 Denver remained largely a farming community, with cotton as the primary cash crop supplemented by "truck farming" vegetables to area towns (with tomatoes and strawberries being among the most often marketed vegetable crops).Members of local families began commuting to work in textile mills in the surrounding communities of Mooresville, Lincolnton, Cornelius, Maiden, and Mount Holly just before World War II and continued up until the early 1970s.Having failed to elect a local government for many years, Denver lost its official incorporated status in 1971 by vote of the state legislature.