The Territory of Colorado was an
organized incorporated territory of the United States
The territory of the United States and its overseas possessions has evolved over time, from the colonial era to the present day. It includes formally organized territories, proposed and failed states, unrecognized breakaway states, internationa ...
that existed from February 28, 1861, until August 1, 1876, when it was
admitted to the Union as the
State of Colorado.
The territory was organized in the wake of the
Pike's Peak Gold Rush of 1858–1861, which brought the first large concentration of white settlement to the region. The organic act creating the territory was passed by
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
and signed by President
James Buchanan on February 28, 1861, during the secessions by
Southern
Southern may refer to:
Businesses
* China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China
* Southern Airways, defunct US airline
* Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US
* Southern Airways Express, M ...
states that precipitated the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
. The boundaries of the Colorado Territory were identical with those of the current
State of Colorado. The organization of the territory helped solidify
Union control over a mineral-rich area of the
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...
. Statehood was regarded as fairly imminent, but territorial ambitions for statehood were thwarted at the end of 1865 by a
veto
A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president or monarch vetoes a bill to stop it from becoming law. In many countries, veto powers are established in the country's constitution. Veto ...
by President
Andrew Johnson. Statehood for the territory was a recurring issue during the
Ulysses Grant
Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...
administration, with Grant advocating statehood against a less willing Congress during
Reconstruction
Reconstruction may refer to:
Politics, history, and sociology
* Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company
*''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...
. The Colorado Territory ceased to exist when the State of Colorado was admitted to the Union in 1876.
East of the
Continental Divide, the new territory included the western portion of the
Kansas Territory, as well as some of the southwestern
Nebraska Territory, and a small parcel of the northeastern
New Mexico Territory. On the western side of the divide, the territory included much of the eastern
Utah Territory, all of which was strongly controlled by the
Ute and
Shoshoni
The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions:
* Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming
* Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho
* Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah
* Goshute: western Utah, e ...
. The
Eastern Plains
The Eastern Plains of Colorado refers to a region of the U.S. state of Colorado east of the Rocky Mountains and east of the population centers of the Front Range.
Geography
The Eastern Plains are part of the High Plains, which are the wester ...
were held much more loosely by the intermixed
Cheyenne
The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...
and
Arapaho, as well as by the
Pawnee,
Comanche and
Kiowa
Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and e ...
. In 1861, ten days before the establishment of the territory, the Arapaho and Cheyenne agreed with the U.S. to give up most their areas of the plains to white settlement but were allowed to live in their larger traditional areas, so long as they could tolerate
homesteaders near their camps. By the end of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
in 1865, the Native American presence had been largely eliminated from the
High Plains High Plains refers to one of two distinct land regions:
* High Plains (United States), land region of the western Great Plains
*High Plains (Australia)
The High Plains of south-eastern Australia are a sub-region, or more strictly a string of adja ...
.
History
The land which ultimately became the Colorado Territory had first come under the jurisdiction of the United States in three stages: the 1803
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase (french: Vente de la Louisiane, translation=Sale of Louisiana) was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or ap ...
as adjusted by the 1819
Adams–Onis Treaty, the 1845
Annexation of Texas, and the 1848
Mexican Cession. The land claims of
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
were, at first, controversial. The border between the USA and Mexico was redefined by the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at the end of the
Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the ...
in 1848, and the final boundaries of the state of
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
were established by the
Congressional Compromise of 1850.
Indigenous populations
Originally, the lands that comprised the Colorado Territory were inhabited primarily by the
Ute from Western Colorado out onto the
eastern high plains, and
Anasazi
The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, ...
in southwestern, southern, and part of southeastern Colorado. The
Comanche and
Jicarilla Apache also formally ruled over the southeastern portions of the state.
Arapaho and
Cheyenne
The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...
also hunted, warred, and sometimes lived in the eastern and northeastern plains of the state as well.
Exploration by non-native peoples
The earliest explorers of European extraction to visit the area were
Spanish explorers such as
Coronado, although the Coronado expedition of 1540–42 only skirted the future border of the Colorado Territory to the south and southeast. In 1776,
Francisco Atanasio Domínguez and
Silvestre Vélez de Escalante Silvestre is a Spanish and Portuguese given name or surname, or a French surname. Notable people with the name include:
Surname
*Cindy Silvestre (born 1993), a French kickboxer
* Franck Silvestre (born 1967), a retired French footballer
*Israel ...
explored southern Colorado in the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition.
Other notable explorations included the
Pike Expedition
The Pike Expedition (July 15, 1806 – July 1, 1807) was a military party sent out by President Thomas Jefferson and authorized by the United States government to explore the south and west of the recent Louisiana Purchase.Berry, Trey; Pam ...
of 1806–07 by
Zebulon Pike, the journey along the north bank of the Platte River in 1820 by
Stephen H. Long
Stephen Harriman Long (December 30, 1784 – September 4, 1864) was an American army civil engineer, explorer, and inventor. As an inventor, he is noted for his developments in the design of steam locomotives. He was also one of the most pro ...
to what came to be called Longs Peak, the
John C. Frémont
John Charles Frémont or Fremont (January 21, 1813July 13, 1890) was an American explorer, military officer, and politician. He was a U.S. Senator from California and was the first Republican nominee for president of the United States in 1856 ...
expedition in 1845–46, and the
Powell Geographic Expedition of 1869 by
John Wesley Powell
John Wesley Powell (March 24, 1834 – September 23, 1902) was an American geologist, U.S. Army soldier, explorer of the American West, professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, and director of major scientific and cultural institutions. H ...
.
Early settlements, trade, and gold mining
In 1779, Governor
de Anza of New Mexico fought and defeated the Comanches under
Cuerno Verde
Cuerno Verde (died September 3, 1779) is the Spanish name for Tavibo Naritgant, a leader of the Comanche, likely of the Kotsoteka Comanche, in the late 18th century.
Life
Cuerno Verde ("Green Horn" in English), is the Spanish name given to Tavi ...
on the Eastern Slope of Colorado, probably south of Pueblo. In 1786, de Anza made peace with the Comanches, creating an alliance against the Apaches.
A group of
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, th ...
crossed the South Platte and
Cache la Poudre River valleys on their way to
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
in 1848 during the
California Gold Rush. They reported finding trace amounts of gold in the South Platte and its tributaries as they passed along the mountains. In the south, in the
San Luis Valley, early Mexican families established themselves in large land grants (later contested by the U.S.) from the Mexican government.
In the early 19th century, the upper
South Platte River
The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River. Flowing through the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska, it is itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/Mountain West. It ...
valley had been infiltrated by
fur traders, but had not been the site of permanent settlement. The first movement of permanent U.S. settlers in the area began with the
Kansas–Nebraska Act
The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 () was a territorial organic act that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. It was drafted by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas, passed by the 33rd United States Congress, and signed into law ...
of 1854, which allowed private land claims to be filed. Among the first settlers to establish claims were former fur traders who returned to the lands they once trapped, including
Antoine Janis
Antoine Janis (March 26, 1824–1890) was a 19th-century French-American fur trader and the first white homesteader in Larimer County, Colorado, in the United States. The first recorded permanent white settler in northern Colorado, he founded ...
and other trappers from
Fort Laramie, who established a town near
Laporte along the Cache la Poudre in 1858. See
Forts in Colorado.
In 1858,
Green Russell William Greeneberry "Green" Russell (1818–1877) was an American prospector and miner.
Early life
Green Russell was born in South Carolina but moved with his family to Georgia as a small child. His father James Russell engaged in gold mining dur ...
and a party of
Georgians, having heard the story of the gold in the South Platte from Cherokee after they returned from California, set out to mine the area they described. That summer they founded a mining camp
Auraria (named for a gold mining camp in Georgia) at the confluence of the South Platte and
Cherry Creek. The Georgians left for their home state the following winter. At
Bent's Fort along the
Arkansas River
The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United ...
, Russell told
William Larimer, Jr., a Kansas land speculator, about the
placer gold they had found. Larimer, realizing the opportunity to capitalize on it, hurried to Auraria. In November 1858, he laid claim to an area across Cherry Creek from Auraria and named it "
Denver City" in honor of
James W. Denver, the current governor of the Kansas Territory. Larimer did not intend to mine gold himself; he wanted to promote the new town and sell real estate to eager miners.
Larimer's plan to promote his new town worked almost immediately, and by the following spring the western Kansas Territory along the South Platte was swarming with miners digging in river bottoms in what became known as the
Colorado Gold Rush
The Pike's Peak Gold Rush (later known as the Colorado Gold Rush) was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pike's Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States that began in July 185 ...
. Early arrivals moved upstream into the mountains quickly, seeking the lode source of the placer gold, and founded mining camps at
Black Hawk Black Hawk and Blackhawk may refer to:
Animals
* Black Hawk (horse), a Morgan horse that lived from 1833 to 1856
* Common black hawk, ''Buteogallus anthracinus''
* Cuban black hawk, ''Buteogallus gundlachii''
* Great black hawk, ''Buteogallus urub ...
and
Central City
In urban planning, a core city, principal city metropolitan core, or central city, is the largest or most important city or cities of a metropolitan area. A core city is surrounded by smaller satellite cities, towns, and suburbs. A central cit ...
. A rival group of civic individuals, including
William A.H. Loveland, established the town of
Golden at the base of the mountains west of Denver, with the intention of supplying the increasing tide of miners with necessary goods.
Territorial aspirations
The movement to create a territory within the present boundaries of Colorado followed nearly immediately. Citizens of Denver and Golden pushed for territorial status of the newly settled region within a year of the founding of the towns. The movement was promoted by
, publisher of the ''
Rocky Mountain News'', and by Larimer, who aspired to be the first territorial governor. In 1859, settlers established the
Territory of Jefferson, and held elections, but the
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...
did not recognize the territory, and it never gained legal status.
Congressional grant of territorial status for the region was delayed by the slavery issue, and a deadlock between Democrats, who controlled the Senate, and the antislavery Republicans, who gained control of the House of Representatives in 1859. The deadlock was broken only by the Civil War. In early 1861, enough Democratic senators from seceding states resigned from the U.S. Senate to give control of both houses to the Republicans, clearing the way for admission of new territories. Three new territories were created in as many days: Colorado (February 28), Nevada (March 1), and Dakota (March 2).
Colorado Territory was officially organized by Act of Congress on February 28, 1861 (), out of lands previously part of the Kansas,
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...
,
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...
, and
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex
, Offi ...
territories. Technically the territory was open to slavery under the
Dred Scott Decision of 1857, but the question was rendered moot by the impending
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
and the majority pro-Union sentiment in the territory. The name "Colorado" was chosen for the territory. It had been previously suggested in 1850 by Senator
Henry S. Foote as a name for a state to have been created out of present-day California south of 35° 45'. To the dismay of Denverites, the town of
Colorado City was designated the first territorial capital, quickly succeeded by Golden. Denver eventually became the temporary territorial capital, but was not designated the permanent capital until 1881, five years after Colorado became a state.
Civil War years
During the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...
, the tide of new miners into the territory slowed to a trickle, and many left for the East to fight. The Missourians who stayed formed two volunteer regiments, as well as home guard. Although seemingly stationed at the periphery of the war theaters, the Colorado regiments found themselves in a crucial position in 1862 after the
Confederate invasion of the
New Mexico Territory by
General Henry Sibley and a force of
Texans. Sibley's
New Mexico campaign was intended as a prelude to an invasion of the Colorado Territory northward to
Fort Laramie, cutting the supply lines between California and the rest of the
Union. The Coloradans, under the command of Union Army
General Edward Canby and Colonel
John P. Slough, Lt. Col.
Samuel F. Tappan
Samuel Forster Tappan (June 29, 1831 – January 6, 1913) was an American journalist, military officer, abolitionist and a Native American rights activist. Appointed as a member of the Indian Peace Commission in 1867 to reach peace with the P ...
and Major
John M. Chivington, defeated Sibley's force at the two day
Battle of Glorieta Pass
The Battle of Glorieta Pass (March 26–28, 1862) in the northern New Mexico Territory, was the decisive battle of the New Mexico campaign during the American Civil War. Dubbed the " Gettysburg of the West" by some authors (a term described ...
along the Santa Fe Trail, thwarting the Confederate strategy.
Colorado War between the U.S. and the Indians of Cheyenne and Arapaho
In 1851, by the
Treaty of Fort Laramie, the United States promised the
Cheyenne
The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...
and
Arapaho tribes control, in the Colorado area, of the Eastern Plains between
North Platte River
The North Platte River is a major tributary of the Platte River and is approximately long, counting its many curves.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 21, 2011 In a ...
and
Arkansas River
The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United ...
eastward from the
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...
. The Fort Laramie Treaty, in Article 4 of the treaty, did allow U.S. citizens to lawfully reside in or pass through the newly created Indian territories. Since this treaty was enacted before the railroads had come and before the finding of gold in the region, few whites had ventured to settle in what is now Colorado. By the 1860s, as a result of the
Colorado Gold Rush
The Pike's Peak Gold Rush (later known as the Colorado Gold Rush) was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pike's Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States that began in July 185 ...
and
homesteaders
The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than of public land, or nearly 10 percent of ...
encroaching westward into Indian terrain, relations between U.S. Americans and the
Native American people deteriorated. On February 18, 1861, in the
Treaty of Fort Wise, several chiefs of Cheyenne and Arapaho agreed with U.S. representatives to cede most of the lands, ten years earlier designated to their tribes, for white settlement, keeping only a fragment of the original
reserve
Reserve or reserves may refer to:
Places
* Reserve, Kansas, a US city
* Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish
* Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County
* Reserve, New Mexico, a US ...
, located between Arkansas River and
Sand Creek. This new fragment was assigned in severalty to the individual members of the respective tribes with each member receiving of land. The United States, by the Fort Wise Treaty, wished to have the Indians settle the new reservation as farmers. The U.S. agreed to pay the tribes a combined total of $30,000 per year for 15 years and in addition to provide a lumber mill, one or more mechanic shops, dwelling houses for an interpreter, and a miller engineer. See Article 5 of the Fort Wise Treaty.
A good part of their co-nationals repudiated the treaty, declared the chiefs not empowered to sign, or bribed to sign, ignored the agreement, and became even more belligerent over the 'whites' encroaching on their hunting grounds. Tensions mounted when Colorado territorial governor
John Evans in 1862 created a home guard of regiments of Colorado Volunteers returning from the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...
and took a hard line against Indians accused of theft. On August 21, 1864, a band of 30 Indians attacked four members of the Colorado Cavalry as they were rounding up stray cattle. Three of the members made it back to the stockade at Franktown, Colorado, but the fourth man failed to return. This man, Conrad Moschel, was found a few days later having been shot with a firearm and pierced with an arrow, and had been scalped in the manner of the Cheyenne. This offensive action by the warring Cheyenne further enraged the U.S. people of Colorado. After several minor incidents in what would later come to be designated as the
Colorado War, in November 1864, a force of 800 troops of the Colorado home guard, after heavy drinking, attacked an encampment of Cheyenne and Arapaho at
Sand Creek, murdering between 150 and 200 Indians, mostly elderly men, women and children. This
Sand Creek Massacre or 'Massacre of Cheyenne Indians' led to official hearings
by the
in March and April 1865. After the hearings, the Congress Joint Committee in their report on May 4, 1865, described the actions of Colonel
John Chivington and his Volunteers as "foul, dastardly, brutal, cowardly" and:
Nevertheless, justice was never served on those responsible for the massacre; and nonetheless, the continuation of this Colorado War led to expulsion of the last Arapaho, Cheyenne,
Kiowa
Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and e ...
and
Comanche from the Colorado Territory into
Oklahoma.
The movement for statehood
Following the end of the American Civil War, a movement was made for statehood; the United States Congress passed the Admission Act for the territory in late 1865, but it was vetoed by
President Andrew Johnson. For the next eleven years, the movement for territorial admission was stalled, with several close calls.
President Grant advocated statehood for the territory in 1870, but Congress did not act.
In the meantime, the territory found itself threatened by lack of
railroad
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...
s. By the late 1860s, many in Denver had sold their businesses and moved northward to the
Dakota Territory
The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of N ...
communities of
Laramie and
Cheyenne
The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...
, which had sprung up along the
transcontinental railroad. Faced with the possible dwindling of the town and its eclipse by the new towns to the north, Denverites pooled their capital and built the
Denver Pacific Railroad
The Denver Pacific Railway was a historic railroad that operated in the western United States during the late 19th century. Formed in 1867 in the Colorado Territory, the company operated lines in Colorado and present-day southeastern Wyoming in ...
northward to Cheyenne to bring the rail network to Denver. The
Kansas Pacific Railway was completed to Denver two months later. The move cemented the role of Denver as the future regional metropolis. The territory was finally admitted to the Union in 1876.
Territorial capitals
Three of Colorado's earliest communities had the honor of serving as capital of Colorado Territory:
*
Colorado City (1861–63)
*
Golden City (1863–69)
*
Denver City (1869–76)
Governmental buildings
For much if not all of its existence, the Colorado Territorial government did not actually own its houses of government, instead renting available buildings for governmental purposes. Today, two buildings which served the Territorial government remain: the historic log building in Colorado City, and the
Loveland Block in downtown Golden (which had housed the complete legislature, Territorial Library and possibly Supreme Court from 1866–67, with library remaining to 1868). Others which served include the original Loveland Building (1859–1933, 1107 Washington Avenue in Golden, housing the Territorial House from 1862–66); the Overland Hotel (1859–1910, 1117 Washington Avenue in Golden, housing the Territorial Council from 1862–66); and the Territorial Executive Building (unknown dates, approximately 14th and Arapahoe Streets in Golden, housing the executive branch of the government from 1866–67).
See also
*
Colorado in the American Civil War
The Colorado Territory was formally created in 1861 shortly before the bombardment of Fort Sumter sparked the American Civil War. Although sentiments were somewhat divided in the early days of the war, Colorado was only marginally a pro-Union te ...
*
Colorado War
*
Comanche Campaign
*
History of Colorado
*
List of territorial claims and designations in Colorado
The area currently occupied by the U.S. State of Colorado has undergone numerous changes in occupancy, territorial claims, and political designations. Paleoamericans entered the region about 11,500 BCE,Cassells, E. Steve. (1997). ''The Arc ...
*
Pike's Peak Country
References
External links
Report of the United States Congress Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, 1865at University of Michigan Digital Library Production Service,
University of Michigan
*
{{coord, 39, N, 105.5, W, region:US-CO_type:adm1st_scale:3000000, format=dms, display=title
*
History of Colorado
History of the American West
*
*
*
1876 disestablishments in Colorado
States and territories established in 1861
States and territories disestablished in 1876