The Natural Resources and Industrial Development and Condition of Colorado (Classic Reprint)

Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Natural Resources and Industrial Development and Condition of Colorado Thirteen years ago Colorado was admitted into the Union. Before the commencement of the present century there is no written record of the civilized habitation of the country now known as Colorado, except in the southern portion, where a few Mexicans and Spaniards had made a settlement, and here their establishments still remain. The country now embraced by Colorado was first explored by Americans in 1806, when the expedition of Lieutenant Zebulon Pike marched across the plains to Pike's Peak, that sublime statue of nature which stands before the world in romance, poem and picture - a beacon to western civilization. In 1820 the expedition of Colonel S. H. Long came across the plains, and in 1842-4 occurred the celebrated exploration of General John C. Fremont across the Rocky Mountains. These three courageous explorers, with their armored retinue of brave men, like the Spaniards who came and went away two centuries before them, bore testimony of the great mineral wealth of the country but each and all reported no discovery of precious metals. As if by the eternal fitness of things, this discovery was reserved for the progressive people of to-day. The first actual settlement, from which has grown the present population, was made in 1858, when a party of explorers, under the leadership of W. G. Russell, a Georgian, found gold on Dry creek, seven miles south of the site of Denver, and made their first settlement at the latter place. The news was spread abroad of this discovery, and others which quickly followed, inspired in the people of the Eastern States that spirit of western immigration which gave world-wide fame to the "Pike's Peak Country" in 1858 and '59 and started in motion the wheels of industry which have since that time developed fabulous wealth in the State. Colorado was organized as a Territory by act of Congress, February 28, 1861, and admitted as a State in 1876, the Centennial year of the nation. The State takes its name from its largest stream, the Colorado river, a name bestowed by Spaniards and derived from the generally red color of its waters, the result of the disintegration of the reddish, clayey soils which the river drains in its devious course through the hills and canons of the State toward the sea. Colorado is situated between latitude 37 and 41 north, and longitude 1020 and 109 west. It is bounded on the east by Kansas and Nebraska, on the west by Utah, on the north by Wyoming Territory, and on the south by Indian Territory and New Mexico. The State has an area of 104,500 square miles. Its average length, east and west, is 380 miles; its breadth north and south, 280 miles, and it contains 55 counties. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."