Colorado Territory and Related Topics

Kansas Territory

Organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the free state of Kansas.

Site No. JF00-072: The Nebraska–Kansas state line at the intersection of Nebraska counties Thayer and Jefferson and Kansas counties Washington and Republic

1855 first edition of Colton's map of the Nebraska and Kansas Territories

The Territory of Colorado was created to govern this western region of the former Kansas Territory on February 28, 1861.

Utah Territory

Organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah, the 45th state.

The Utah Territory upon its creation, with modern state boundaries shown for reference

The evolution of the Utah Territory from its creation by Congress in 1850 to 1896, when statehood was granted

In 1861 a large portion of the eastern area of the territory was reorganized as part of the newly created Colorado Territory.

Gold prospectors in the Rocky Mountains of western Kansas Territory

Pike's Peak Gold Rush

"At timber line, Pike's Peak trail" ~ circa unknown

Sluicing for gold, photo by the U.S. Geological and Geographic Survey of the Territories. (1874–1879) Photographer: William Henry Jackson

A map from the late 1850s showing prominent routes to the gold regions

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 1858 and lasted until roughly the creation of the Colorado Territory on February 28, 1861.

New Mexico Territory

Organized incorporated territory of the United States from September 9, 1850, until January 6, 1912.

Map of the later Arizona and New Mexico Territories, split from the original New Mexico Territory of 1851, showing existing counties

Proposed boundaries for the earlier federal State of New Mexico, 1850

The Colorado Territory was established by the "Colorado Organic Act" on February 28, 1861, with the same boundaries that would ultimately constitute the State of Colorado.

Nebraska Territory

Organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until March 1, 1867, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Nebraska.

$1 City of Omaha 1857 uniface banknote. The note is signed by Jesse Lowe in his function as Mayor of Omaha City. It was issued as scrip in 1857 to help fund the erection of the territorial capitol building at Omaha.

The front page of the December 6, 1854 issue of the Nebraska Palladium, the first newspaper to be published in the Nebraska Territory

The front page of the May 4, 1857 issue of the Nebraska Advertiser founded by Robert Wilkinson Furnas, in Brownville, Nebraska Territory

Map of the territory of Nebraska and seal of the Nebraska Territory

The Colorado Territory was formed February 28, 1861 from portions of the territory south of 41° N and west of 102°03′ W (25° W of Washington, D.C.) (an area that includes present-day Fort Collins, Greeley and the portions of Boulder north of Baseline Road, in addition to portions of Kansas Territory, New Mexico Territory, and Utah Territory).

Golden, Colorado

Home rule city that is the county seat of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States.

The Astor House Museum, the first stone building in Golden, was a boarding and rooming house from 1867 to 1971.

The Denver Tramway at Golden depot, 1909

Clear Creek, looking east from the Washington Avenue bridge in Golden, with South Table Mountain and tubers

One of the numerous highway tunnels through the rugged terrain between Idaho Springs and Golden

Golden City served as the capital of the provisional Territory of Jefferson from 1860 to 1861, and capital of the official Territory of Colorado from 1862 to 1867.

Colorado

State in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States.

Ruins of Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde National Park. Photo by Gustaf Nordenskiöld, 1891

Great Kiva at Chimney Rock in the San Juan Mountains of Southwestern Colorado. It is said to have been built by the Ancient Pueblo peoples.

The Spanish discovering the Colorado River, namesake of the state, in 1540, by Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau. García López de Cárdenas can be seen overlooking the Grand Canyon.

Map of the Mexican Cession, with the white representing the territory the United States received from Mexico (plus land ceded to the Republic of Texas) after the Mexican–American War. Well over half of Colorado was received during this treaty.

The territories of New Mexico, Utah, Kansas, and Nebraska before the creation of the Territory of Colorado

Mount of the Holy Cross, photographed by William Henry Jackson in 1874

The Georgetown Loop of the Colorado Central Railroad as photographed by William Henry Jackson in 1899

Three 10th Mountain Division skitroopers above Camp Hale in February 1944.

The arid high plains in Southeastern Colorado

Tenmile Range and Dillon Reservoir near Breckenridge

Grays Peak at 4352 m is the highest point on the Continental Divide in North America

The high desert lands that make up the San Luis Valley in Southern Colorado

Maroon Bells, at 14163 ft, is part of White River National Forest and a tourist destination

The Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction is made up of high desert canyons and sandstone rock formations

Köppen climate types of Colorado, using 1991-2020 climate normals.

Breckenridge naturalist Edwin Carter with a mounted gray wolf killed in the Colorado Rockies, ca. 1890–1900.

An enlargeable map of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado

An enlargeable map of the 17 core-based statistical areas of Colorado

Denver Energy Center lies in the Denver financial district along 17th Street, known as the Wall Street of the West

The Colorado Rockies baseball club at Coors Field

Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, home field of the Denver Broncos and the Denver Outlaws

Ball Arena, home of the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche, and the Colorado Mammoth

Dick's Sporting Goods Park, home of the Colorado Rapids

The main terminal of Denver International Airport evokes the peaks of the Front Range.

The westbound and eastbound California Zephyrs meet in the Glenwood Canyon.

The Southern Ute Tribal Administration Building

The Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Office Complex

Lowry Pueblo in Canyons of the Ancients National Monument

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

Spruce Tree House in Mesa Verde National Park

The Territory of Colorado was organized on February 28, 1861, and on August 1, 1876, U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signed Proclamation 230 admitting Colorado to the Union as the 38th state.

Missouri Compromise line (36°30′ parallel) in dark blue, 1820. Territory above this line would be reserved for free states, and below, slave states

Kansas–Nebraska Act

Territorial organic act that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska.

The United States after the Compromise of 1850 and the Gadsden Purchase. Douglas sought to organize parts of the area labeled as "Unorganized territory."

Stephen A. Douglas – "The great principle of self-government is at stake, and surely the people of this country are never going to decide that the principle upon which our whole republican system rests is vicious and wrong."

Forcing Slavery Down the Throat of a Freesoiler. An 1854 cartoon depicts a giant free soiler being held down by James Buchanan and Lewis Cass, standing on the Democratic platform of making slave states out of "Kansas," "Cuba," and "Central America". Franklin Pierce also holds down the giant's beard, as Stephen A. Douglas shoves a black man down his throat.

Sam Houston from Texas was one of the few southern opponents of the Kansas–Nebraska Act. In the debate, he urged, "Maintain the Missouri Compromise! Stir not up agitation! Give us peace!"

Alexander Stephens from Georgia – "Nebraska is through the House. I took the reins in my hand, applied the whip and spur, and brought the 'wagon' out at eleven o'clock P.M. Glory enough for one day."

Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri – "What is the excuse for all this turmoil and mischief? We are told it is to keep the question of slavery out of Congress! Great God! It was out of Congress, completely, entirely, and forever out of Congress, unless Congress dragged it in by breaking down the sacred laws which settled it!"

Charles Sumner on Douglas – "Alas! too often those principles which give consistency, individuality, and form to the Northern character, which renders it staunch, strong, and seaworthy, which bind it together as with iron, are drawn out, one by one, like the bolts of the ill-fitted vessel, and from the miserable, loosened fragments is formed that human anomaly—a Northern man with Southern principles. Sir, no such man can speak for the North."

This 1856 map shows slave states (gray), free states (pink), U.S. territories (green), and Kansas (white)

A large portion of Nebraska Territory would soon be split off into Dakota Territory (1861), and smaller portions transferred to Colorado Territory (1861) and Idaho Territory (1863) before the balance of the land became the State of Nebraska in 1867.

Denver

Consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado.

Indian land as defined by the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie. As per this treaty, the area of modern Denver falls within traditional territory of Cheyenne and Arapaho nations

Former Kansas Territorial Governor James W. Denver visited his namesake city in 1875 and in 1882.

The "Bronco Buster", a variation of Frederic Remington's "Bronco Buster" western sculpture at the Denver capitol grounds, a gift from J.K. Mullen in 1920

"Pioneer Mothers of Colorado" statue at The Denver Post building

Downtown Denver cityscape, 1964. Includes Denver's oldest church (Trinity United Methodist), first building of the Mile High Center complex, Lincoln Center, old brownstone part of the Brown Palace Hotel, and Cosmopolitan Hotel – since demolished.

Aerial photograph of Denver from the northwest

Construction along Cherokee Street in the Golden Triangle neighborhood.

Map of racial distribution in Denver, 2010 U.S. Census. Each dot is 25 people: White, Black, Asian , Hispanic , or Other (yellow)

The 17th street district includes many financial, business and corporate buildings.

Republic Plaza, Colorado's tallest building

Wells Fargo "Cash Register" Building: Denver's most famous skyscraper

1144 15th St: One of Denver's newest skyscrapers

Development in the bustling Union Station section of downtown

The first Chipotle Mexican Grill, near the campus of the University of Denver

Colorado Supreme Court - just before completion

Dawn over downtown Denver, viewed from the north with Pikes Peak and the southern Front Range to the south.

Colfax Avenue at Broadway, where the downtown street grid and the "normal" city grid meet. Colfax Avenue carries U.S. Highway 40 through Denver.

Speer Boulevard runs north and south through downtown Denver.

Commuter rail station at Denver International Airport

Inside the main terminal of Denver International Airport

alt=|Denver Pavilions is a popular arts, entertainment, and shopping center on the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver.

alt=|Civic Center Park: with museums and the central library in background

Empower Field at Mile High, home of the Denver Broncos

alt=|Ball Arena, home of the Denver Nuggets and the Colorado Avalanche

Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies

alt=|Dick's Sporting Goods Park, home of the Colorado Rapids

alt=|Cheesman Park started as a cemetery.

The Carla Madison Recreation Center, completed in 2017.

alt=|Red Rocks is a Denver park and world-famous amphitheater in the foothills

Genesee Park is the largest of the Denver Mountain Parks.

Denver East High School has seen several world famous people walk the halls as future alumni.

University of Colorado-Denver in downtown

The Ritchie Center at University of Denver

Ten days later, on February 28, 1861, the Colorado Territory was created, Arapahoe County was formed on November 1, 1861, and Denver City was incorporated on November 7, 1861.

Andrew Johnson

The 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869.

Johnson's birthplace and childhood home, located at the Mordecai Historic Park in Raleigh, North Carolina

The Andrew Johnson House, built in 1851 in Greeneville, Tennessee

Portrait of Johnson, 1856, attributed to William Brown Cooper

Poster for the Lincoln and Johnson ticket by Currier and Ives

1865 cartoon showing Lincoln and Johnson using their talents as rail-splitter and tailor to repair the Union

Contemporary woodcut of Johnson being sworn in by Chief Justice Chase as Cabinet members look on, April 15, 1865

Official portrait of President Johnson, c. 1880

Thomas Nast cartoon of Johnson disposing of the Freedmen's Bureau as African Americans go flying

"The Situation", a Harper's Weekly editorial cartoon, shows Secretary of War Stanton aiming a cannon labeled "Congress" to defeat Johnson. The rammer is "Tenure of Office Bill" and cannonballs on the floor are "Justice".

Illustration of Johnson's impeachment trial in the United States Senate, by Theodore R. Davis, published in Harper's Weekly

Illustration of Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate George T. Brown delivering a summons for the impeachment trial to Johnson at the White House on March 7, 1868

Illustration of Johnson consulting with his counsel for the trial

"Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness!": Harper's Weekly cartoon mocking Johnson on leaving office

The grave of Andrew Johnson, Greeneville, Tennessee

Johnson's veto of a bill for statehood for Colorado Territory was sustained; enough senators agreed that a district with a population of 30,000 was not yet worthy of statehood to win the day.