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1908 Democratic National Convention

Added by yongli on 08/30/2016 - 10:23, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 15:45
In 1908 the Democratic Party held its national convention in Denver to nominate candidates for president and vice president. The 1908 convention was the political culmination of a half-century of development in the city and the last time Denver would host the convention until 2008. It also marked...

1921 Pueblo Flood

Added by yongli on 06/08/2020 - 16:50, last changed on 06/08/2020 - 16:50
The worst flood in the history of Pueblo , and one of the worst in Colorado history, struck on June 3–5, 1921. Between 150 and 250 people died in the deluge along the Arkansas River. The flood caused more than $25 million in damage, leading the entire town to be reshaped in its aftermath. In the...

1936 Border Closure

Added by yongli on 02/07/2022 - 17:42, last changed on 09/03/2022 - 08:37
For ten days in 1936, Colorado governor Edwin “Big Ed” Johnson declared martial law in the state, which allowed him to close Colorado’s southern border to migrant workers from nearby states and Mexico. Amid record unemployment during the Great Depression , Johnson closed the border because he...

1976 Winter Olympics

Added by yongli on 07/29/2016 - 11:15, last changed on 11/09/2022 - 22:38

Denver Olympic Logo

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In the early 1960s, Governor John A. Love and other business leaders worked to bring the 1976 Winter Olympics to Colorado. Despite winning the bid from the International Olympic Committee in 1970, the voters of Colorado decided not to fund the winter games, causing the event to be moved to...

416 Fire

Added by yongli on 01/25/2021 - 14:14, last changed on 11/01/2022 - 21:41
Ignited by embers from a coal-fueled passenger train on June 1, 2018, the 416 Fire burned 54,130 acres of the San Juan National Forest in southwest Colorado. By the time it was fully contained on July 31, it had become the sixth-largest wildfire in Colorado history. Although the fire briefly...

AIDS in Colorado

Added by yongli on 03/30/2017 - 13:58, last changed on 10/25/2022 - 20:43
HIV/AIDS represents one of the greatest public health crises of the latter half of the twentieth century and the first half of the twenty-first century. The disease affects thousands of families in Colorado alone and has motivated a public response unlike any other in the last fifty years. Today,...

Amendment 2

Added by yongli on 08/20/2019 - 14:52, last changed on 10/18/2022 - 20:47
Amendment 2 was a ballot initiative passed by Colorado voters in 1992 that prohibited the state from enacting antidiscrimination protections for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. Voters in the state of Colorado set in motion a legal and constitutional fight when they approved Amendment 2. Passage of...

Aspen Music Festival and School

Added by yongli on 12/02/2021 - 13:01, last changed on 01/25/2023 - 21:43
The Aspen Music Festival and School are together a prestigious summer music program that trace their roots to the music offerings at Aspen ’s Goethe Bicentennial celebration in 1949. The festival puts on a variety of concerts throughout the summer, and the school offers courses in orchestra, brass...

Avalanche

Added by yongli on 08/24/2022 - 13:20, last changed on 11/16/2022 - 07:38
Avalanches are quite common in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains . They can occur anywhere there is a sizeable amount of snow and steep slopes, meaning most of Colorado’s High Country (from 10,000 to 13,000 feet) is prone to avalanches. The massive snow slides are extremely dangerous; between 1859 and...

Base and Industrial Metal Mining in Colorado

Added by Nick Johnson on 11/20/2022 - 12:36, last changed on 11/20/2022 - 12:36
Miners came to Colorado for gold, stayed for silver, and survived after the 1890s by diversifying into a wide range of base and industrial metals such as lead, copper, zinc, molybdenum, tungsten, vanadium, radium, and uranium . Often ignored or discarded during early prospecting and mining, these...

Battle of Milk Creek

Added by yongli on 01/15/2020 - 13:35, last changed on 11/16/2022 - 03:42
The Battle of Milk Creek was the major military engagement during the Meeker Incident , a revolt by a Nuche ( Ute people) community in northwest Colorado in September 1879. The battle began on September 29, when Utes opened fire from the heights above Milk Creek on an advancing column of US cavalry...

Battle of Summit Springs

Added by yongli on 02/16/2021 - 14:10, last changed on 11/20/2022 - 22:13
The Battle of Summit Springs was the last major battle between the US Army and Cheyenne warriors in the Territory of Colorado . The defeat of Chief Tall Bull and the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers on July 11, 1869, ended five years of nearly continuous clashes between Indigenous nations and the US military...

Beaver Creek Massacre

Added by yongli on 11/05/2015 - 10:35, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 05:48
The Beaver Creek Massacre occurred on June 19, 1885, when white cattlemen killed six Ute Mountain Utes at a camp on Beaver Creek, about sixteen miles north of Dolores in present Montezuma County . Stemming from conflicts over the federal government’s Native American policies and the Utes’ off-...

Beef Industry on the Colorado Plains

Added by yongli on 06/15/2021 - 14:47, last changed on 11/12/2022 - 09:50
Colorado’s beef industry traces its roots back to the latter half of the nineteenth century, when cowboys drove cattle across the plains in some of the most iconic imagery of the American West. However, the state’s modern beef industry did not begin until after World War I , when stock raisers...

Belmont Hotel Fire of 1908

Added by yongli on 07/08/2020 - 16:00, last changed on 07/08/2020 - 16:00
On September 8, 1908, a fire broke out on the second floor of Denver ’s Belmont Hotel, claiming as many as fifteen lives and injuring several others in one of the city’s deadliest fires. After the fire, authorities suspected that theft may have been a motive for arson, as valuables had gone missing...

Black Forest Fire

Added by yongli on 01/25/2021 - 14:19, last changed on 01/18/2023 - 06:39
The Black Forest Fire occurred in mid-June 2013 in a heavily populated woodland area northeast of Colorado Springs . Even though it was fully contained in just nine days, the fire’s proximity to neighborhoods made it the most destructive wildfire in state history: two people died and 486 houses...

Boulder Flood of 1894

Added by yongli on 08/15/2016 - 14:28, last changed on 10/18/2022 - 08:51
The 1894 Boulder flood was a natural disaster that reshaped the landscape of Boulder County , wiping out some communities and forcing others to come together to rebuild. Like other extreme weather events, the 1894 deluge played an integral role in the development of the affected communities. Some,...

Bridger Fire

Added by yongli on 01/21/2021 - 13:04, last changed on 02/01/2023 - 09:40
On June 10, 2008, lightning sparked the Bridger Fire in a US Army training area in southeast Colorado, about twenty-five miles south of La Junta . Also known as the Piñon Canyon Fire, the blaze went on to become a significant wildfire , burning 46,612 acres of grassland in Las Animas County ...

Brunot Agreement

Added by yongli on 05/18/2016 - 14:41, last changed on 11/27/2022 - 09:14
The Brunot Agreement between the Nuche ( Ute ) and the US government in 1873 led to the development of mining in the San Juan Mountains by taking 3.7 million acres (about 5,780 square miles) from the Ute Reservation in western Colorado. As white encroachment continued over the next decade, tensions...

Cameron Peak Fire

Added by yongli on 10/16/2020 - 14:44, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 22:39
The Cameron Peak Fire is the largest wildfire in Colorado history. It began on August 13, 2020, and burned 208,913 acres of the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests in western Larimer County . Thought to be human-caused, the fire ignited on the flanks of Cameron Peak some forty miles west of Fort...

Coal Mining in Colorado

Added by yongli on 02/16/2021 - 13:06, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 22:39
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, coal mining was the most important industry in Colorado. Coal mines served as the crucibles of empire, churning out the fuel needed to power the railroads, precious-metal mines , and smelters that helped develop the region. They were also...

Colorado Fuel and Iron Strike of 1959

Added by yongli on 10/16/2020 - 11:15, last changed on 01/31/2021 - 16:42
In 1959 union members at the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) in Pueblo participated in a nationwide strike for better job security. The strike led to a nationwide shortage of American-made steel, while the suspension of mining operations and steel production at CF&I caused Pueblo to...

Colorado Fuel and Iron Strike of 1997

Added by yongli on 05/28/2020 - 14:13, last changed on 05/28/2020 - 14:13
The Colorado Fuel and Iron strike of 1997 was a labor dispute between Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) and the United Steel Workers of America (USWA) . Oregon Steel Mills had purchased Colorado Fuel and Iron in 1993 and maintained the Pueblo mill’s unionized workforce. When the union...

Colorado Gold Rush

Added by yongli on 05/06/2016 - 14:50, last changed on 11/29/2022 - 22:42
The discovery of gold near present-day Denver in 1858–59 drew thousands of people to present-day Colorado, prompting the political organization of first a US territory and later a state. Many current cities and towns, including Denver , Boulder , Black Hawk , Breckenridge , and Central City , were...

Colorado in World War I

Added by yongli on 09/13/2017 - 14:17, last changed on 08/27/2022 - 08:12
As Europe stumbled into war in late July and early August 1914, Coloradans viewed the conflict with mixed emotions. Some favored the English, French, Italians, Russians, and their allies. Others preferred the Germans and Austrians and their friends. The divisions were predictable. The 1910 federal...

Columbine Massacre

Added by yongli on 06/24/2016 - 16:15, last changed on 09/04/2022 - 09:45
The massacre at Columbine High School in 1999 was, at the time, one of the worst school shootings perpetrated in the United States. Fifteen people, including the two shooters, were killed. In the months and years following the tragedy, discussions about public safety, access to firearms, and the...

Columbine Mine Massacre

Added by yongli on 02/16/2021 - 13:13, last changed on 10/18/2022 - 13:43
On November 21, 1927, members of a Colorado militia fired into a crowd of hundreds of striking miners in the Weld County town of Serene , killing six and wounding twenty. The Columbine Massacre showed that little had changed in Colorado in terms of relations between workers and companies, as well...

Conejos Treaty

Added by yongli on 03/12/2020 - 16:03, last changed on 11/12/2022 - 10:05
Signed in October 1863 at Conejos in the San Luis Valley , the Conejos Treaty was an agreement between the US government and the Tabeguache band of Nuche (Ute people). It granted the United States the rights to all land in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains east of the Continental Divide , as well as...

Cotopaxi Train Robbery

Added by yongli on 08/15/2016 - 15:57, last changed on 08/12/2022 - 07:36
The 1891 Cotopaxi train robbery typified a new era of crime in the American West—robbing trains carrying railroad and federal property—and set off one of the highest-profile manhunts of the era. The robbers, Peg Leg Watson and Bert Curtis, took thousands of dollars in cash and gold bars from a...

COVID-19 in Colorado

Added by yongli on 03/18/2020 - 12:50, last changed on 11/08/2022 - 11:40
Editor's note: This page will be updated frequently but may not contain the latest information. Please refer to the sources listed throughout and at the end of the article for the latest updates on the pandemic. As of September 3, 2022, Colorado has had more than 1.6 million confirmed...

Cripple Creek Fires of 1896

Added by yongli on 02/16/2021 - 13:37, last changed on 08/14/2022 - 21:12
In April 1896, the mining town of Cripple Creek was devastated by two fires within four days. Frigid winter winds and scant water supply caused both fires to spread rapidly and created difficulty for volunteer firefighters who attempted to extinguish them. The fires leveled the central business...

Denver Tramway Strike of 1920

Added by yongli on 08/11/2016 - 13:15, last changed on 02/14/2020 - 15:25
The Denver Tramway Strike of 1920 typified the active militancy of many labor unions during the early 1900s. The strike brought the conversation surrounding labor relations to the forefront of Denver politics and would influence the larger labor landscape for decades to come. Today the strike is...

East Troublesome Fire

Added by Nick Johnson on 10/22/2020 - 21:05, last changed on 11/24/2022 - 04:44
One of the most destructive wildfire s in Colorado history, the East Troublesome Fire began on October 14, 2020, in the central Rocky Mountains east of Troublesome Creek in Grand County . A week later, high winds whipped the fire into a 100,000-acre inferno racing northeast through Grand Lake and...

Flooding in Colorado

Added by yongli on 08/15/2016 - 16:19, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 12:43
Coloradans have maintained a complex relationship with the natural process of flooding. On one hand, inhabitants of the arid West—from early indigenous communities to current metropolitan populations—have been attracted to the many resources floodplains provide. On the other hand, periodic...

Godfrey’s Ranch

Added by yongli on 07/28/2022 - 13:14, last changed on 08/01/2022 - 07:25
On January 14–15, 1865, immigrant Holon Godfrey found his family homestead in Colorado Territory under attack by about 100 Indigenous warriors engaged in a campaign of reprisal attacks after the Sand Creek Massacre of November 1864. The fierce battle at Godfrey’s Ranch was an example of a common...

Goethe Bicentennial

Added by yongli on 10/11/2021 - 17:16, last changed on 10/11/2021 - 17:16
The Goethe Bicentennial Convocation and Music Festival was a three-week celebration of the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s 200th birthday in 1949. Held in Aspen under a huge canvas tent designed by Eero Saarinen, the event was organized largely by Walter Paepcke and attracted some 2,000...

Gold King Mine Spill

Added by yongli on 06/18/2021 - 17:06, last changed on 08/14/2022 - 21:02
Around 10:30 am on August 5, 2015, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) crew ruptured a plug of rock and soil at the Gold King Mine north of Silverton , releasing an estimated 3 million gallons of contaminated wastewater. This water ran into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River , and...

Great Fire of 1863

Added by yongli on 03/13/2020 - 14:35, last changed on 01/30/2021 - 09:42
In the early morning hours of April 19, 1863, a fire raged through Denver , reducing much of the town’s business district to ash. As in most frontier towns of the American West, fire had been a concern for Denver citizens since the town’s founding in 1858, because flammable structures and almost...

Gumry Hotel Explosion

Added by yongli on 08/31/2016 - 13:43, last changed on 04/08/2020 - 10:10
On August 19, 1895, a steam boiler exploded in Denver’s Gumry Hotel, killing twenty-two people and injuring dozens. Hotel fires were not uncommon in nineteenth-century Colorado, but the Gumry explosion was the worst hotel disaster in Colorado history and prompted a complete rewrite of boiler...

Hardrock Hundred Endurance Run

Added by yongli on 04/10/2020 - 10:10, last changed on 08/27/2022 - 08:21
The Hardrock Hundred Endurance Run is a famously difficult and beautiful 100-mile trail race held annually in the San Juan Mountains . First organized in 1992, soon after the Sunnyside Mine shut down, the event honors the region’s mining history and its fragile high-alpine environment by taking...

Hastings Mine Explosion

Added by yongli on 02/16/2021 - 13:21, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 09:43
The Hastings Mine Explosion was the deadliest mining disaster in Colorado history. Caused by the misguided striking of a match in the Hastings coal mine north of Trinidad on April 27, 1917, the blast killed 121 coal miners; one other worker died of overexertion while trying to recover the bodies...

Hayman Fire

Added by yongli on 10/14/2020 - 13:57, last changed on 12/29/2022 - 11:38
Begun on June 8, 2002, after a US Forest Service employee started a fire at a campsite, the Hayman Fire is the fourth-largest wildfire in Colorado history. Across a wide swath of foothills between South Park and Colorado Springs , the fire burned nearly 138,000 acres—including 60,000 in just one...

High Park Fire

Added by yongli on 10/15/2020 - 15:55, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 22:39
Ignited by lightning in early June 2012, the High Park Fire became one of the largest and most destructive wildfires in Colorado history, burning 87,415 acres along the Cache la Poudre River in the mountains west of Fort Collins . By the time it was fully contained on June 30, the High Park Fire...

Immigration to Denver, 1920–Present

Added by yongli on 02/08/2021 - 15:57, last changed on 11/01/2022 - 22:40
Beginning in the 1920s, immigration to Denver underwent several significant changes owing to war, economic depression, and evolving civil rights legislation and related social tensions. Movements of people due to World War II , Japanese internment, changing agricultural landscapes, the Civil Rights...

Indian Annuities

Added by yongli on 04/27/2017 - 16:36, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 12:54
Annuities were a fixed sum of money or goods that the US government paid to Indigenous people on a regular basis for the sale of their lands. Treaties with Indigenous nations typically specified payments in dollar amounts over a period of years in return for land cessions. The payments were...

Indian Appropriations Act (1871)

Added by yongli on 03/13/2020 - 10:31, last changed on 01/24/2023 - 17:40
The Indian Appropriations Act of 1871 declared that American Indians were no longer considered members of “sovereign nations” and that the US government could no longer establish treaties with them. The act effectively made Indians wards of the US government and paved the way for other laws that...

Indian Appropriations Act (1871)

Added by yongli on 03/13/2020 - 10:30, last changed on 01/24/2023 - 17:40
The Indian Appropriations Act of 1871 declared that Indigenous people were no longer considered members of “sovereign nations” and that the US government could no longer establish treaties with them. The act effectively made Native Americans wards of the US government and paved the way for other...

Indian Reorganization Act (Indian New Deal)

Added by yongli on 03/13/2020 - 13:19, last changed on 12/18/2020 - 11:19
Passed by Congress in 1934, the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) was a wide-reaching set of reforms designed to improve conditions for Indigenous people, especially those living on federal reservations. As the centerpiece of the “Indian New Deal,” the IRA focused on protecting tribal land,...

Indigenous Treaties in Colorado

Added by yongli on 06/09/2020 - 11:31, last changed on 02/28/2023 - 20:40
Treaties with Indigenous people played a major role in the conquest and formation of Colorado . Backed by the constant threat of military force, the series of treaties and agreements signed between the federal government and various Indigenous groups between 1849 and 1880 separated Indigenous...

Italian Murders of 1875

Added by yongli on 04/09/2020 - 10:58, last changed on 05/27/2020 - 17:36
In October 1875, the mutilated bodies of four Italian men were discovered in a house on Lawrence Street, shocking Denver citizens. Police eventually captured and charged nine members of a gang known only as the “Italian Banditti,” all of whom pled guilty to involvement in the crime. The so-called...

Jokerville Mine Explosion

Added by yongli on 01/21/2021 - 13:35, last changed on 11/01/2022 - 20:41
On January 24, 1884, the Jokerville Mine outside of Crested Butte was full of methane gas and exploded, killing fifty-nine workers. As the third-deadliest mine disaster in Colorado history, the Jokerville explosion demonstrated the dangers of coal mining, even as coal was an essential industry for...

Lake County War

Added by yongli on 03/13/2020 - 15:28, last changed on 03/13/2020 - 15:28
The Lake County War of 1874–75 grew out of a personal dispute over land and water rights in an area where increasing settlement was making both resources relatively scarce. The conflict ultimately turned into a test of law, justice, and state legitimacy in a frontier community. After Elijah Gibbs...

Last Chance Fire

Added by yongli on 01/21/2021 - 13:52, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 22:39
The Last Chance Fire started on June 25, 2012, when sparks from a motorist’s flat tire set the prairie ablaze near the town of Last Chance in eastern Colorado. The fire was 100 percent contained in nearly twenty-four hours, but in that time the wildfire scorched 45,000 acres and destroyed several...

Leadville Strike of 1880

Added by yongli on 04/10/2020 - 10:49, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 13:54
The Leadville strike of 1880 was the first major labor conflict in the central Colorado silver boomtown, shutting down most of the area’s mining district from May 26 to mid-June as miners pressed owners and managers for higher wages, an eight-hour workday, and more control over their working...

Leadville Strike of 1896–97

Added by yongli on 04/10/2020 - 11:41, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 13:54
The Leadville strike of 1896–97 was a nine-month labor conflict pitting the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) against the owners of the district’s mines . The strike began in June 1896, when miners requested higher wages and were rejected, and reached a violent climax in September, when strikers...

Leadville Trail 100 MTB

Added by yongli on 03/13/2020 - 14:03, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 13:54
The Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race, currently known as the Stages Cycling Leadville Trail 100 MTB, covers 100 miles in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado on a mix of alpine trail, dirt road, and pavement. Created by Leadville resident Ken Chlouber in 1994 as an outgrowth of the Leadville Trail...

Leadville Trail 100 Run

Added by yongli on 04/10/2020 - 15:00, last changed on 11/29/2022 - 22:42
First held in 1983, the Leadville Trail 100 Run is one of the oldest and largest 100-mile trail-running races in the United States. Known for its tough, high-elevation course in the shadow of central Colorado’s Sawatch Range , the race has resulted in remarkable performances by the Rarámuri (...

Legislative Sessions and Women’s Suffrage (1861–93)

Added by yongli on 09/14/2020 - 14:44, last changed on 08/26/2022 - 07:41
In 1893 Colorado became the first state to enact women’s suffrage by popular referendum, when a majority of male voters approved an amendment to the Colorado Constitution . The passage of women’s suffrage built on decades of earlier work in the Colorado Territorial Legislature (1861–76) and state...

Little Arkansas Treaty

Added by yongli on 06/09/2020 - 11:37, last changed on 01/26/2023 - 04:40
The Little Arkansas Treaty refers to a pair of treaties signed between the US and Indigenous nations in Kansas in mid-October 1865: one with the Southern Arapaho and Southern Cheyenne nations and one with the Comanche and Kiowa . Of the two, the treaty signed on October 14 with the Cheyenne and...

Ludlow Massacre

Added by yongli on 09/29/2016 - 16:39, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 12:54
The Ludlow Massacre began on the morning of April 20, 1914, when a battle broke out between the Colorado National Guard and striking coal miners at their tent colony outside of Ludlow in Las Animas County . Nobody knows who fired the first shot, but the incident is remembered as a massacre because...

Lynching in Colorado

Added by yongli on 11/19/2015 - 16:13, last changed on 10/04/2019 - 09:21
Lynching, a form of vigilante punishment involving mob execution, has an active history in Colorado. Between 1859 and 1919, Coloradans carried out 175 lynchings. Lynching is usually associated with the Reconstruction Era in the American South, but before Colorado’s statehood in 1876, lynching was...

Medicine Lodge Treaties

Added by yongli on 06/09/2020 - 11:40, last changed on 11/20/2022 - 22:09
The Medicine Lodge Treaties were a series of three treaties between the US government and the Comanche , Kiowa , Plains Apache , Southern Cheyenne , and Southern Arapaho American Indian nations, signed in October 1867 along Medicine Lodge Creek, south of Fort Larned, Kansas. By treating with...

Meeker Incident

Added by yongli on 01/15/2020 - 14:21, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 12:43
The Meeker Incident (September 29–October 5, 1879) was a Ute uprising at the White River Indian Agency on the Ute Reservation in present-day Rio Blanco County . Tension had been building on the reservation for months as Indian Agent Nathan Meeker attempted to force the Utes to change their...

New Deal in Colorado

Added by yongli on 08/03/2016 - 13:44, last changed on 05/11/2020 - 12:00
As the United States entered the third year of a great economic depression triggered by the 1929 stock market crash, many Americans put their hope in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his pledge to give them a “new deal.” During his first term (1933–37), he pushed Congress to pass legislation...

Old Spanish National Historic Trail

Added by yongli on 06/12/2015 - 15:58, last changed on 10/18/2022 - 06:48
The Old Spanish Trail was designated a national historic trail by an act of Congress in 2002. From 1829 to 1848, the major trade route extended 2,700 miles between Santa Fé de Nuevo Mexico (Santa Fe, New Mexico), and Alta California (Los Angeles, California). Mexico’s independence from Spain in...

Panic of 1893

Added by yongli on 02/16/2021 - 14:16, last changed on 10/18/2022 - 13:43
The Panic of 1893 touched off a nationwide economic depression that lasted for at least three years, threw millions out of work, and caused banks and businesses to fail across the country. In Colorado and other silver-mining states, the panic was tied to the abrupt collapse of the silver industry...

Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon

Added by yongli on 04/10/2020 - 15:26, last changed on 10/25/2022 - 15:41
First held in 1956 as a contest between smokers and nonsmokers, the Pikes Peak Marathon is an annual trail-running race that takes competitors from Manitou Springs to the summit of 14,115-foot Pikes Peak and back, mostly via the mountain’s famous Barr Trail . The third-oldest marathon in the United...

Pine Gulch Fire

Added by yongli on 02/08/2021 - 14:54, last changed on 11/01/2022 - 22:40
The Pine Gulch Fire was ignited by a lightning strike on July 31, 2020, about eighteen miles north of Grand Junction in Garfield and Mesa Counties. Over the next month, the fire grew to encompass more than 139,000 acres, making it the third-largest wildfire in Colorado history. The Pine...

Precious Metal Mining in Colorado

Added by yongli on 08/09/2022 - 11:55, last changed on 08/27/2022 - 07:28
From the 1850s to the 1920s, gold and silver mining drove Colorado’s economy, making it into an urbanized, industrial state. The rapid development of Colorado’s mineral resources had political, social, and environmental consequences. The mining of gold and silver in Colorado began in earnest during...

Progressive Era in Colorado

Added by yongli on 01/14/2020 - 15:30, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 15:45
The Progressive Era (1900–20) was a national period of social and political reform in which grassroots activists and their political allies sought the power of government and science to address pressing public problems. In Colorado, Progressives brought significant political and social changes to...

Prohibition

Added by yongli on 06/09/2020 - 14:51, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 09:51
Alcohol prohibition in Colorado (1916–33) was a Progressive Era experiment, based on reform-minded and religious sentiments, to completely ban the sale and transport of alcohol. While the intention of reformers was to reduce violence, drunkenness, and crime, outlawing alcohol instead created more...

River House Saloon Fire of 1862

Added by yongli on 06/10/2020 - 12:11, last changed on 06/10/2020 - 12:11
Seeing them as public nuisances that bred sin, enraged citizens burned down several saloons and dance halls in Denver during the 1860s. One of the first and most significant of these attacks was the burning of the River House Saloon on Ferry Street on November 1, 1862. The River House fire was...

Sand Creek Massacre

Added by yongli on 09/19/2019 - 13:42, last changed on 11/16/2022 - 08:05
On November 29, 1864, US volunteer cavalry killed at least 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho people—mostly women, children, and the elderly—who were camped peacefully along Sand Creek in what was then Colorado Territory . Learning about the Sand Creek Massacre encourages people to reflect on the ways the...

September 2013 Floods

Added by yongli on 06/09/2020 - 14:45, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 22:39
In September 2013, Colorado’s Front Range , from Fort Collins south to Colorado Springs , experienced some of the most dramatic and devastating flood s in state history. In the hardest-hit areas, the rainfall beginning September 9 and ending September 16 matched or exceeded annual averages. Across...

South Canyon Fire

Added by yongli on 08/15/2022 - 09:55, last changed on 12/14/2022 - 13:46
The South Canyon Fire began in early July 1994 on Storm King Mountain, in Garfield County west of Glenwood Springs . On July 6, high winds stoked the fire into a deadly conflagration that killed fourteen firefighters. Investigations of the disaster forced numerous reforms in wildland firefighting,...

South Platte Flood of 1965

Added by yongli on 03/13/2020 - 13:48, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 12:43
The South Platte River flood of June 16, 1965 was one of the worst natural disasters in Denver ’s history. It was part of a statewide flooding event that claimed a total of twenty-four lives across the Arkansas and South Platte River basins. The flooding in Denver caused extreme damage but resulted...

Spanish Exploration in Southeastern Colorado, 1590–1790

Added by yongli on 09/01/2015 - 14:45, last changed on 12/20/2022 - 19:42
The Spanish effort to conquer and control the lands that would eventually become southeastern Colorado tended to be slow and methodical. The lands claimed by New Spain extended from Panama to the Arctic, although the capital was located in Mexico City. Gradually, rumors of riches in the area of...

Spanish Exploration in Western Colorado

Added by yongli on 07/28/2015 - 11:09, last changed on 10/18/2022 - 06:48
The Spanish colony of New Mexico was founded in 1598. Until 1821, Colorado was part of the extensive Spanish territories governed by the colony. These territories extended far to the north of the New Mexico capital in Santa Fé. In the sixteenth century and later, some Spaniards explored the Great...

Spring Creek Fire

Added by yongli on 01/25/2021 - 16:31, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 22:39
Started by an illegal campfire on June 27, 2018, the Spring Creek Fire raced across 108,045 acres of forested foothills in southern Colorado, near La Veta Pass on the eastern edge of the San Luis Valley . By the time it was fully contained on September 10, the Spring Creek blaze was the third-...

Spring Creek Flood of 1997

Added by yongli on 10/22/2015 - 13:14, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 12:43
On July 28, 1997, the city of Fort Collins was inundated with the heaviest rains ever recorded in a Colorado urban area. During the peak of the storm, about six inches fell in an hour and a half. This caused Spring Creek, a tributary of the Cache la Poudre River , to rise thirty feet beyond its...

St. James Hotel Fire of 1895

Added by yongli on 07/08/2020 - 16:02, last changed on 07/08/2020 - 16:02
On March 23, 1895, a blaze at the St. James Hotel in Denver killed four firefighters, three of whom were black. Despite ongoing racial tensions that had intensified during the depths of an economic depression, the city mourned all four men together, without regard to race. The public response was a...

Sugar Beet Industry

Added by yongli on 11/02/2015 - 16:15, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 12:43
Today sugar beet production is a small part of Colorado’s economy, but in the twentieth century it was the most important agricultural activity in the state. Of more than twenty sugar-refining factories, most built between 1899 and 1920, only the Fort Morgan factory remains in operation. In recent...

Telluride Flood of 1914

Added by yongli on 03/31/2017 - 14:59, last changed on 12/28/2017 - 13:43
On July 27, 1914, Telluride experienced several days of severe flooding following a cloudburst in the mountains above town. Remarkably, the destructive deluge killed only one person, and Telluride made a swift recovery, demonstrating the resilience of one of Colorado’s busiest mountain mining towns...

The Bloody Espinosas

Added by yongli on 04/27/2017 - 10:42, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 06:40
The so-called Bloody Espinosas were two brothers—some contend they were cousins—and a nephew who terrorized southern Colorado in the early 1860s. On their vengeful rampage, Felipe, Vivian, and José Espinosa killed dozens of people and remain Colorado’s most prolific serial killers. Today, the...

The Carlino Brothers

Added by yongli on 01/25/2021 - 17:26, last changed on 11/01/2022 - 21:41
Salvatore “Sam” Carlino (1884–1931) and Pietro “Pete” Carlino (1890–1931) were southern Colorado alcohol bootleggers and Italian American mob bosses during the years of prohibition . Called the “Carlino Brothers,” they controlled most of the black market for liquor in the state from 1922 to 1931...

The Civil War in Colorado

Added by yongli on 09/13/2022 - 14:14, last changed on 10/26/2022 - 00:41
Colorado’s role in the American Civil War (1861–65) was part of a broader geopolitical contest: control of the American Southwest. The war began in 1861, just two years after the Colorado Gold Rush and mere months after Congress established the Colorado Territory . Although the territory was...

The Denver Police Department since 1933

Added by yongli on 01/25/2021 - 14:39, last changed on 11/01/2022 - 21:41
The Denver Police Department is the primary law enforcement apparatus for the city of Denver . Officially formed in 1859 as a small group of marshals, today’s Denver Police Department consists of more than 1,500 officers in sixteen units active in a metropolitan community of more than 620,000...

The Dust Bowl

Added by yongli on 05/09/2016 - 10:53, last changed on 08/12/2022 - 07:48
In the 1930s, eastern Colorado experienced the worst ecological disaster in the state’s history. Unsustainable farming practices and widespread drought transformed the once fertile Great Plains into a barren landscape, inhospitable to both humans and animals. The experience of the Dust Bowl...

The First National Western Stock Show

Added by yongli on 08/03/2016 - 10:56, last changed on 11/12/2022 - 18:55
The origins of Denver ’s annual National Western Stock Show , today one of the city’s biggest tourism draws, date to 1898, a time when American cities competed for the attention of various national organizations in the hope of hosting conventions to bring in revenue. The first stock show helped...

The Fur Trade in Colorado

Added by yongli on 10/30/2015 - 13:26, last changed on 12/04/2022 - 23:39
The trading of animal skins has been a prominent activity throughout the known human occupation of Colorado. These skins—as hides, furs, or robes—provided protection from the elements as well as a valuable commodity traded for economic gain; their trade strengthened and maintained political...

The Great Die Up

Added by yongli on 02/16/2021 - 13:40, last changed on 11/01/2022 - 23:42
“The Great Die Up” is one of three nicknames for the winter of 1886–87, when hundreds of thousands of cattle across the Great Plains died in harsh weather. The event changed the cattle industry forever, ending the practice of open-range grazing. Ranchers also called this weather event “The Big Die-...

The Hilltop Bomber Crash

Added by yongli on 01/18/2017 - 13:56, last changed on 12/16/2020 - 09:04
In 1951, a B-29 Superfortress taking off from Lowry Air Force Base crashed in Denver ’s Hilltop neighborhood. As the smoke cleared, the deadly crash illustrated the need for better safety procedures at military bases near residential areas and the necessity of regulating the expansion of military...

The “Nude” Silks-Fulton Duel

Added by yongli on 09/21/2016 - 14:28, last changed on 10/25/2022 - 19:40
The so-called Nude Duel was a legend that sprouted from a drunken brawl involving two well-known madams—Mattie Silks and Kate Fulton—at Denver Gardens in 1877. Although the original accounts of the fight are hardly remarkable, the story took on a life of its own thanks to the diligent exaggerations...

Treaty of Abiquiú

Added by yongli on 03/13/2020 - 13:32, last changed on 02/28/2023 - 20:40
Considered to be the first official treaty between the United States and the Ute people of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico, the Treaty of Abiquiú was made in 1849 with the intention of establishing peaceful relations between the two groups. Signed in the northern New Mexico village of...

Treaty of Fort Laramie

Added by yongli on 06/09/2020 - 11:50, last changed on 11/23/2022 - 03:42
Signed in 1851, the Treaty of Fort Laramie was made between the US government and several Indigenous nations of the Great Plains —including the Cheyenne , Arapaho , and Lakota —who occupied parts of present southern Wyoming and northern Colorado. The treaty was part of the government’s efforts to...

Treaty of Fort Wise

Added by yongli on 08/21/2015 - 16:14, last changed on 11/26/2022 - 11:42
The Treaty of Fort Wise was an agreement between the US government and the Cheyenne and Arapaho people who lived on the western Great Plains in present-day Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming. The treaty was signed in 1861 and reduced the territorial lands previously granted to the Cheyenne and...

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Added by yongli on 06/09/2020 - 14:39, last changed on 10/25/2022 - 21:39
Signed on February 2, 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War (1846–48). In the treaty, the Republic of Mexico agreed to cede 55 percent of its territory, some 525,000 square miles, to the United States. This land eventually became the present states of Arizona,...

Union Depot Fire of 1894

Added by yongli on 07/06/2020 - 16:04, last changed on 07/06/2020 - 16:04
In 1894 a fire at Denver ’s original Union Depot destroyed much of the building within an hour. The burning of the railroad station, which had been completed in 1881 and was regarded as one of the largest and grandest in the West, shocked Denver citizens. Reconstruction efforts began almost...

Ute Treaty of 1868

Added by yongli on 01/15/2020 - 15:39, last changed on 11/26/2022 - 10:41
The Ute Treaty of 1868, also known as the “Kit Carson Treaty,” was negotiated between agents of the US government, including Kit Carson , and leaders of seven bands of Nuche ( Ute people) living in Colorado and Utah. The treaty created for the Utes a massive reservation on Colorado’s Western Slope...

Vulcan Mine Explosions

Added by yongli on 02/08/2021 - 15:47, last changed on 10/25/2022 - 19:40
Between 1896 and 1918, the Vulcan Mine in Garfield County exploded three times, killing a total of eighty-five workers. The successive blasts prompted action from labor unions and politicians to make coal mines safer. At the site of the Vulcan Mine today, there remains an active underground coal...

Waldo Canyon Fire

Added by yongli on 10/15/2020 - 15:59, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 22:39
On June 22, 2012, the Waldo Canyon Fire ignited northwest of Colorado Springs , perilously close to neighborhoods and businesses in one of the most populated areas on Colorado’s Front Range . Although local and federal agencies immediately converged on the blaze, hot, dry, and windy conditions...

West Fork Complex Fires

Added by yongli on 01/25/2021 - 16:48, last changed on 01/11/2023 - 06:43
The West Fork Complex refers to three separate wildfires ignited by lightning strikes in southern Colorado’s San Juan Mountains in June 2013. The West Fork, Windy Pass, and Papoose Fires broke out between June 5 and June 19. By the time they were contained on July 15, the three blazes scorched a...

Wichita State University Plane Crash

Added by yongli on 10/03/2016 - 12:07, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 05:48
In early October 1970, a twin-engine aircraft carrying forty people associated with the Wichita State University football team crashed into Mt. Bethel along Colorado’s Continental Divide , killing thirty-one passengers. The crash spurred the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) to review and revise its...
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