Composer Igor Stravinsky once rode a ski lift in Aspen in the summertime, while Prospector Alferd Packer dined on human flesh near Lake City. Inventor Nikola Tesla created artificial lightening hundreds of feet long in Colorado Springs, and Writer Oscar Wilde attended a fancy dinner party at the bottom of a Leadville silver mine. Outlaw Butch Cassidy robbed the bank in Telluride, while Lawman Doc Holliday and Showman Buffalo Bill were buried in Glenwood Springs and Denver, respectively. All are part of the quirky and sometimes colorful history of Colorado.
Around 15,000 years ago, Native Americans migrated to Colorado, a nomadic group of hunter-gatherers distributed on the plains as well as the western plateaus. The first agricultural communities appeared on the Eastern Plains approximately 5,000 years ago. Circa 600 AD, the Ancient Pueblo Peoples began building elaborate communities in Southwestern Colorado in the Mesa Verde area. Other Native American groups, including the Arapaho, Apache, Cheyenne, Comanche, Kiowa, Shoshone and Utes have called Colorado home.
The Spanish were the first Europeans in the area. In 1541, Coronado led an expedition north through Colorado from Mexico in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola, where the streets were supposed to be paved with gold.
A midsummer Columbine (the state flower) on Arapahoe Pass Trail near Boulder
In 1803, Emperor Napoleon Buonaparte sold the United States a vast tract of land known as the "Louisiana Purchase," an area which included Colorado. Lieutenant Zebulon Pike explored the recently purchased territory at President Thomas Jefferson's behest. Pike and his men "discovered" the 14,000 ft (4268 m) peak near Colorado Springs, which today bears his name.
From the 1820s through the 1840s, fur trappers and mountain men began harvesting highly-valued beaver and buffalo pelts for the Eastern U.S. and Europe. Trading posts were established for barter with the Native Americans, while trade routes sprang up between the United States and Mexico.
In 1858, gold was discovered at the mouth of Dry Creek in the present-day Denver suburb of Englewood, triggering the "Pike's Peak or Bust" gold rush of 1858-59. Approximately 50,000 people immigrated to Colorado in search of gold, creating the first large scale permanent settlements. Hard rock silver and gold mining towns were established throughout the territory.
A new town named Denver City was founded in honor of James W. Denver, governor of Kansas Territory.
In 1876, Colorado was admitted as the thirty-eighth state in the union. Colorado was called the "Centennial State" in honor of the one-hundredth anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
In 1912, Hot Sulphur Springs hosted a ski jumping tournament and invited the Denver press. From this humble beginning, Colorado's ski industry was born. A handful of early ski runs were built around the state over the next 20 years, with the Highland-Bavarian Corporation beginning a rudimentary development of Aspen. World War II and the arrival of the 10th Mountain Division to train near Minturn ushered in the mid-20th century explosion of Colorado ski resorts. Trained for high alpine combat in Italy, the alumni of the 10th Mountain Division returned to the U.S. after the war to build Aspen, Vail and Arapahoe Basin.
By the 1960s, Colorado was a popular global destination for alpine skiing, with travelers drawn to the state's sunny days and champagne snow.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Colorado
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Colorado - updated Apr 2024
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Colorado Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
