The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States.It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – very high research activity".DU enrolls approximately 5,700 undergraduate students and 7,200 graduate students. The 125-acre (0.51 km2) main campus is a designated arboretum and is located primarily in the University Neighborhood,about five miles (8 km) south of downtown Denver. The 720-acre Kennedy Mountain Campus is located approximately 110 miles northwest of Denver, in Larimer County.In March 1864, John Evans, former Governor of the Colorado Territory, appointee of President Abraham Lincoln, founded the Colorado Seminary in the newly created (1858) city of Denver, which was then a mining camp. Evans, governor and superintendent of Indian affairs of the Colorado Territory, was partially culpable for the November 1864 Sand Creek massacre (which was carried out by Colonel John Chivington, later a member of the university's original board of directors).The school had originally been planned as the Denver Seminary, but the name was changed before the charter was secured.