Denver, formerly known as Dry Pond, is a census-designated place and unincorporated community in Lincoln County, North Carolina, United States.

[3] Known as “Dry Pond” until 1873, it was renamed “Denver” (after the capital of the then territory of Colorado) as a marketing and growth strategy directed towards the emerging railroad industry.

He was succeeded by Patrick Sparrow, whose father was a potter at Vesuvius furnace, part of the Graham family's local iron industry.

When he was younger, Asbury traveled to Kentucky with some family members (among them the Callaways) and, along with their leader Daniel Boone, he and approximately 20 people were taken hostage by a band of Shawnee.

In the earliest days of European settlement, there were episodes of violence between the Native Americans and the new settlers, and eventually a fort was constructed near present-day Statesville to help provide a level of defense for the western portion of the colony.

The British were pursuing Nathanael Greene's forces following the Patriot victory at Cowpens, South Carolina, and Davidson's troops had been sent to stall and harass his advance.

Led by a local Tory guide, Frederick Hager, the British began to cross the river early as the Americans were still sleeping.

A number of individuals and partners took the lead in establishing ironworks in eastern Lincoln County, most just to the west of present-day Denver, near Pumpkin Center and in the direction of Iron Station.

The partnership of Peter Forney, Joseph Graham, John Davidson, and Alexander Brevard was responsible for the construction of Vesuvius Furnace in 1795.

Other individuals involved in the development of the iron industry in Lincoln County include Turner Abernethy, John Fulenwider, Dr. William Johnston, Jonas W. Derr, and J.F.

James Madison Smith later erected Stonewall Furnace in 1862 to help meet the demand for iron brought on by the Civil War.

Operations at Rehoboth (begun in the 1820s) and Madison furnaces also resumed during the turbulent years from 1862 to 1865 to supply much-needed iron for the Southern war effort.

There was a Dry Pond Post Office beginning right before the Civil War, although it moved across the line to Catawba County near what is now Kiestler's Store Road in December 1868.

In 1873, in an attempt to attract a railroad spur and thinking that the moniker "Dry Pond" didn't present a nice enough image for the railroad planners, headmaster of the local Rock Springs Academy, D. Matt Thompson, led the effort to have Dry Pond renamed for the capital of Colorado, which was just then petitioning for statehood.

In the years before the Civil War, North Carolina's wealthy class in need of a break from the summer heat, could escape to Lincoln County's Catawba Springs resort.

The popular antebellum destination, named for the Catawba people formerly living in the area, was built amidst seven mineral springs near Denver.

There is little evidence that healing actually occurred; nonetheless Catawba Springs became a popular stop on the stagecoach lines from Salisbury to Asheville.

Among the names of prominent North Carolina families listed in the hotel records are the Grahams, Brevards, Alexanders, Caldwells, Davidsons, and Polks.

The Civil War put an end to the southern planter aristocracy, and with its patron base depleted, Catawba Springs closed in the mid-1860s.

As North Carolina recovered from the war, railways and eventually good highways, led to the opening of mountain resorts.

Unfortunately for the citizens of the area, the railroad chose not to run through the growing small town, and it began to dry up like the pond for which it was originally named.

For much of its existence, "downtown" consisted of a few houses, a handful of stores, a couple of churches, a school, a barber shop, a post office, a bank, and a cotton gin.

The 1902 Soil Survey map of the Hickory, North Carolina area, shows Denver having a small grid of streets running along what are now Highway 16 Business and Campground Road.

It ran beside Denver United Methodist Church and was perpendicular to Highway 16, then turned in front of the community cemetery and intersected with Campground Road.

Members of local families began commuting to work in textile mills in the surrounding communities of Mooresville, Lincolnton, Cornelius, Maiden, and Mount Holly just before World War II, and continued up until the early 1970s.

Having failed to elect a local government for many years, Denver lost its official incorporated status in 1971 by vote of the state legislature.

It was the filling of a much larger pond, Lake Norman, that led Denver to grow in ways that its early boosters probably could have never fathomed.

In 1962, Duke Power built the Cowans Ford Dam, flooding the fertile farmland along the Catawba River "bottoms", the land which had attracted the area's first settlers.

During the 1970s, the town hosted one of the largest cross-country motorcycle races in the nation, the "Denver 100", which was a successful fundraiser for the local volunteer fire department.

The William A. Graham Jr. Farm, Munday House, and Rock Springs Camp Meeting Ground are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.