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Guide colorado fishing planet9/12/2023 (The name of Frederick Ross, a pioneering Denver businessman and DPL donor, would remain, joined to whatever local figure is chosen to replace Barnum.) At issue isn’t simply Barnum’s tenuous connections to the community, but his treatment of people with disabilities and people of color during his rise to fame and fortune. But it’s recently come under scrutiny again, thanks to a proposal by the Denver Public Library to remove Barnum’s name from the Ross-Barnum Branch Library, in the heart of the Barnum neighborhood. The local lore about Barnum has been debunked repeatedly by researchers over the years. He visited Colorado only four times between 18, to visit his daughter and check on his real estate investments in Denver and Greeley. In fact, Barnum never lived in the Barnum neighborhood at all. But the family tree didn’t check out, and Barnum never lived in the Barnum House. The stories don’t make much sense - why would a circus train be on Boreas Pass? Why would the elephants be pushing instead of pulling? Why would anyone stash circus animals in Colorado for the winter? - but logic never got in the way of a good Barnum story.įor several years, a man claiming to be Barnum’s great-great-grandson offered tours of a house on King Street, which he called the Barnum House. Then there’s the one about the elephants being employed to push Barnum’s circus train over Boreas Pass. Barnum’s circus animals was located at what is now Meyer Ranch, a popular recreational area in the foothills. Another version, one that still circulates on hiking websites, has it that the real winter home for P. Supposedly, Barnum pastured elephants, giraffes and other members of his traveling menagerie in the area during the off-season, before there were any houses there. “He was part of some local mythology, but nothing that was formally taught,” recalls Torres, the city council representative for Denver’s west side since 2019. Everyone knew it had something to do with celebrated circus entrepreneur Phineas Taylor Barnum, who once owned property there, but the exact nature of his ties to the community was unclear. Growing up in west Denver, Jamie Torres heard the stories about how the Barnum neighborhood got its name.
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