Arapahoe County
Arapahoe County Colorado | History | School Information
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Welcome to Arapahoe County. Colorados very first established county. The entire county has more than 525,000 residents on an 850 square mile radius.
The county was named after the Arapahoe Indians that once lived and prospered on the rich lush land that is Colorado. Arapahoe County was also the first County seat in 1861. From 1861 to 1901 the Arapahoe County was originally 30 miles wide and reached the Kansas border. Today it has relinquished some towns and cities to other counties such as Denver, and Adams counties. At least 3/4ths of the county is rustic country side, the western portion does have its respectable urban sprawl, with communities adapting to the large influx of people moving to the area.
The Arapahoe County site has some fascinating facts and information about some of the towns people, cemetery info and other information that is being collected as a GenWeb Archives Project.
Forty years before it became a county, the Arapahoe area was popular among beaver trappers trying to fill the need for the waterproof beaver pelts made into hats. A few years later Buffalo was the most sought after skin and the first trading post was erected along the South Platte River at Cherry Creek.
The Gold Rush appeared in Colorado first in the Arapahoe County of 1848. Men on there way to California would stop off where ever they saw a creek or stream and search for gold. It was found just west of Englewood where the dry creek turns into part of the Platte River. More gold was found at Cherry Creek and a small camp was established now called Denver. The first hospital in the area was named Arapahoe County, Colorado Hospital and today is the Denver General Hospital. When the goldminers luck had started to whane and they were cold and exhausted from the trip across the land. They flocked to the Denver Hospital in hopes of food and funds to start again. Just as you have seen in the old western movies, the law of the land in 1858 was vigilante at best. The communit struggled with the claims wars and gunfights. And did there best to have some kind of courts system to bring about justice for criminal acts. Which were rampid. As the year 1864 began, the hospital was financially in trouble and the County took over. Many who came to the hospital were unable to pay and the 29 bed hospital had to resort to beds made of boxes and matteress stuffed with grasses from the nearby Cherry Creek. Daily gunshot wounds and stab wounds flooded the hospital as the lawlessness continued. Along with the Railroad many citizens brought in case loads of tuberculosis, hearing that the fresh dry air in Colorado could ease some of there coughing fits. A quarantined wing had been established for the hospital’s infectious dieseases such as Typhoid. Today Denver General Hospital no longer exists. In its place the Denver Medical Center is a 500 bed hopsital with many specialty and emergency programs in place.
Aurora School District
Bennett School District
Byers Public School District
Cherry Creek School District
Deer Trail School District
Englewood School District
Colleges In the Arapahoe Area
Arapahoe Community College
Columbia College – Aurora
Community College of Aurora
Denver Seminary
Metropolitan State College of Denver
Pickens Technical College
