BARREL MAN FOREVER

Denver Broncos fans are known as some of the most fanatical football fans in America, but one fan stood a Mile-High above the crowd, Barrel Man (aka Tim McKernan).

Barrel Man was a fixture at Denver Broncos games beginning in 1977, when he bet his brother that he could come up with a costume that would get him on TV during a game. McKernan won the wager, a princely sum of $10, and inadvertently created a Colorado legend. For the next 30 years, Barrel Man was at all but four of the Denver Broncos home games, wearing nothing but a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, a barrel, and a smile. Read more

NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST - DENVER'S ICONIC PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS

Newcomers to the city are quickly made aware of the monolithic schools – Denver North, Denver South, Denver East and Denver West. The buildings themselves (all of which are designated landmarks) radiate a sense of history and tradition. Although not a directional high school, Manual High School is one of Denver's oldest high schools, and can trace its roots to Denver's earliest days. 

And with the oldest (Denver West) and second oldest (Denver East) high school alumni associations in the country, it is no wonder that Denver’s public high schools are steeped in tradition that rivals many colleges. Read more

tesoro historic lecture series

The Denver Public Library hosts the Tesoro Cultural Center for their 2016/2017 Lecture Series featuring an exciting lineup of historians, authors, and professors who will explore topics pertaining to the history of the American West in the nineteenth century.

Come listen to a free afternoon lecture at the Denver Public Library, Floor Five in the Gates Conference Room on Sunday lecture dates starting at 2 p.m. These free lectures are open to the public. For a list of dates visit our events calendar.

Real Estate And Fire Insurance Atlases

This collection includes real estate and fire insurance atlases for many Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico towns. Most of these have been updated with paste-over additions. The maps show footprints of structures and will help you to date the construction of a building and give you a picture of neighborhood development. They also show the legal description (addition name, lot, and block numbers) of your building, which is necessary for locating many historic building records. An online collection of Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico Sanborn Atlases without paste-over updates is available in the Library or from home with a DPL Library card. For more information see the Denver Building History Tutorial.