says

This tablet is the property of the State of Colorado Immediately north-east of this point and covering much of Block 18 East Denver stood the famous Elephant Corral camp ground, immigrant headquarters and stock yards of pioneer Denver. Begun early in 1859 by Blake & Williams with their Denver House, the first hotel in Denver City. Horace Greeley was a guest here and addressed the pioneers June 6, 1859. During the 1860s the corral was surrounded by an eight-foot wall having loopholes for Indian defense. Placed by the State Historical Society of Colorado from the Mrs. J. N. Hall Foundation and by the City and County of Denver. 1935

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Colorado State Capitol — 1.1 mi
  A capitol of Colorado granite, marble, onyx and gold, with three different steps claiming to stand exactly a mile high.
• Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge — 7.9 mi
  Mustard gas, nerve agent and pesticides for forty years, then bald eagles, bison and black-footed ferrets on the same ground.
• Dinosaur Ridge — 11 mi
  A hogback near Morrison with the bones of 1877 on one flank and the footprints a road crew blasted open in 1937 on the other.
• Red Rocks Amphitheatre — 12 mi
  Walker's Garden of the Titans, finished by the CCC between Ship Rock and Creation Rock and dedicated on June 15, 1941.

More markers nearby

• The Rocky Mountain News — steps away
• Silas S. Soule — 0.3 mi
• Passing of the Street Car — 0.9 mi
• Smoky Hill Trail — 0.9 mi