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Colorado Demographic Information
"Denver, gateway to the Rockies ..."
By Jacquelyn Beyer
Denver Basic Map
The State of Colorado
Colorado, one of the
Mountain states of the United States, is a landlocked, rectangular
territory. It is bordered by six states: Wyoming and Nebraska on the
north, Utah on the west, New Mexico and Oklahoma on the south, and
Kansas on the east. Permanent human occupation of the area dates
back at least 10,000 years. Spanish exploratory expeditions
beginning in the early 16th century left no settlements, and it was
not until the discovery of gold in 1858 that Colorado received its
first modern permanent settlement. The name Colorado was chosen in
1861 by the first territorial governor, William Gilpin, because the
region contains the source of the Colorado River; the word is
Spanish for "colored" or "reddish."
Since World War II,
Colorado has been among the faster-growing states. Manufacturing and
services have replaced agriculture as the primary economic sectors.
Colorado today faces such challenges as cultural pluralism, land-
and water-use conflicts, imbalance in population distribution, and
the adverse environmental impact of resource conversion.
Land and Resources
Colorado has a higher
average elevation (2,070 m/6,790 ft) than any other U.S. state, with
about 1,000 peaks higher than 3,048 m (10,000 ft). Of the country's
80 peaks over 4,267 m (14,000 ft), Colorado has 53. The state's
lowest point, in the southeast, is nearly two-thirds of a mile high
(1,021 m/3,350 ft), and the highest is Mount Elbert at 4,399 m
(14,433 ft).
Physiographic Regions
Portions of three
great physiographic regions of the continental United States
dominate the topography of Colorado: the Great Plains, the Rocky
Mountains and the Colorado Plateau.
The Great Plains,
covering slightly more than one-third of the state, constitute a
relatively flat sweep of un-glaciated, plateau like land. Rising to
the west the plains abruptly give way to the Rocky Mountains, which
cover the central third of the state. The Rockies comprise several
north-south trending ranges: the Front Range (the easternmost range
and including Pikes Peak), the Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ)
Mountains, the Park Range, the Sawatch Range, and the San Juan
Mountains. The western third of the state is part of the Colorado
Plateau. This region is characterized by valleys, deep canyons, and
mesas. The soils of the mountain and plateau regions are thin, and
those of the plains are poorly developed, low in organic material,
and high in alkalinity but respond well to irrigation and
fertilization. Some areas of alluvial deposits along the major
rivers are relatively fertile, but irrigation and soil conservation
techniques are necessary.
Rivers & Lakes
Six major rivers, the
Colorado, Arkansas, South and North Platte, Republican, and Rio
Grande, rise in Colorado and supply water to 18 other states.
Canyons have been carved by many of the state's rivers, including
the 300-m-deep (1,000-ft) Royal Gorge on the Arkansas River and the
Black Canyon on the Gunnison, a tributary of the Colorado. The only
natural lake of any size is Grand Lake, but more than 1,900
reservoirs (artificial lakes) have been constructed. More than 27
trans-mountain diversion projects deliver water from the mountains
to the populous and drier East Slope of the Rockies. Groundwater
resources are most important in the relatively dry Great Plains
province.
Climate
Colorado has a
semiarid continental climate that is strongly influenced by the
terrain, with marked zonation in the mountains. The growing season
ranges from 188 days maximum in the Colorado River valley to 4 to 8
days at and above 2,600 m (8,500 ft). The mean annual temperature is
7 deg. C (45 deg. F) with a range from an average low in January of
-3 deg. C (26 deg. F) to a high in July of 23 deg. C (73 deg. F). A
significant factor for human comfort is the low humidity.
Generally,
precipitation increases with elevation, the western slopes of the
Rockies receiving the most. Almost all lower elevations record less
than 254 mm (10 in) with the minimum of 178 mm (7 in) at Alamosa
(elev., 2,297 m/7,535 ft). The state's maximum precipitation is
1,067 mm (42 in) recorded at Wolf Creek Pass (elev., 3,307 m/10,850
ft). The greater precipitation at high elevations (stored in a
snowpack of several meters on the high peaks) is critical in
overcoming the problems of low moisture in populated areas. A hazard
exacerbated by climate and topography is air pollution. The
Denver-Boulder urban area is among the top ten U.S. areas in poor
air quality due to carbon monoxide.
Vegetation & Animal Life
Colorado has five
distinct life zones, which are associated with climate and
topography and provide habitat for a wide variety of plant and
animal life. The eastern plains up to an elevation of 1,830 m (6,000
ft) are a zone of open grassland and wildflowers inhabited typically
by pronghorn antelope (in decreasing numbers), jackrabbits, and
burrowing mammals. Trees occur naturally only along riverbanks. The
transition foothills zone up to an elevation of 2,440 m (8,000 ft)
is a brushland of juniper, sagebrush, mountain mahogany, scrub oak,
pinion pine, berry shrubs, grasses, and wildflowers. It is inhabited
by gray fox, skunks, and raccoons. The mountain zone (up to 3,050
m/10,000 ft) has varied plants dominated by ponderosa pine and
Douglas fir along with aspen, lodgepole pine, and limber pine. The
sub-alpine zone (up to 3,500 m/11,500 ft) has homogeneous forests of
Englemann spruce and fir. Above the timberline in the alpine zone
are found wildflowers, mosses, and lichens.
Wildlife in the
mountains (the montane through alpine zones) includes bighorn sheep,
pika, marmot, mountain lion, red fox, pine marten, and porcupine.
Coyotes, mule deer, and small mammals such as beaver and deer mice
are ubiquitous, but several once-numerous species, including grizzly
bears, bison, wolverines, lynx, wolves, and otter, are now either
rare or extinct.
Natural Resources
Colorado has known
deposits of more than 250 economically useful minerals, including
coal, oil shale, petroleum, natural gas, molybdenum, vanadium, zinc,
and uranium, with about 35 minerals actively mined. Gold and silver,
once important, are now of minor significance, but Colorado's huge
oil-shale deposits contain the country's largest (although
un-exploded) reserves of oil. Parks and forests are managed by
several federal agencies on 36% of the total land, and the state's
scenic beauty attracts many tourists.
People
Colorado's resident
population is 3,294,394 (1990 census). Mostly urban, the population
is concentrated in a corridor along the eastern slope of the
Rockies, especially the front range. Western Colorado is, with few
local exceptions, very sparsely populated. Both the plateau and
mountain regions gained population between 1980 and 1990, although
several counties within each region lost population. The population
of the state as a whole grew somewhat more than the national average
in 1990. Only Denver, the capital,
Colorado Springs, and Aurora exceeded 200,000. Among other Colorado
cities, eight exceeded 50,000 in population. The state's population
growth rate slowed to 14% from 1980 to 1990, after a rate of growth
of more than 30% between 1970 and 1980. In 1990 whites made up about
88% of Colorado's population, while blacks were 4%, Asians nearly
2%, and American Indians nearly 1%. Hispanics comprised nearly 13%
of the population. Religious affiliation is predominantly
Protestant, with more than 100 recognized sects.
Education
Colorado began
publicly supported primary education in 1862, more than a decade
before statehood. Public education is today administered through
local school districts. The University of Colorado (1876) and
Colorado State (1870) provide professional and graduate programs.
Also important are the internationally known Colorado School of
Mines (1874) and the United States Air Force Academy (1954) near
Colorado Springs. Among the state's private institutions of higher
education are the University of Denver (1864), Colorado Christian
University (1914), Colorado College (1874), and Loretto Heights
College (1891).
Cultural Institutions
Denver
is the focus for the state's cultural activities with its State
Historical Society Museum, Museum of Natural History, Art Museum,
Symphony Orchestra, and its various theater groups. Boettcher
Concert Hall opened in Denver in 1978 and is one of the structures
of the Denver Arts Center. The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center is
a fine regional facility, and the University of Colorado Shakespeare
Festival in Boulder and the Aspen Music School and Festival in Aspen
have become important permanent institutions. Colorado, at both the
state and local levels, provides significant support to public
libraries; the Denver Public Library is one of the largest in the
American West.
Historical Sites & Recreation
Colorado has two
national parks: Rocky Mountain National Park, containing some of the
mountain range's highest peaks, and Mesa Verde National Park,
containing the most extensive Indian cliff dwellings in the United
States. Other points of interest are the Dinosaur National Monument,
with its well-preserved fossils, and the dramatic rock formations of
the Garden of the Gods, a park near Colorado Springs. Central City,
a former gold-rush boom town, is now a summer resort. Aspen and
Vail, two of the country's best-known ski resorts, have developed in
Colorado since World War II.
Communications
Among Colorado's major
newspapers are the
Rocky Mountain News,
with the largest daily circulation in the state, and the Denver
Post. The Rocky Mountain News, founded in 1859, was Colorado's first
newspaper. The state has 27 daily newspapers, as well as numerous
radio and television stations.
Economy
Colorado's economy has
historically focused on primary products, such as buffalo hides,
gold, silver, and oil shale, with the more recent addition of
services, such as ski resorts and real-estate sales. Today
manufacturing has replaced mining and agriculture in importance and
accounts for more than half the total value of goods produced.
Tourism, with an estimated 8 million visitors a year, now produces
more revenue than mining.
Manufacturing
The state's leading
manufacturing industries produce metals, food products, machinery,
clay and glass products, electronic instruments, chemicals and
chemical products, and transport equipment. Manufacturing, which has
grown dramatically since World War II, is heavily concentrated in
the Denver metropolitan area.
Agriculture
Livestock and
livestock products contribute 70% of Colorado's farm receipts.
Cattle and sheep are raised in both the mountains and on the plains,
with the heaviest concentration in the northeastern part of the
state. Wheat, alfalfa, corn (maize), and sugar beets are the
principal crops. Because of its relatively dry climate, Colorado has
large tracts of irrigated farmland.
Mining
Mining plays a
diminishing role in the Colorado economy. By value, the principal
mining products are petroleum, molybdenum, and coal. Sand and gravel
are also important, as are various kinds of stone and, to a lesser
extent, uranium.
Transportation
Colorado has 121,819
km (76,697 mi.) of U.S., state, and county highways. Seven major
railroads carry freight over 5,794 km (3,600 mi.) of track, a
reduction from the 8,047 km (5,000 mi.) of track in the 1930s. Eight
scheduled airlines and 35 other carriers use more than 180 public
and private airports.
Government & Politics
Government is by a
bicameral legislature and governor, elected for a 4-year term, under
the constitution approved July 1, 1876. The separate judiciary
includes a 7-member Supreme Court, 22 district courts, and various
local courts. The constitution is generally conceded to be so
detailed as to inhibit effective governance, although recent
amendments have allowed flexibility. The General Assembly consists
of 35 senators serving 4-year terms and 65 representatives serving
2-year terms; business is accomplished largely from January to May.
More than 95% of state and local government expenditures are for
welfare, education, and highways. Colorado is represented in the
U.S. Congress by 2 senators and 6 representatives. It has 8
electoral votes in national presidential elections.
Over the years
Colorado has exhibited an almost even division between the
Democratic party and the Republican party in electing both its state
and federal officials. This reflects the balance of voting trends
between the predominantly Democratic south and cities (Denver,
Colorado Springs, Pueblo) and the Republican suburbs and rural
northeast.
History
Isolated campsites
dating back 20,000 years have been discovered in Yuma County,
evidence that occupancy of the area that is now Colorado was
established by nomadic hunters more than 10,000 years ago. By the
1st century AD, Indians known as Basket Makers had come to the mesa
country of southwest Colorado. By AD 800 these people had been
absorbed by the Cliff Dwellers and their pueblo culture, which was
based on agriculture and flourished between the 10th and 13th
centuries (see Anasazi). At the time of European exploration and
settlement, Colorado was inhabited by various nomadic tribes on the
plains and by the Utes in the mountain valleys.
Exploration & Acquisition by
the United States
The early explorers of
Colorado were Spaniards. The first expedition to penetrate the area
was probably that of Francisco Coronado in 1541. Spanish expeditions
continued through the 18th century, mainly for the purposes of
discovering gold and checking French power, but their influence was
negligible. The region was not claimed for Spain until 1706. The
Spanish, however, introduced the horse, which provided the Indians
with a mobility that both threatened European interests and
inhibited the Indians' shift from nomadic hunting to agriculture.
Intertribal warfare and conflict between the Spanish and the French
continued through the 18th century.
With the Louisiana
Purchase (1803), the United States obtained from France the eastern
and central parts of Colorado. American exploration of the region
began soon after. An army officer, Zebulon Montgomery Pike, led a
party into Colorado in 1806. Other expeditions included those of
Stephen H. Long (1820) and John C. Fremont (1842-43, 1845). The
area's first semi-permanent white inhabitants were the so-called
Mountain Men, who were trappers and fur traders.
The remainder of
Colorado's territory passed from Spain to Mexico following Mexico's
independence in 1821. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), which
ended the Mexican War, gave this area to the United States.
Early agricultural
villages were established by settlers from New Mexico, but
Easterners were inhibited by the region's isolation and by the
misconception that it was part of the "Great American Desert." The
discovery of gold in 1858 near present-day Denver caused a sudden
influx of settlers. Mining camps, such as Auraria, Central City,
Gold Hill, Boulder, and Cripple Creek, sprung into existence.
Ignoring Indian claims to the land, the settlers proclaimed it the
Territory of Jefferson, a move not recognized by the U.S. Congress.
The Colorado Territory was organized in 1861.
Statehood
Colorado was admitted
as the 38th U.S. state in 1876. The Indian wars (with the Arapaho,
Cheyenne, and later the Utes), which had continued through the 1860s
and '70s, came to an end in 1880 when a treaty was signed with the
Ute chief Ouray. In 1881 the Indians were deported to reservations.
The gold boom had
subsided by the end of the 1860s only to be replaced by a silver
boom in the 1870s. Silver magnate and Colorado politician Horace
Tabor was a leading figure of this era. After 1893, however, silver
prices dropped, and many of the mines closed.
By the beginning of
the 20th century Colorado had become a predominantly agricultural
state. Indeed, agriculture, with irrigation improvements, had been
an expanding part of the economy since the Civil War. Denver, which
had been connected to the Union Pacific Railroad in 1870, became a
shipping and distribution point for ranches and farms. Mineral
resources other than precious metals, such as coal, oil, and
molybdenum, were exploited in the early 1900s.
Economic Depression & Recovery
The Great Depression,
combined with the Dust Bowl droughts of 1935 and 1937, caused a
severe setback to the Colorado economy. World War II, however,
brought a renewed demand for Colorado's mineral production. Military
spending in the state--on several Air Force bases--gave a further
boost to the economy. Following the war, manufacturing continued to
expand until, by the mid-1950s, it had replaced agriculture as the
leading sector of the economy. Tourism experienced a similar growth.
Since the end of World
War II Colorado's rate of growth has been among the highest in the
nation. People came to the state for a variety of reasons: among
them, to find employment in the expanding industries and to escape
the problems and crowding of older urban areas. The rapid increase
in Colorado's urban population, however, created a situation not
unfamiliar to the nation's other cities. The population increase
also put a severe burden on the state's modest water supplies, which
are also necessary for irrigated agriculture. Since the early 1950s
a series of water storage and regulation projects (including the
Colorado-Big Thompson Project, the Colorado River Storage Project,
and the Frying Pan-Arkansas River Project) have carefully budgeted
nearly all of the state's water supply. Today Colorado faces the
challenge of resolving conflicts of interest between
environmentalists wishing to preserve Colorado's scenic beauty and
recreational resources, and mining and industrial interests
attempting to exploit Colorado's mineral resources.
Bibliography
-
Abbott, Carl,
Colorado: A History of the Centennial State (1976;
repr. 1982)
-
Athearn, Robert
G.,
The Coloradans (1976; repr. 1982)
-
Casewit, C. W.,
Colorado
(1973)
-
Dallas, Sandra,
Colorado Ghost Towns and Mining Camps (1985)
-
Dorset, P. F.,
The New Eldorado: The Story of Colorado's Gold and Silver
Rushes (1970)
-
Griffiths, Mel,
and Rubright, Lynnell,
Colorado: A Geography (1983)
-
Ubbelohde, Carl,
et al.,
A Colorado History, 5th. ed. (1982)
-
Walton, Roger
A.,
Colorado: A Practical Guide to Its Government and Politics,
6th ed. (1991)
-
Zwinger, Ann,
Beyond the Aspen Grove
(1970).
Copyright 1995 by
Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc.
1st
Denver Home Real Estate, Ltd.
4760 S. Wadsworth Blvd. M202
Denver, Colorado 80123
(303) 587-5128
Colorado Licensed Real Estate Broker
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