Crews install a 48-inch wood stave pipe in Denver on May 14, 1910. Introduced to the Denver area in the mid-1880s, wood stave pipes used to form the backbone of Denver's water infrastructure. Despite the success and durability of wood piping, improvements in technology allowed water utilities to shift to other pipe materials in the middle of the 20th century, including reinforced concrete, ductile iron and steel. The last of Denver's wood stave pipes were replaced in 1964.