The Rocky Mountain News

Byers beat the rival Cherry Creek Pioneer to press by about twenty minutes on April 23, 1859, and that autumn moved the paper into a building raised on stilts in the bed of Cherry Creek, the creek that divided Denver from Auraria. The plaque's neutral ground was water whenever the creek ran high, and the flood of May 1864 carried off building and press. The bronze marks the paper's 75th birthday. The Rocky never reached its 150th: its final edition appeared on February 27, 2009, fifty-five days short.

What the plaque says

This tablet is the property of the State of Colorado On this site stood the original home of The Rocky Mountain News first newspaper established in the "Pike's Peak gold region." Founded by Wm. N. Byers, April 23, 1859 Champion of law and order in "Jefferson Territory;" advocate of faith in emerging Colorado. Located on neutral ground between pioneer towns, Denver and Auraria. Building and press lost in great Cherry Creek flood, May 19, 1864. Erected by the State Historical Society of Colorado from the Mrs. J. N. Hall Foundation commemorating the 75th anniversary of the founding of Colorado's first newspaper April 23, 1934

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

• Elephant Corral — steps away
• Silas S. Soule — 0.2 mi
• Passing of the Street Car — 0.9 mi
• Smoky Hill Trail — 0.9 mi