Denver, Indiana

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1951 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Jefferson Township. It lies in ZIP code area 46926. It stands on Weesau Creek. The Survey maps it on the Peru quadrangle. 478 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 712 feet above sea level.

Denver within Miami County

Population over time

2 figures

Denver fell from 482 to 478 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

Year	People	Change
2010	482
2020	478	-4 (-1%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 13 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

1951 USGS Peru quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1953 USGS Danville quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1955 USGS Danville quadrangle1:250000
1956 USGS Danville quadrangle1:250000
1960 USGS Peru quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
1985 USGS Logansport quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

In the county-history sources

7,329 words on this township

History of Miami County, published 1896 names this settlement in its chapter on Jefferson Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Charles Murden was a typical pioneer. Inthe summer of 1834 he left the fruited district of Maryland and with his family in a covered wagon moved to Lafayette. He left his family there to look for a location and concluding the Eel river valley was the best point to settle bought a claim of sixty acres. He brought his family to the claim and had to cut the way from Mexico as he went through the dense forest two miies west of the present site of Denver. Just as the sun was reclining over the western hills, he hallooed «*Whoa!" and said in his strong English accent, «'Old woman, we're home." There were no settlers for miles around. There was no voice to greet thim but that of the Pottawatomie, and the howling wolt, the bleeting deer and the welcome chirp of the birds. This was a lonesome spot for his family, who had come from the best populated district of Maryland. They brought from the east a large tent and lived in that for some time until they built a cabin. The cabin at first had no floor. Light was admitted through openings in the sides of the cabin over which was stretched greased paper. There were two doors hung on wooden hinges. The doors were fastened with wooden pins. Pegs were driven into the walls of the cabin. On these were laid boards. This was the table. There was not a nail in the cabin. Everything about the house was in perfect contrast with this simplicity. In this cabin were raised six girls and five boys, all of whom grew to a sturdy maturity and their decendants are now scattered over the country.

Passage source: History of Miami County, published 1896.

The pioneer school has always been an interesting theme. The Murden school house was a little log house that stood near the present site of the widow Stowman's residence, two miles and a half south-west of Denver on the morth bank of the river. It was low and narrow with no ceiling or whitewash. | About three feet was cut out of the center of a log on each side'of the house. Greased paper was placed over the openings. These they called windows. 'The big fireplace in the front end of the school house reached almost from side to side. It took almost a load of wood to fill itonce. The. big boys had to chop the wood to fill it once at recess. The pupils had to set on benches. Oh, my, how long must have seemed the day! How they would have yawned aad gaped and stretched had it not been for the searching glance of the master's eye! Pegs were driven into the side wall. Boards were laid on these. 'This was the writing desk. The books placed into the child's hand when he first entered were Noah Webster's Elementary Speller, a reader and Pike's arithmetic. The teacher made them goose-quill pens. They had very good teachers for several years. They were mostly educated young men from the east. The first teacher at the Murden school house was Joseph Holman, whose father laid out the plat of Miamisport.

Passage source: History of Miami County, published 1896.

Denver is situated on the banks of Eel river at the junction of the L. E. & W. and the Eel River division of the Wabash. It originally occupied parts of three townships, but this led to such inconvenience in schools, taxes etc., that the county board changed the boundaries of the township, throwing the town entirely'in Jefferson township.

Passage source: History of Miami County, published 1896.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Jefferson Township.

Fires near this place

1 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Denver in 2003, burning about 1 acre in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
30 April 2003	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Indiana State Fire Marshal's Office	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Miami County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Denver: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Wolf Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Miami County

Storms near this place

16 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Denver in 16 storm reports between 1996 and 2026: 9 thunderstorm wind, 7 hail. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Denver	$20,000	Facia torn from roof of North Miami Elementary
April 2026	Hail	Denver	$1,000	no account filed
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Denver	-	Nine to ten inch diameter tree limbs were blown down.
June 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Denver	-	Law enforcement officials reported a tree down near the intersection of County Roads 1400 North and 400 East. In addition, trees were reported down on State Route 19, near County Road 1500 North.
June 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Denver	-	Emergency management officials reported a large tree down, as well as power lines, blocking State Route 19, near County Road 500 North. The road was impassable.
June 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Denver	-	A trained spotter reported a partially cracked tree was blown over onto a residence at County Road 935 North and Warsaw Trail North.
August 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Denver	-	A trained spotter reported winds of 55 to 60 mph as well as some pea size hail.
March 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Denver	-	A trained spotter reported a six inch diameter tree down on State Route 16, just west of Denver.
July 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Denver	-	A large tree was blown down.
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Denver	-	2 light poles down
June 2017	Hail	Denver	-	no account filed
March 2012	Hail	Denver	-	no account filed
July 2006	Hail	Denver	-	no account filed
April 1999	Hail	Denver	-	no account filed
July 1998	Hail	Denver	-	no account filed
August 1996	Hail	Denver	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Miami County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Courter	2.2 miles	13
Chili	2.7 miles	13
Deedsville	3.3 miles	10
Mexico	3.6 miles	13
Doyle	4.0 miles	13
Perrysburg	4.4 miles	10
Pettysville	5.2 miles	11
Birmingham	5.2 miles	10

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Denver	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2623024	The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 433483. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.