The Colorado Portal


WikiProject Colorado


You need not be either an expert or a resident.
You only need an active interest in the Centennial State.
Request an article about a Colorado topic here or volunteer here.
Colorado Events
- Wikimedia US Mountain West Winter 2024 online meeting, Tuesday, February 13, 2024, 8:00-9:00 PM MST
- Wikimedia US Mountain West Spring 2024 online meeting, Tuesday, May 14, 2024, 8:00-9:00 PM MDT
- Wikimedia US Mountain West Summer 2024 online meeting, Tuesday, August 13, 2024, 8:00-9:00 PM MDT
- Wikimedia US Mountain West Autumn 2024 online meeting, Tuesday, November 12, 2024, 8:00-9:00 PM MST
Previous events:
|
---|
|
Colorado Facts
- Date admitted to Union: August 1, 1876 (38th State)
- Demonym: Coloradan
- Capital: Denver
- Elected state officers:
- Governor: Jared Polis (D) (2019–)
- Lieutenant Governor: Dianne Primavera (D) (2019–)
- Secretary of State: Jena Griswold (D) (2019–)
- Treasurer: Dave Young (D) (2019–)
- Attorney General: Phil Weiser (D) (2019–)
- Colorado General Assembly:
- Colorado Senate:
- D-23 R-12 (2023–2024}
- Colorado House of Representatives:
- D-46 R-19 (2023–2024}
- Colorado Senate:
- Colorado Supreme Court:
- Brian Boatright, Chief Justice (2021–)
- Monica Márquez (2010-)
- William Hood, III (2014–)
- Richard Gabriel (2015–)
- Melissa Hart (2017–)
- Carlos Samour, Jr (2018–)
- Maria Berkenkotter (2021–)
- U.S. Senators:
- Class 2. John Hickenlooper (D) (2021–)
- Class 3. Michael Bennet (D) (2009–)
- 1. Diana DeGette (D) (1997–)
- 2. Joe Neguse (D) (2019–)
- 3. Lauren Boebert (R) (2021–)
- 4. Ken Buck (R) (2015–)
- 5. Doug Lamborn (R) (2007–)
- 6. Jason Crow (D) (2019–)
- 7. Brittany Pettersen (D) (2023-)
- 8. Yadira Caraveo (D) (2023–)
- Total area: 104,094 square miles (269,602 km2) (eighth most extensive state)
- Highest elevation: Mount Elbert 14,440 feet (4,401.2 m) (third highest state)
- Mean elevation: 6,800 feet (2,070 m) (highest state)
- Lowest elevation: Arikaree River 3,317 feet (1,011 m) (highest state)
- Population (2020 census): 5,773,714 (21st most populous state)
- Population density: 55.47 per square mile (21.40 km−2) (39th most densely populated state)
- Number of counties: 64 counties (including two consolidated city and county governments)
- Number of municipalities: 273 municipalities, comprising 2 consolidated city and county governments, 73 cities, and 198 towns
- Time zone: MST=UTC−07, MDT=UTC−06
- USPS code: CO
- ISO 3166 code: US-CO
- Adjacent U.S. states: Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah (tied for third most)
- State government website: Colorado.gov
- State tourism website: Colorado.com
State Symbols
Subcategories
Interstate 70 (I-70) is a transcontinental Interstate Highway in the United States, stretching from Cove Fort, Utah, to Baltimore, Maryland. In Colorado, the highway traverses an east–west route across the center of the state. In western Colorado, the highway connects the metropolitan areas of Grand Junction and Denver via a route through the Rocky Mountains. In eastern Colorado, the highway crosses the Great Plains, connecting Denver with metropolitan areas in Kansas and Missouri. Bicycles and other non-motorized vehicles, normally prohibited on Interstate Highways, are allowed on those stretches of I-70 in the Rockies where no other through route exists.
The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) lists the construction of I-70 among the engineering marvels undertaken in the Interstate Highway System and cites four major accomplishments: the section through the Dakota Hogback, Eisenhower Tunnel, Vail Pass, and Glenwood Canyon. The Eisenhower Tunnel, with a maximum elevation of 11,158 feet (3,401 m) and length of 1.7 miles (2.7 km), is the longest mountain tunnel and highest point along the Interstate Highway System. The portion through Glenwood Canyon was completed on October 14, 1992. This was one of the final pieces of the Interstate Highway System to open to traffic and is one of the most expensive rural highways per mile built in the country. The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) earned the 1993 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers for the completion of I-70 through the canyon. (Full article...)Selected mountain -
Selected biography -
Brown, born in Virginia in 1800, moved to Logan County, Kentucky, with her family. She married another enslaved person when she was 18 and they had four children. In 1835, Brown's family was broken apart when they were all sold to different slave owners. When Brown was 56, she received her freedom but was required by law to leave the state. She worked her way to Denver, Colorado as a cook and laundress on a wagon train.
Brown settled in the mining town now called Central City, Colorado where she worked as a laundress, cook, and midwife. With the money she made, she invested in properties and mines in nearby towns. Known as "Aunt Clara" for her emotional and financial support, Brown was a founding member of a Sunday school that was held in her home. (Full article...)
Selected article -

State Highway 74 (SH 74) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Colorado. Running 18 miles (29 km) from Interstate 70 (I-70) in El Rancho to SH 8 in Morrison, the highway roughly follows a hook-shaped path running northwest–southeast. The section of the route north of the town of Evergreen is known as Evergreen Parkway and is a segment with a four- to six-lane roadway, with the section east of Evergreen mostly two lanes. The other section is known as the Bear Creek Canyon Scenic Mountain Drive, or just Bear Creek Road, and primarily parallels Bear Creek, passing through the towns of Kittredge and Idledale. The route, which is on the outskirts of Denver, passes through several of the city's mountain parks, including Bergen, Dedisse and Red Rocks parks.
An early road following the current path was established in the late 19th century for miners and loggers. As floods ravaged the road along Bear Creek through the early 20th century, measures were taken to prevent further damage. Other sites along Bear Creek, such as a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp in Red Rocks Park and the Bear Creek Canyon Scenic Mountain Drive, as the section between Idledale and Morrison is called, have given the route a listing on the National Register of Historic Places. An early designation of the route number went further west than its current-day designation; that section was truncated by the late 1930s. Another eastern segment was added from Morrison east toward Denver in the 1940s, but that section too was removed. Newer improvements to the road include widening the Evergreen Parkway segment to four lanes and constructing an interchange with I-70. (Full article...)Selected image -
National Parks in Colorado
The 23 national parks in Colorado:
- Amache National Historic Site
- Arapaho National Recreation Area
- Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site
- Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
- Browns Canyon National Monument
- Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument
- Canyons of the Ancients National Monument
- Chimney Rock National Monument
- Colorado National Monument
- Continental Divide National Scenic Trail
- Curecanti National Recreation Area
- Dinosaur National Monument
- Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument
- Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
- Hovenweep National Monument
- Mesa Verde National Park and World Heritage Site
- Old Spanish National Historic Trail
- Pony Express National Historic Trail
- Rocky Mountain National Park
- Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site
- Santa Fe National Historic Trail
- Yucca House National Monument
Interesting facts-

- The Lindenmeier Site in Larimer County includes a Folsom culture campsite radiocarbon dated to 8710 BCE, some 4706 years before the biblical creation.
- The French Republic concluded its sale of its colony of La Louisiane to the United States on December 20, 1803. The United States claimed the entire watershed of the Mississippi River as its territory. Spain claimed a large southwestern portion of the watershed as the trading and protective territory of its colony of Santa Fe de Nuevo México.
- On November 15, 1806, a U.S. Army reconnaissance expedition led by Captain Zebulon Pike first sighted the great summit of the Mexican Mountains that now bears his name.
- On February 26, 1807, Spanish cavalrymen arrested the Pike expedition in the San Luis Valley. The reconnaissance party was taken to Chihuahua, and then expelled from Mexico.
- William Bucknell and a party of frontier traders opened the Santa Fe Trail in 1821.
- Frontier trader William Bent operated Bent's Fort on the Santa Fe Trail from 1833 to 1849.
- The village of San Luis de la Culebra was founded on April 9, 1851, the first nonindigenous community in what would become Colorado.
- The discovery of gold by Green Russell along the South Platte River in July 1858 precipitated the Pike's Peak Gold Rush.
- The Provisional Government of the Territory of Jefferson governed the region from 1859 to 1861 without federal sanction.
- San Miguel, the original Costilla County seat, was later found to lie in New Mexico.
- Denver Union Station opened on June 1, 1881.
- Colorado became the first U.S. state to grant women the vote by popular referendum on November 7, 1893.
Did you know (auto-generated) -

- ... that some members of the Daughters of the American Revolution came up with the idea to design a flag of Colorado, unaware that such a flag already existed?
- ... that Charles Johnson received the most votes for student body president at the University of Colorado Boulder, even though he had already been disqualified from running?
- ... that the driver in a 2019 truck crash received a sentence of 110 years in prison due to mandatory sentencing laws in Colorado?
- ... that Aymara legislator Rafael Quispe's humorous style of political activism led one Bolivian parliamentarian to describe him as the "Chapulín Colorado" of the Legislative Assembly?
- ... that "The Potato King of Colorado" survived a shipwreck, mined for gold in Australia, and helped establish an alcohol-free Methodist colony?
- ... that following the killing of Richard Ward by a Colorado sheriff's deputy, the deputy received an award for the injuries that he allegedly sustained during the incident?
- ... that Colorado public television station KTSC operates from two studios named for the same benefactor?
Related WikiProjects
Related portals
Resources
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wikivoyage
Free travel guide -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus