The Story of Colorado.
Long before the gold rush, the Ute people had lived in the mountains and valleys of Colorado for centuries, and the Ancestral Puebloans had built cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde that still astonish everyone who climbs up to them. The Spanish came through, the Mexicans held it briefly, and then in 1848 it became American territory. Pike’s Peak had been visible from the plains for generations before anyone thought to call it by that name.
Gold at Cherry Creek in 1858 brought sixty thousand people in a single year. “Pikes Peak or Bust” was the slogan; a significant number went bust. But enough stayed to build Denver at the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte, and enough pushed into the mountains to find silver after the gold ran out. Colorado became a state in 1876 — the centennial year — which is why it’s called the Centennial State, and why Coloradans have always believed the timing meant something.
The 20th century brought the ski industry, then the aerospace industry, then the tech industry, then the cannabis industry — each wave arriving and layering itself over the ranching and mining economy that was always underneath. Colorado is still figuring out what it is: the mountain resort and the Eastern Plains wheat farm and the Front Range suburb and the Southern Colorado Hispanic village whose roots go back to before the Mexican War are all Colorado, and they do not always agree on what that means.
Gold at Cherry Creek
Placer gold discovered near present-day Denver launches the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush. Sixty thousand arrive within a year. Denver is born at the confluence.
The Centennial State
Colorado is admitted as the 38th state on August 1st — America’s centennial year. The timing is either auspicious or coincidental, and Coloradans have been arguing about it ever since.
Women Win the Vote
Colorado becomes the first state where male voters choose to grant women full suffrage. It happens 27 years before the 19th Amendment.
Mesa Verde National Park
Congress establishes Mesa Verde as the first national park created to protect a human-built site. The Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings draw visitors from every country.
Voters Reject the Olympics
Colorado becomes the only place to be awarded the Winter Olympics and then vote to reject hosting them — refusing the debt and the development. A decision the state has never fully explained to anyone’s satisfaction.
