Denver: Queen City of the Colorado realm

In the spring of 1921, William Joseph Simmons stepped from a train at Denver's Union Station. Dressed in a well-fitted suit emblazoned with lodge buttons, this tall, heavy-set man attracted little notice from the crowd. Few Denverites realized that on the train platform stood the self-proclaimed Imperial Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.1 Peering through his pince-nez glasses, Simmons immediately spotted his old friend Leo Kennedy. Kennedy, a Mason and former member of the anti-Catholic American Protective Association, hurriedly greeted Simmons and quickly led him from the station. Simmons's visit to Denver was part of a national recruiting drive. At Kennedy's request, the Imperial Wizard had scheduled a private meeting at the Brown Palace Hotel to explain the Klan message. The select group of prominent Denverites had already formed when Simmons and Kennedy arrived. With the fervor of a revivalist, Simmons extolled the virtues and principles of his new secret society. The men were convinced and he promptly initiated them. The Ku Klux Klan had arrived in Colorado and would soon spread to every county in the state.2