Colorado

Colorado: Early Inhabitants

Colorado's earliest inhabitants were the ancient Pueblo people (also called the Anasazi), who settled in the southwest part of the region from approximately the years 1 to 1300. These formerly nomadic Native Americans established permanent communities as they developed and perfected farming techniques that allowed them to thrive in the dry Colorado climate. Their remarkable and elaborate cliff dwellings remain a major tourist attraction in the state's Mesa Verde National Park, the first national park designated for the purpose of preserving manmade works.

Colorado was also home to Plains Indians, primarily Arapaho and Cheyenne, and Great Basin tribes--mainly Ute, but also Shoshone and Comanche. When Spanish explorers began to arrive in the late 1500s, the Plains Indians acted as guides. Their knowledge of streams and natural routes as well as buffalo feeding grounds proved invaluable.

Colorado: War and Settlement

Although Spanish explorers visited the Colorado region and traded with Native Americans, they never settled there. France claimed most of the territory east of the Rocky Mountains and sold it to America in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. However, the new  U.S. claim conflicted with Spain's claim that much of the territory was its sovereign trading zone. American explorer and soldier Zebulon Pike (1779-1813) led an expedition to the region in dispute in 1806. He and his men were arrested by the Spanish cavalry and held as prisoners of war in Mexico, then released the following year. (Pikes Peak, the 14,110-foot mountain near Colorado Springs, is named for Zebulon Pike. In 1806, Pike attempted to climb the peak, which later became one of Colorado's most visited attractions, but heavy snow prevented him from reaching the top.)

Mexico, too, was in transition. What had begun as a rebellion of peasants against their colonial Spanish masters had evolved into a full-scale war. Mexico declared its independence from Spain on September 16, 1810, and as the Mexican War of Independence (1810-21) raged on, the U.S. ceded to Spain its claim to lands south and west of the Arkansas River (which originates in the Rocky Mountains) in 1819. At the same time, the U.S. purchased Florida from Spain. When Mexico won its independence it assumed Spain's land claims in America.

Between the 1830s and 1850s, French and American traders, trappers and settlers established trading posts along the Arkansas River and on the South Platte River (which starts to the southwest of present-day Denver). The most famous of the trappers was Kit Carson (1809-68), who gained notoriety as a guide to American explorer John C. Frémont (1813-90) as he traversed the Wild West.

America's western frontier grew by more than 500,000 square miles when the U.S. won the Mexican-American War in 1848. As the victor, the U.S. was ceded territory extending west from the Rio Grande River (which originates in southwest Colorado) to the Pacific Ocean. Americans now were free to settle the southern Rocky Mountain region.