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this year, c-span is touring cities across the country, exploring american history. next, a look at our recent visit to denver, colorado. you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. kimberly field: people in denver drive past the denver mint all the time. it is right in downtown denver. it is on a major thoroughfare, but people don't know much about its history. it has a fascinating history and it's a story that needs to be told. colorado experienced a gold rush in 1859 when gold was discovered in the mountains. 1859 was when denver was founded. it was a wild west town. it basically consisted of a tent city with lots of saloons and bordellos. the miners would come down from

the mountains with their bags of gold dust and go into the saloon. and in the saloon, the bartenders would reach into the gold dust bags and take out a pinch of gold to pay for the whiskey. clearly having fat fingers was a major job requirement for a bartender in early denver. but a city cannot really survive pinchangent gold dust -- of gold dust economy. so denver needed a mint. the mint provided reliable measures of gold for commerce and for shipment back east. we are in front of the denver mint. which was built in 1904. coinage began in 1906, and it has been the pride and joy of denver ever since. by the 1880's, denver itself had

gotten rich from mining, and it wanted to become the queen city of the planes, the center of commerce, the leader in the western united states. the city fathers at that point decided that a mint they could be proud of was going to be part of that process. there wasn't a federal facility. denver was the front to your, the wild west. so private industry, private banks stepped in to fill that void. clark and gruber came in and set and assay office and private mint. the federal government did not appreciate private bankers minting coins, but it was not illegal, so they could not do anything about it. they thought barkin gruber in 1882 and begin manufacturing

gold bars at the first denver mint facility. in 1895, congress passed an act to form a mint at denver, and that language will become very important years later. the mint was modeled on a florentine villa owned by the medici family in florence, and europe for centuries. opulence ands -- expense and grandeur of the facility was expensive even in its day. having such a beautiful, grand facility that was all so a u.s. federal mint put denver on the map of western commerce and industry. the denver mint has been robbed twice. the first time was an inside job.

orval harrington worked in the mint for many years. he was a trusted worker. in 1920, orvil had been working at the mint for many years, handling gold every single day, but he knew he would never make more than $4 a month, and it frustrated him. he hatched a plan. he planned to steal one gold bar a day from the mint, and he was going to do it between inventory periods so that no one would really be aware of the embezzlement. to dispose of the gold, he planned on renting or leasing a cold claim and victor, colorado. melting it down, a gold claim in melting it down, and claiming he had minded himself. it was an ingenious plan and it might have worked. unfortunately he stole one too

many bars. one day, a coworker noticed him behaving suspiciously and alerted authorities. in this case, the secret service. and they watched him steal a gold bar and they confronted him at a bus stop right outside of the mint. he confessed. he did have a gold bar on him. he was sentenced to prison and spent years in leavenworth, kansas, in the prison there. in the 1930's, the federal government decided to move the gold reserves stored in san francisco to denver. they did it for a couple of reasons. probably first and foremost was the fact that they wanted to put a thousand miles of desert and mountain terrain between our gold reserves and the coast. while fort knox was under

construction, virtually all of the country's gold reserve's restored at the denver mint. there has never been a greater amount of gold in the history of the planet then there was in denver during the great depression. during world war ii, the denver mint went to war just like every other factory in the country. the men who had been operating the presses went on to fight. women filled their places. this was always a manufacturing job that was considered man's work. they didn't think women could do this kind of work. however women excelled at it. the denver mint's production of coins actually rose during world war ii. of course, after world war ii, the men came home and came back to their jobs at the denver mint and the women went home.

over the years there have been several superintendents of the denver mint who were women. while women were not working on the manufacturing floor, they were running the place. in the 1960's, the federal government thought they needed a new mint facility and they wanted to move the denver mint away from downtown denver. you can imagine that congressman from all over the country were clamoring to get the mint in their district. there was a move afoot to take the mint out of there. denver leaders wanted to keep the mix right here. so they played a card from 1895 declaration, which called for a mint at denver. not a mint at texas pregnant at unincorporated jefferson county. but he meant at denver. a huge fight corrupted as

denver's leaders tried to keep the mint right here in denver. over the course of that fight congress ultimately decided it didn't need a new mint facility at all, but he could stay right here and be upgraded. this weekend we are featuring the history of denver, colorado. together with our comcast cable partners. learn more about denver and the other stops on her tour at c-span.org/citiestour. you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. for campaign 2016, c-span continues on the road to the white house. >> we are going to do big things. >> we will have one great american future. our potential is unlimited. coverage of the

presidential and vice presidential debates on c-span. the c-span radio app and c-span.org. 26 is theptember first presidential debate live from hofstra university. now tuesday, october 4, vice president of candidates governor mike pence and senator tim kaine debate at longwood university in virginia. on sunday, october 9, washington university in st. louis posts the second presidential debate, leading up to the third and final debate between hillary clinton and donald trump. taking place at the university of nevada las vegas on october 19. live coverage of the presidential and vice presidential debate on c-span. listen live on the free c-span radio app, or watch live anytime on-demand at c-span.org. july 2016 march the en