Denver City was founded in November 1858 during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush as a mining town in western Kansas Territory. That summer, a group of gold prospectors from Lawrence, Kansas, started a settlement on the banks of the South Platte River. They called it Montana City. This was the first settlement in what was later to become the city of Denver. The settlement faded quickly. By the summer of 1859 it was abandoned in favor of Auraria (named after the gold mining town of Auraria, Georgia), and St. Charles City.