In 1858, William Greeneberry Russell, a miner from northern Georgia, came to the present-day Denver area in western Kansas Territory with his brothers and founded a settlement named Auraria near the Cherry Creek river. His discoveries led to the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. In June 1859, Russell discovered placer gold deposits in the valley, which was named Russell Gulch in his honor. By the end of September, nearly 900 men were mining gold in the gulch, and a town named after Russell was built near the head of the gulch to serve the miners. However, the placer deposits were quickly exhausted, and the miners shifted their focus to the vein deposits that were the source of the placer gold.