Denver, North Carolina - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Denver, formerly known as "Dry Pond," is an unincorporated community located in Lincoln County

Lincoln County, North Carolina

-Demographics:As of the census of 2010, there were 71,498 people, 24,041 households, and 18,174 families residing in the county. The population density was 214 people per square mile . There were 25,717 housing units at an average density of 86 per square mile...

in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

of North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

. It is situated on North Carolina State Highway 16

North Carolina State Highway 16

North Carolina Highway 16 is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It runs from NC 75, in Waxhaw, to the Virginia state line, near the community of Grassy Creek.-Route description:...

on the west side of Lake Norman

Lake Norman

Lake Norman, created between 1959 and 1964 as part of the construction of the Cowans Ford Dam by Duke Energy, is the largest manmade body of fresh water located in North Carolina.-General Information:...

on the Catawba River

Catawba River

The Catawba River is a tributary of the Wateree River in the U.S. states of North Carolina and South Carolina. The river is approximately 220 miles long...

. It is about 25 miles north of downtown Charlotte

Charlotte, North Carolina

Charlotte is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. In 2010, Charlotte's population according to the US Census Bureau was 731,424, making it the 17th largest city in the United States based on population. The Charlotte metropolitan area had a 2009...

and just south of the Catawba County

Catawba County, North Carolina

-Demographics:As of the census of 2010, there were 160,000 people, 55,533 households, and 39,095 families residing in the county. The population density was 354 people per square mile . There were 59,919 housing units at an average density of 150 per square mile...

boundary.
Denver's ZIP code

ZIP Code

ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...

is 28037 and the FIPS place code is 17000. The elevation

Elevation

The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....

is 902 feet above sea level

Sea level

Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...

Demographics

The census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

of 2000 for Denver's zip code 28037 shows a total population of 13,030 with a median age of 37.3 years. The racial makeup was 95.3% White, 3.2% African American, and 1.5% other races

Race (United States Census)

Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...

. There were 5,052 households, 77.5% being family households. The average household size was 2.56 people. 82.9% of the residents had a high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

education or higher, and 20.4% had a Bachelor's Degree

Bachelor's degree

A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

or higher.

70.7% of residents over 16 were employed, with 84.7% of those commuting to work alone in a vehicle. The largest employers were Manufacturing at 20.2%, 'Transportation and warehousing, and utilities' at 11.6%, and Construction at 10.0%. The median household income was $52,304. 3.7% of families were below the poverty line. The median house value was $162,000 with 75.8% having a mortgage, contract to purchase, or similar debt.

Climate

According to the analysis of weather data here show that more rain on Saturday than on Monday. The reason is the pollution that builds toward the weekend, increasing the chances of rain 22% with a break of two days. From the air quality in the county then it also follows the weather.

Period of foundation

The community of Dry Pond derived its name from a small pond, which once stood at what is now the corner of Highway 16 and Campground Road, now the site of the local Bank of America branch. The pond would dry up in the heat of the summer.

XVIII century

Adam Sherrill and his family first settled in the area in 1747, and they were followed by John Beatty two years later. The actual location of Denver was first settled around 1770. Scots Irish and Germans from Pennsylvania were among the first settlers. Most of the early Scotch Irish were Presbyterians, and their first place of worship in what would become the Denver area was John Beatty's house, which was located about one mile west of Beatty's Ford, near the present-day Triangle community. Now known as Unity Presbyterian, the first meetinghouse for this congregation was originally built of logs. In 1808, it was decided to erect a larger building, and a plot of several acres was conveyed for the purpose by James Little to "James Connor, Alexander Brevard, John Reid and Joseph Graham, trustees." Dr Humphrey Hunter, a native of Ireland and a soldier in the Revolution, was pastor from 1796 to 1804. Next came Rev. Henry N. Pharr. He was succeeded by Patrick Sparrow. Mr. Sparrow's father was a potter at Vesuvius furnace, part of the Graham family's local iron industry. Mr Sparrow was the first professor of languages at Davidson College, and afterwards President of Hampden-Sidney College in Virginia. A long-time minister at Unity was Robert Hall Morrison who was first president of Davidson College. The Presbyterians were soon joined by early Methodists from Maryland who initially took up residence near what is now Terrell, NC. Longtime leaders of the Methodists in the region were Rev. Daniel Asbury and Rev. Jeremiah Munday, pioneer Methodist ministers. When he was younger, Rev. Daniel Asbury traveled to Kentucky with some family members (among them the Callaways) and, along with their leader Daniel Boone, he and approximately 20 men were taken hostage by a band of Shawnee Indians. They were carried to the far northwest (presentday Ohio) and held in captivity for five years. He later was traded to the British at Detroit and returned to his home in Virginia. In 1791 Asbury established in Lincoln County the first Methodist church west of the Catawba River, which is now known as Bethel United Methodist Church. Rev. Jeremiah Mundy was a native of Virginia and came to Lincoln county in 1799. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War three years and a minister for thirty-five years. These Methodists brought with them the institution of "campmeeting," which quickly became one of the most important traditions for the region. Interdenominational from the beginning, the local Rock Springs Camp Meeting grows out of these early meetings and traces its history to 1794 when Daniel Asbury, William McKendree (who would become a bishop), William Fulwood and James Hall, a Presbyterian, held the first gathering near present-day Rehobeth Church in Terrell.

Cherokee Indians

Most of the land that these Europeans claimed had long been the home of Catawba and Cherokee Indians. Indeed, the Catawba River in this part of North Carolina acted as a border between the two nations who were often at odds with each other. In the earliest days of European settlement, there were episodes of violence between the native Americans and the new settlers, and eventually a fort was constructed near present-day Statesville to help provide a level of defense for the western portion of the colony.

General William Lee Davidson

On February 1, 1781, British forces under the command of Lt. General Cornwallis clashed with North Carolina troops led by Brig. Gen. William Lee Davidson at Cowan's Ford, the southern-most limit of present-day Denver. The British were pursuing Nathaniel's Greene's forces following the Patriot victory at Cowpens, S.C. and Davidson's men had been sent to stall and harass his advance. With Davidson was Captain Joseph Graham, a local, who had raised 56 cavalrymen. He had promised that those who furnished their own horses and equipment and served six weeks would be considered as having served a tour of three months.
Local blacksmiths made 45 rough swords for the new mounted troops. Only fifteen of Graham's men had pistols, but all had rifles, not the ideal weapon for horseback fighting. Davidson, charged with guarding four of the Catawba River crossings, had sent 500 men to Beattie's Ford, keeping only 25 at Cowan's. But the river was high and Cornwallis did not have access to his heavy guns. Led by a local Tory guide, Frederick Hager, the British began to cross the river early as the Americans were still sleeping. The sentry was not alerted until Cornwallis' troops were within 100 yards of the shore. The battle began, and the strong current was on the American's side. Greatly outnumbered the local forces were able to hold their own, slowly falling back into the woods while returning fire. The British finally took the ford and advanced. General Davidson was shot, and the militia, seeing this, fled. Major Graham's cavalry covered their retreat. The battle had helped a larger force under the command of Daniel Morgan reach the Yadkin River unopposed. It is said that Frederick Hager was the man who shot the gun that killed General Davidson.

XIX century

Most of the early settlers were subsistence farmers who relied heavily upon hunting to supplement their tables. Grist mills and saw mills were among the first "local industries," but the production of iron soon became the biggest industry for the area. By 1810 Lincoln County boasted six ironmaking operations including Vesuvius, Mt. Welcome, Mount Tirzah, Mount Carmel, High Shoals, and Madison. A number of individuals and partners took the lead in establishing ironworks in eastern Lincoln County, most just to the west of present-day Denver, near Pumpkin Center and in the direction of Iron Station. The partnership of Peter Forney, Joseph Graham, John Davidson, and Alexander Brevard was responsible for the construction of Vesuvius Furnace in 1795. Peter Forney built Madison Iron Furnace along Leeper’s Creek in 1809. These two sites, like other local ironworks, changed hands at various points. Other individuals involved in the development of the iron industry in Lincoln County include Turner Abernethy, John Fulenwider, Dr. William Johnston, Jonas W. Derr, and J.F. Reinhardt. James Madison Smith later erected Stonewall Furnace in 1862 to help meet the demand for iron brought on by the War Between the States. Operations at Rehoboth (begun in the 1820s) and Madison furnaces also resumed during the turbulent years from 1862 to 1865 to supply much-needed iron for the Southern war effort.

Dry Pond

There was a Dry Pond Post Office beginning right before the Civil War, although it moved across the line to Catawba County near what is now Kiestler's Store Road in December 1868. In 1873, in an attempt to attract a railroad spur and thinking that the moniker "Dry Pond," didn't present a nice enough image for the railroad planners, headmaster of the local Rock Springs Academy, D. Matt Thompson, led the effort to have Dry Pond renamed for the capitol of Colorado, which was just then petitioning for statehood. (Rock Springs Academy evolved into Rock Springs School, which was a comprehensive 1-12 school until nearby East Lincoln High School was built in the 1960s. At that time, Rock Springs became an elementary school. The original mascot for Rocks Springs was "The Warriors," and the school colors were black and gold; in the 1990s, this was changed to "sailors." The mascot for East Lincoln High School is "The Mustangs," and the school colors are orange and green with the hues changing slightly over the years.The spring for which the academy was named lies near the Rock Springs Campground on Campground Road.)

In the years before the Civil War, North Carolina’s elite in need of a break from the summer heat could escape to Lincoln County’s Catawba Springs resort. The popular antebellum destination, named for the Catawba Indians living in the area, was built amidst seven mineral springs near Denver. Guests vacationed there as early as the 1790s. In 1824, geology professor Denison Olmstead recommended the waters of the springs for complaints concerning the liver and weakness. There is little evidence that healing actually occurred; nonetheless Catawba Springs became a popular stop on the stagecoach lines from Salisbury to Asheville.

Revolutionary War veteran and state legislator, Captain John Reid was the first known proprietor of Catawba Springs. After his death in 1821, the spa passed through a series of owners: Charles Jugnot, William Simonton, and Joseph Hampton. In 1838, Hampton renovated and expanded Catawba Springs, including the construction of a two story, 100-room hotel. After the renovation, during parties and on holidays, as many as 500 guests assembled on the porch of the hotel. Before that time, the spa could only accommodate sixty to seventy guests in its cabins. Most guests were members of the southern planter class from North and South Carolina. Among the names of prominent North Carolina families listed in the hotel records are the Grahams, Brevards, Alexanders, Caldwells, Davidsons, and Polks. Some guests made their way to the spa from Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. Students from nearby Davidson College could also be found enjoying themselves there on the weekends. During the early 1840s, Peter S. Ney ran a school for boys at the resort known as Stewart’s Seminary.

Civil War

During the Civil War, the local area would raise two units for the Confederacy. In March 1862, a group of local men, most of whom were related, formed a company known as the "Dry Pond Dixies" (Company G, 52nd regiment of North Carolina Troops) and joined the Confederacy. Added to their number were a number of Quakers from Randolph County, NC who did not fight but helped with the wounded. The other group was known as the Beatty's Ford Rifles (Company K 23rd Regiment).

The Civil War put an end to the southern planter aristocracy, and with its patron base depleted, Catawba Springs closed in the mid-1860s. By the time North Carolina had begun to recover from the devastation of the war, railways and eventually good highways had led to the opening of mountain resorts. (A similar, but unrelated, resort operated under the name Sparkling Catawba Springs in Catawba County during the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth century.) The buildings, demolished in 1930, and their guests are long gone, and the springs now bubble invisibly into a farm pond. A faint, lingering scent of sulfur is all that remains.

In October 1874, Denver's first post master, John A. Kids, was appointed, mail to the Catawba Springs post office was transferred to the Denver post office the next year, and two years later, the community was incorporated as a town by the state of North Carolina. Unfortunately for the citizens of the area, the railroad chose not to run through the growing little town, and it began to dry up like the pond for which it was originally named. For much of its existence, "downtown" consisted of a few houses, a handful of stores, a couple of churches, a school, a barber shop, a post office,a bank and a cotton gin. The 1902 Soil Survey map of the Hickory, NC area, shows Denver having a small grid of streets running along what are now Highway 16 and Campground Road. By 1914, the soil survey map of Lincoln County showed only a grid of three short streets running Northwest to Southeast parallel to what is now Highway 16 and one street running parallel to Campground Road (which still exists and was called by locals for many years "Back Street"). Apparently, one of the short streets perpendicular to Campground Road ran beside of what is now the telephone building on St. James Church Road and another of these perpendicular streets connected to what is now Campground Road right at the Rock Springs Campground. Another part of the "street grid" for Denver was "Cemetery Road." It ran beside of Denver United Methodist Church and was perpendicular to Highway 16, then turned in front of the community cemetery and intersected with campground road. The portion that ran beside of the church and perpendicular to highway was "graded under" by the church in the late 1990s.

XX century

Denver remained largely a farming community with cotton as the primary cash crop supplemented by "truck farming" vegetables to area towns (with tomatoes and strawberries being among the most often marketed vegetable crops). Members of local families began commuting to work in surrounding textile mills of Mooresville, Lincolnton, Cornelius, Maiden, and Mount Holly just before World War II and continued up until the early 1970s. Having failed to elect a local government for many years, Denver lost its official incorporated status in 1971 by vote of the state legislature.

It was the filling of a much larger pond, Lake Norman, that led Denver to grow in ways that its early boosters probably could have never fathomed. In 1962, Duke Power built the Cowans Ford Dam, flooding the fertile farmland along the Catawba River "bottoms," the land which had attracted the area's first settlers. Soon, weekend and summer "getaway" homes began to appear lakeside, and after a few years, these were replaced by more luxurious lake homes, as individuals began to move to the area to live near the water. Denver is now largely a bedroom community for Charlotte, NC.
One of Denver's major features is its "main street," which is now known as "Old Highway 16." This road, once state highway 16, was one of North Carolina's first state highways, receiving that designation in 1928. Present-day highway 16 is a four-lane road running through the edge of the community

During the 1970s, the town hosted one of the largest cross-country motorcycle races in the nation, "The Denver 100," which was a successful fundraiser for the local volunteer fire department. Participants rode through the center of barns, along creek banks, and through pastures--most of which have now disappeared under various housing developments.

Up until recently, most African Americans in the area lived in the community known as "Little Egypt," which is the general area near East Lincoln High School along Saint James Church Road.

Denver is also home to the Rock Springs Campground that has been the site of revivals

Revival meeting

A revival meeting is a series of Christian religious services held in order to inspire active members of a church body, to raise funds and to gain new converts...

and camp meeting

Camp meeting

The camp meeting is a form of Protestant Christian religious service originating in Britain and once common in some parts of the United States, wherein people would travel from a large area to a particular site to camp out, listen to itinerant preachers, and pray...

s since 1794. One of the few continuous camp meeting still occurring is that of the Rock Spring Camp Meeting in east Lincoln County, North Carolina.

For a brief period during the 1890s-1910s, Denver was home to small-scale gold prospecting, particularly in the area near the former Triangle School and the community now known as "Westport."

The gymnasium at Rock Springs School was built as a part of the North Carolina Emergency Relief Administration, part of the economic stimulus package for the Great Depression 1932-1935.

Major industry included modular home builder, R-Anell Homes, which recently moved from Denver to a manufacturing facility in Cherryville, NC.

State Highways

NC 16
NC 73
North Carolina Highway 73
NC 73 is a state highway that extends for through south-central North Carolina in the United States. Most of the route is a two-lane highway that passes through both rural scenic areas; however, it also serves several small and moderate-sized cities in the state, including Concord and Albemarle...
NC 150

County parks

The park more accessible from Denver through Ford Betty is Lake Norman . Is part of the Stumpy Creek Park and practiced in it, fishing. The lake offers some classes of fish like bluegill and largemouth bass and yellow perch. It 's a very peaceful place to enjoy the fishing and easily accessible.

School

High schools include:
East Lincoln High School, the Lincoln County Charter School, North Lincoln High School and Lincoln Charter School

Middle schools include:
Lincoln Charter School, East Lincoln Middle School and North Lincoln Middle School

Elementary Schools include: Lincoln Charter School,
Catawba Springs Elementary School, Rock Springs Elementary School, St. James Elementary School

Closed Schools include:
Triangle Elementary School - also known as Rock Springs 2 Elementary School (property sold to the Holy Spirit Caltholic Church in 1988).
Pumpkin Center Middle School (now Pumpkin Center Elementary)

Events

Town festivals have included the annual Strawberry Festival held in May and the Denver Days festival held every September. Each year, Denver hosts its annual Camp Meeting

Camp meeting

at the Rock Springs Campground in the summer, and has done so since 1794. A Farmers' market

Farmers' market

A farmers' market consists of individual vendors—mostly farmers—who set up booths, tables or stands, outdoors or indoors, to sell produce, meat products, fruits and sometimes prepared foods and beverages...

is held on Saturdays from mid-April through September at Rock Springs Elementary School.

Notable residents

Kevin Keck
Kevin Keck
Kevin Keck is an American essayist and poet. His writing is largely autobiographical. He is best known for his collection of personal essays Oedipus Wrecked , which chronicles his sexual coming-of-age in a humorous style that is often compared to David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell...

, writer
Jamie Hacking
Jamie Hacking
Jamie Alexander Hacking , nicknamed The Hacker, is a professional motorcycle racer who has spent his entire career in the United States. He has chosen to sit out the 2010 due to limited options....

, AMA motorcycle racer

Hometown of
Tony Lee Cloninger, former major league pitcher and long-time pitching coach for the New York Yankees, and Forrest "Woody" Callaway, kayak designer, marketer, and one of the nation's leading kayak professionals.

Denver, North Carolina is the home of noted librarian Dr. Kevin Cherry.

NASCAR residents

Matt McCall
Matt McCall
Matt McCall is a professional race car driver.-Early racing:Matt ran karts from 1990 until 1999, racing first in the Rookie division at age nine, then at the age of thirteen moving to the Adult division earning more than 150 wins...
Hank Parker
Hank Parker
Hank Parker is a well-known professional bass fisherman in the United States.In 1979 and again in 1989, the native of Maiden, NC won the Bassmaster Classic, the biggest event in his sport. He is one of only four anglers to win the event more than once....
Hank Parker Jr.
Hank Parker Jr.
Hank Parker Jr. is a former NASCAR driver. Parker has run a total of 137 NASCAR Busch Series races, scoring 2 wins and 31 top tens in four full seasons, and finishing a best of 14th in the championship. He currently works as a fill-in driver for Carl Edwards on his Busch team...
John Reiser
John Reiser
John Reiser was a race car driver and successful businessman from Wisconsin. He founded Triton Trailers in Hartford, Wisconsin. He later founded Reiser Enterprises in Denver, North Carolina, in which he furthered the career of his son Robbie. Robbie was the crew chief in the NASCAR Sprint Cup...
Travis Carter
Travis Carter
Travis Carter is a former car owner and crew chief in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. He served as crew chief for two decades, winning championships with Benny Parsons and Cale Yarborough in 1973 and 1978, respectively. Carter was the winning crew chief when Parsons won the 1975 Daytona 500. He...
Matt Carter
Matt Carter (racer)
Matt Carter is an American race car driver and the son of former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car owner Travis Carter. He is currently drives the #68 Ford Mustang for Fleur-de-lis Motorsports.-Early career:...
Keith Rodden

It is the home of NASCAR

NASCAR

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...

drivers Hank Parker Jr.

Hank Parker Jr.

Hank Parker Jr. is a former NASCAR driver. Parker has run a total of 137 NASCAR Busch Series races, scoring 2 wins and 31 top tens in four full seasons, and finishing a best of 14th in the championship. He currently works as a fill-in driver for Carl Edwards on his Busch team...

and Matt McCall

Matt McCall

Matt McCall is a professional race car driver.-Early racing:Matt ran karts from 1990 until 1999, racing first in the Rookie division at age nine, then at the age of thirteen moving to the Adult division earning more than 150 wins...

. McCall is competing at short tracks throughout North Carolina and Virginia, winning big late model races across the region. Carter is currently competing in the ARCA Remax Series and has won one race in 2008, at Toledo.