1.
El Paso County, Colorado
–
El Paso County is one of the 64 counties of the U. S. state of Colorado. The 2014 Census recorded a population of 663,519 for El Paso County, the Census Bureaus 2014 estimate indicates it is the second most populous county in Colorado, after the City and County of Denver. The county seat is Colorado Springs, the second most populous city in Colorado, El Paso County is included in the Colorado Springs, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. El Paso County is located in Colorados 5th congressional district, the Democratic Party won El Paso County four additional times prior, and the Populist Party won in 1892, with General James B. Together with state funding for COSMIX and the I-25 interchange with Highway 16, in 2010 and 2014 the county voted pro-marijuana. In July 1858, gold was discovered along the South Platte River in Arapahoe County and this discovery precipitated the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. Many residents of the region felt disconnected from the remote territorial governments of Kansas and Nebraska. The following month, the Jefferson Territorial Legislature organized 12 counties for the new territory including El Paso County, El Paso County was named for the Spanish language name for Ute Pass north of Pikes Peak. Colorado City served as the county seat of El Paso County, the Jefferson Territory never received federal sanction, but on February 28,1861, U. S. President James Buchanan signed an act organizing the Territory of Colorado. El Paso County was one of the original 17 counties created by the Colorado legislature on November 1,1861, part of its western territory was broken off to create Teller County in 1899. Originally based in Old Colorado City, El Paso Countys county seat was moved to Colorado Springs in 1873. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 2,130 square miles. Douglas County - north Elbert County - northeast Lincoln County - east Crowley County - southeast Pueblo County - south Fremont County - west Teller County - west Interstate 25 U. S. Highway 24 U. S, the population density was 243 people per square mile. There were 202,428 housing units at a density of 95 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 81. 19% White,6. 51% Black or African American,0. 91% Native American,2. 53% Asian,0. 24% Pacific Islander,4. 70% from other races, and 3. 91% from two or more races. 11. 30% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,23. 90% of all households were made up of individuals and 6. 10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the family size was 3.11. In the county, the population was out with 27. 60% under the age of 18,10. 50% from 18 to 24,32. 50% from 25 to 44,20. 70% from 45 to 64
2.
Colorado
–
Colorado is a state in the United States encompassing most of the Southern Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains. Colorado is part of the Western United States, the Southwestern United States, Colorado is the 8th most extensive and the 21st most populous of the 50 United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Colorado was 5,540,545 on July 1,2016, the state was named for the Colorado River, which Spanish travelers named the Río Colorado for the ruddy silt the river carried from the mountains. The Territory of Colorado was organized on February 28,1861, Colorado is nicknamed the Centennial State because it became a state in the same year as the centennial of the United States Declaration of Independence. Colorado is noted for its landscape of mountains, forests, high plains, mesas, canyons, plateaus, rivers. Denver is the capital and the most populous city of Colorado, residents of the state are properly known as Coloradans, although the term Coloradoan has been used archaically and lives on in the title of Fort Collins newspaper, the Coloradoan. Colorado, Wyoming and Utah are the states which have boundaries defined solely by lines of latitude and longitude. The summit of Mount Elbert at 14,440 feet elevation in Lake County is the highest point in Colorado, Colorado is the only U. S. state that lies entirely above 1,000 meters elevation. The point where the Arikaree River flows out of Yuma County, Colorado and this point, which holds the distinction of being the highest low elevation point of any state, is higher than the high elevation points of 18 states and the District of Columbia. A little less than one half of the area of Colorado is flat, East of the Rocky Mountains are the Colorado Eastern Plains of the High Plains, the section of the Great Plains within Nebraska at elevations ranging from roughly 3,350 to 7,500 feet. The Colorado plains were mostly prairies, but they have many patches of forests, buttes. Eastern Colorado is presently covered in farmland and rangeland, along with small farming villages. Precipitation is fair, averaging from 15 to 25 inches annually, corn, wheat, hay, soybeans, and oats are all typical crops, and most of the villages and towns in this region boast both a water tower and a grain elevator. Irrigation water is available from the South Platte, the Arkansas River, and a few other streams, however, heavy use of ground water from wells for irrigation has caused underground water reserves to decline. As well as agriculture, eastern Colorado hosts considerable livestock, such as cattle ranches. Roughly 70% of Colorados population resides along the edge of the Rocky Mountains in the Front Range Urban Corridor between Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Pueblo, Colorado. This region is protected from prevailing storms that blow in from the Pacific Ocean region by the high Rockies in the middle of Colorado. The Front Range includes Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Loveland, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Greeley and other townships, on the other side of the Rockies, the significant population centers in Western Colorado are the cities of Grand Junction, Durango, and Montrose
3.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
4.
Unincorporated area
–
Occasionally, municipalities dissolve or disincorporate, which may happen if they become fiscally insolvent, and services become the responsibility of a higher administration. In some countries, such as in Brazil, Japan, France or the United Kingdom, unlike many other countries, Australia has only one level of local government immediately beneath state and territorial governments. A local government area often contains several towns and even entire cities, thus, aside from very sparsely populated areas and a few other special cases, almost all of Australia is part of an LGA. Unincorporated areas are often in locations, cover vast areas or have very small populations. Postal addresses in unincorporated areas, as in parts of Australia. Thus, there is any ambiguity regarding addresses in unincorporated areas. The Australian Capital Territory has no municipalities and is in some sense an unincorporated area, the territorial government is directly responsible for matters normally carried out by local government. The far west and north of New South Wales constitutes the Unincorporated Far West Region, a civil servant in the state capital manages such matters as are necessary. The second unincorporated area of state is Lord Howe Island. In the Northern Territory,1. 45% of the area and 4. In South Australia, 60% of the area is unincorporated and communities located within can receive services provided by a state agency. Firstly, the remote area that is unincorporated is the Abrolhos Islands. Secondly, the unincorporated areas are A-class reserves either in, or close to. In Canada, depending on the province, a settlement is one that does not have a municipal council that governs solely over the settlement. It is usually, but not always, part of a municipal government. This can range from hamlets to large urbanized areas that are similar in size to towns. In British Columbia, unincorporated settlements lie outside municipal boundaries entirely, Unincorporated settlements with a population of between 100 and 1,000 residents may have the status of designated place in Canadian census data. In some provinces, large tracts of undeveloped wilderness or rural country are unorganized areas that fall directly under the provincial jurisdiction
5.
ZIP Code
–
ZIP Codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, was chosen to suggest that the travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly. The basic format consists of five numerical digits, an extended ZIP+4 code, introduced in 1983, includes the five digits of the ZIP Code, a hyphen, and four additional digits that determine a more specific location within a given ZIP Code. The term ZIP Code was originally registered as a servicemark by the U. S. Postal Service, USPS style for ZIP is all caps and the c in code is also capitalized, although style sheets for some publications use sentence case or lowercase. The early history and context of postal codes began with postal district/zone numbers, the United States Post Office Department implemented postal zones for numerous large cities in 1943. For example, Mr. John Smith 3256 Epiphenomenal Avenue Minneapolis 16, by the early 1960s a more organized system was needed, and on July 1,1963, non-mandatory five-digit ZIP Codes were introduced nationwide. Three months later, on October 1,1963, the U. S, an earlier list in June had proposed capitalized abbreviations ranging from two to five letters. The abbreviations have remained unchanged, with one exception, according to the historian of the U. S. Robert Moon, an employee of the post office, is considered the father of the ZIP Code, he submitted his proposal in 1944 while working as a postal inspector. The post office gives credit to Moon only for the first three digits of the ZIP Code, which describe the sectional center facility or sec center, an SCF is a central mail processing facility with those three digits. The SCF sorts mail to all post offices with those first three digits in their ZIP Codes, the mail is sorted according to the final two digits of the ZIP Code and sent to the corresponding post offices in the early morning. Sectional centers do not deliver mail and are not open to the public, Mail picked up at post offices is sent to their own SCF in the afternoon, where the mail is sorted overnight. The United States Post Office used a character, which it called Mr. ZIP. He was often depicted with a such as USE ZIP CODE in the selvage of panes of stamps or on labels contained in, or the covers of. In 1983, the U. S. Postal Service introduced an expanded ZIP Code system that it called ZIP+4, often called plus-four codes, add-on codes, or add ons. But initial attempts to promote use of the new format met with public resistance. For Post Office Boxes, the rule is that each box has its own ZIP+4 code. However, there is no rule, so the ZIP+4 Code must be looked up individually for each box. It is common to use add-on code 9998 for mail addressed to the postmaster,9999 for general delivery, for a unique ZIP Code, the add-on code is typically 0001
6.
Colorado Springs, Colorado
–
Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in the east central portion of the state and it is situated on Fountain Creek and is located 60 miles south of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. At 6,035 feet the city stands over 1 mile above sea level, Colorado Springs is situated near the base of one of the most famous American mountains, Pikes Peak, rising above 14,000 feet on the eastern edge of the Southern Rocky Mountains. The city is home to 24 national governing bodies of sport, the United States Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic Training Center. The city had an population of 456,568 in 2015, ranking as the second most populous city in the state of Colorado, behind Denver. The Colorado Springs, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area had an population of 712,327 in 2016. The city covers 194.9 square miles, making it the most extensive municipality in Colorado, Colorado Springs was ranked number five by U. S. News & World Report on the list of 2016 Best Places to Live in the USA. The Ute, Arapaho and Cheyenne peoples were the first to inhabit the area which would become Colorado Springs, part of the territory included in the United States 1803 Louisiana Purchase, the current city area was designated part of the 1854 Kansas Territory. In 1859, after the first local settlement was established, it part of the Jefferson Territory on October 24. Colorado City at the Front Range confluence of Fountain and Camp creeks was formally organized on August 13,1859 during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. It served as the capital of the Colorado Territory from November 5,1861, until August 14,1862, in 1871 the Colorado Springs Company laid out the towns of La Font and Fountain Colony, upstream and downstream respectively, of Colorado City. Within a year, Fountain Colony would be renamed Colorado Springs, the El Paso County seat shifted from Colorado City in 1873 to the Town of Colorado Springs. On December 1,1880, Colorado Springs expanded northward with two annexations, the second period of annexations was during 1889–90, and included Seaveys Addition, West Colorado Springs, East End, and another North End addition. In 1891 the Broadmoor Land Company built the Broadmoor suburb, which included the Broadmoor Casino, and by December 12,1895, by 1898, the city was designated into quadrants by the north-south Cascade Avenue and the east-west Washington/Pikes Peak avenues. From 1899 to 1901 Tesla Experimental Station operated on Knob Hill, alexander Airport north of the city opened in 1925, and in 1927 the original Colorado Springs Municipal Airport land was purchased east of the city. In World War II the United States Army Air Forces leased land adjacent to the municipal airfield and this was only one of several military presences in and around Colorado Springs during the war. In November 1950, Ent Air Force Base was selected as the Cold War headquarters for Air Defense Command. The former WWII Army Air Base, Peterson Field, which had been inactivated at the end of the war, was re-opened in 1951 as a U. S. Air Force base
7.
City
–
A city is a large and permanent human settlement. Cities generally have complex systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, housing, a big city or metropolis usually has associated suburbs and exurbs. Such cities are associated with metropolitan areas and urban areas. Once a city expands far enough to another city, this region can be deemed a conurbation or megalopolis. Damascus is arguably the oldest city in the world, in terms of population, the largest city proper is Shanghai, while the fastest-growing is Dubai. There is not enough evidence to assert what conditions gave rise to the first cities, some theorists have speculated on what they consider suitable pre-conditions and basic mechanisms that might have been important driving forces. The conventional view holds that cities first formed after the Neolithic revolution, the Neolithic revolution brought agriculture, which made denser human populations possible, thereby supporting city development. The advent of farming encouraged hunter-gatherers to abandon nomadic lifestyles and to settle near others who lived by agricultural production, the increased population density encouraged by farming and the increased output of food per unit of land created conditions that seem more suitable for city-like activities. In his book, Cities and Economic Development, Paul Bairoch takes up position in his argument that agricultural activity appears necessary before true cities can form. According to Vere Gordon Childe, for a settlement to qualify as a city, it must have enough surplus of raw materials to support trade and a relatively large population. To illustrate this point, Bairoch offers an example, Western Europe during the pre-Neolithic, when the cost of transport is taken into account, the figure rises to 200,000 square kilometres. Bairoch noted that this is roughly the size of Great Britain, the urban theorist Jane Jacobs suggests that city formation preceded the birth of agriculture, but this view is not widely accepted. In his book City Economics, Brendan OFlaherty asserts Cities could persist—as they have for thousands of years—only if their advantages offset the disadvantages, OFlaherty illustrates two similar attracting advantages known as increasing returns to scale and economies of scale, which are concepts usually associated with businesses. Their applications are seen in more basic economic systems as well, increasing returns to scale occurs when doubling all inputs more than doubles the output an activity has economies of scale if doubling output less than doubles cost. To offer an example of these concepts, OFlaherty makes use of one of the oldest reasons why cities were built, in this example, the inputs are anything that would be used for protection and the output is the area protected and everything of value contained in it. OFlaherty then asks that we suppose the protected area is square, the advantage is expressed as, O = s 2, where O is the output and s stands for the length of a side. This equation shows that output is proportional to the square of the length of a side, the inputs depend on the length of the perimeter, I =4 s, where I stands for the quantity of inputs. So there are increasing returns to scale, O = I2 /16 and this equation shows that with twice the inputs, you produce quadruple the output
8.
Douglas County, Colorado
–
Douglas County is the seventh-most populous of the 64 counties of the U. S. state of Colorado. As of the 2010 census, the population was 285,465, the county seat is Castle Rock. Douglas County is part of the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and it is located midway between Colorados two largest cities, Denver and Colorado Springs. Douglas County has the highest median income of any Colorado county or statistical equivalent. It is ranked nationally in that category, and has the highest of any county or equivalent not in the eastern US. Douglas County is lightly wooded, mostly with ponderosa pine, with broken terrain characterized by mesas, foothills, cherry Creek and Plum Creek rise in Douglas County and flow north toward Denver and into the South Platte River. Both were subject to flooding in the past, Plum Creek being partially responsible for the Denver flood of 1965. Most residents commute to workplaces elsewhere in the area outside of the county. Suburban development is displacing the ranching economy of the county, Douglas County was one of the original 17 counties created in the Colorado Territory by the Colorado Territorial Legislature on November 1,1861. The county was named in honor of U. S, senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, who died five months before the county was created. The county seat was originally Franktown, but was moved to California Ranch in 1863, although the countys boundaries originally extended eastward to the Kansas state border, in 1874 most of the eastern portion of the county became part of Elbert County. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 844 square miles. Parts of the county lie within the Pike National Forest and were crossed by the historic South Platte Trail, if filled to capacity, surface size would be 1,140 acres, making this a fairly significant reservoir in Colorado and Douglas Countys largest body of water. As of the census of 2000, there were 175,766 people,60,924 households, the population density was 209 people per square mile. There were 63,333 housing units at a density of 75 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 92. 77% White,2. 51% Asian,0. 95% Black,0. 41% Native American,0. 06% Pacific Islander,1. 43% from other races, and 1. 88% from two or more races. 5. 06% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,13. 3% of all households were made up of individuals and 1. 9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.88 and the family size was 3.19
9.
Waldo Canyon Fire
–
The fire was active in the Pike National Forest and adjoining areas, covering a total of 18,247 acres. There were 346 homes destroyed by the fire, U. S. Highway 24, a major east-west road, was closed in both directions. The Waldo Canyon Fire resulted in insurance claims totaling more than US $453.7 million. The Waldo Canyon fire started as a fire about noon on June 23,2012 in a valley of Rampart Range in the Pike National Forest, about 3 miles west of Colorado Springs. The fire, first spotted and caught on video by cyclists on the range, spread quickly, Air support was requested at 12,24 p. m. by the Colorado Springs Fire Department. Helicopters began dropping water on the two days after the fire began. Erratic winds caused the fire to spread rapidly in the northwest, by 3 p. m. the fire grew to 600 acres spreading towards the towns of Chipita Park, Green Mountain Falls, and Cascade, Colorado. It also spread towards the western and northwestern areas of the Colorado Springs area, residents began to evacuate as the fire intensified. Planes dropped retardant slurry on what they believed was the Pyramid Mountain Fire, as the fire intensified, flames seemed to reach 150 feet above the treetops. Seventy fire trucks were called in, an area for firefighters was established. The citys emergency operations center was opened, the city also asked fire departments from Stratmoor Hills, Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, Cimarron Hills and Peterson Air Force Base to fill four city stations. Colorado Springs Utilities Catamount Wildland Fire Team, meanwhile, began to cut a firebreak above Cedar Heights, US Highway 24 was closed at 31st Street and through Ute Pass on June 24. By that day, eleven people had evacuated their homes and shelters were set up for evacuees in Colorado Springs. The fire crossed Rampart Range Road on June 25 when a deer leaped across the road. The fire spread quickly into Queens Canyon due to the dry terrain, hot conditions, and the steep topography, on June 26,2012, Colorado Springs experienced a record high temperature of 101 °F, which aided the fires rapid expansion through Queens Canyon and creating significant smoke. The fire crested Queens Canyon and winds from the west nearing 65 mph gusts pushed the fire down the slope and into the Mountain Shadows, Oak Valley Ranch, the fire moved about 2 miles per hour towards the city. Embers were carried by the wind to a distance of up to a mile away and caused multiple small spot fires of brush. Once the fire crossed into neighborhoods, the fuel for the fire was houses, by late afternoon and evening, multiple structures were burned including the Flying W Ranch, a Colorado Springs landmark built in 1953
10.
Royal Gorge Bridge
–
The bridge crosses the gorge 955 feet above the Arkansas River and held the record of highest bridge in the world from 1929 until 2001 when it was surpassed by the Liuguanghe Bridge in China. The Royal Gorge Bridge maintained the title of the worlds highest suspension bridge until the Beipan River Guanxing Highway Bridge was completed in 2003, the bridge remains the highest bridge in the United States and was among the ten highest bridges in the world until 2012. The main span of the bridge between the towers is 880 feet, the length is 1,260 feet, the width is 18 feet. The steel base structure is covered with 1292 wooden planks, passenger vehicles are allowed to cross the bridge but only before park attractions open or after they close, times depending on season. Oversize vehicles including trucks, RVs and buses are not permitted to cross. The bridge was built in six months between June and November 1929 at a cost of $350,000, in 1931, an incline railway, or funicular, was added beside the bridge to reach the bottom of the gorge. In the 1950s, a railroad was built by the edge of the gorge. In the early 1980s, the bridge was renovated with new anchors, suspension rods. A Skycoaster attraction was added in 2003 with riders being swung out over the edge of the gorge, in June 2013, a wildfire destroyed most of the parks buildings and the aerial tram, and damaged the funicular. The bridge sustained only slight damage to the deck and was otherwise unharmed. The park was rebuilt and partially reopened in August 2014, the park had a grand reopening in May 2015 with new gondolas and a new zip-line crossing the gorge on the east side of the bridge. Construction began on June 5,1929 and ended in November 1929, the bridge cost $350,000 and was constructed as a tourist attraction, not as a through route for transportation purposes. The road on the rim is blocked shortly beyond the bridge. The road leading to and across the bridge from Route 50 is designated as Fremont County Road 3A, the Royal Gorge Route Railroad runs under the bridge along the base of Royal Gorge. The Royal Gorge Bridge surpassed the Sidi MCid Bridge in 1929 to become the highest bridge in the world with a height of 955 ft. The Liuguanghe Bridge in China surpassed the Royal Gorge Bridge in 2001 to become the new highest bridge with a height of 974 ft. The Royal Gorge Bridge surrendered the title of the worlds highest suspension bridge when the Beipan River Guanxing Highway Bridge in China was completed in 2003 with a height of 1,200 ft. Several more even higher bridges, mostly in China, have been completed since 2003 causing the Royal Gorge Bridge to drop out of the top ten highest bridges in the world
United States
State of Colorado
