History
The original inhabitants of the State of Colorado were the Anasazi Indians. These Native Americans lived in cliff dwellings in the canyon areas of the southwestern region of Colorado. Spanish explorers came to the area in 1540. Colorado became part of the United States when the territory was purchase as a part of the Louisiana Purchase. The area became more populated when the gold rush of 1859 enticed many new settlers to travel to Colorado in search of their fortune. Today, tourism has replaced gold mining as the biggest draw to the area.
It is believed that the most highly developed culture in the Americas before the migration of the Europeans were the Anasazi who resided in Colorado at least four centuries before the arrival of Columbus. These very early inhabitants lived in multi-story cliff dwellings.
The Anasazi were hunters and gatherers who established agricultural settlements along the rivers and in the valleys of eastern Colorado as early as 5,000 B.C.
The Spanish arrived in the area lead by the explorer Coronado in 1540-41. Over the next 250 years, other Spanish explorers lead expeditions into the area now known as Colorado. Colorado became a part of French territory in the new world, when in 1800; the Spanish ceded it as part of a larger area to Napoleon Bonaparte. Just three years later, this same vast area of land was sold to the United States as the Louisiana Purchase.
Then in 1806, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike was commissioned by President Jefferson to explore this new territory. Pike's Peak in Colorado is named after this explorer. As time passed, the area became popular with fur trappers and traders.
Several different Indian tribes roamed the Colorado area and each contributed to the State's history. Important plains Indians included the Apache, the Cheyenne, the Ute, the Arapaho, the Comanche and the Kiowa. Indian reservations exist today in the southwestern corner of the state.
The gold rush brought more settlers into the area. It is said that nearly 50,000 people came to Colorado in search of gold in 1858-59. In 1876, fifteen years after becoming a territory, Colorado was admitted to the United States as the thirty-eight state in the union.
Colorado is known as the "Centennial State" in honor of the one-hundredth year of the Declaration of Independence.
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