 Denver, Auraria and the land west to the Continental Divide were part of Arapahoe County which encompassed the entire western portion of the Kansas Territory.At the creation of Arapahoe County in 1855 it was occupied primarily by Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians with only a few white settlers, and thus the county was never organized.With no county government and the leaders of the Kansas Territory preoccupied with the violent events of Bleeding Kansas, little time or attention was given to those in Arapahoe County even by the United States Congress who were preoccupied with threats of secession by the slave states.