1.
Fourteener
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In the mountaineering parlance of the Western United States, a fourteener is a mountain peak with an elevation of at least 14,000 feet. Colorado has the majority of fourteeners in the contiguous United States, followed by California, climbing all of Colorados fourteeners is a popular pastime among peak baggers, another popular target is climbing all of the fourteeners in the contiguous United States. Various ski mountaineers have completed ski descents of all the Colorado fourteeners, the summit of a mountain or hill may be measured in three principal ways, The topographic elevation of a summit measures the height of the summit above a geodetic sea level. The topographic prominence of a summit is a measure of how high the summit rises above its surroundings, the topographic isolation of a summit measures how far the summit lies from its nearest point of equal elevation. Not all summits over 14,000 feet qualify as fourteeners, summits which qualify are those considered by mountaineers to be independent. Objective standards for independence include topographic prominence and isolation, or a combination of the two, however, fourteener lists do not always consistently use such objective rules. A rule commonly used by mountaineers in the contiguous United States is that a peak must have at least 300 feet of prominence to qualify, by this rule, Colorado has 53 fourteeners, California has 12, and Washington has two. According to the Mountaineering Club of Alaska, it is standard in Alaska to use a 500-foot prominence rule rather than a 300-foot rule, by this rule, Alaska has at least 21 peaks over 14,000 feet and its 12 highest peaks exceed 15,000 feet. The following table lists the 96 mountain peaks of the United States with at least 14,000 feet of topographic elevation, of these 96 fourteeners,53 rise in Colorado,29 in Alaska,12 in California, and two in Washington. The 22 highest fourteeners all rise in Alaska, the table above uses a minimum topographic prominence criterion of 300 feet and includes 97 peaks. The number of peaks included depends upon the minimum topographic prominence criterion, a criterion of 100 meters includes 90 peaks,500 feet includes 77 peaks,1000 feet includes 63 peaks, and 500 meters includes 46 peaks. The following U. S. summits have 14,000 feet of elevation and it is unclear why this became included on some fourteener lists. Prominence = 195–235 feet. com Peakbagger. com Peaklist. org Peakware. com Summitpost. org
2.
Sangre de Cristo Range
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The Sangre de Cristo Range rises over 7,000 feet above the valleys and plains to the west and northeast. According to the USGS, the range is the part of the larger Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Usage of the terms Sangre de Cristo Range and Sangre de Cristo Mountains is varied, however, most of the range is shared by two National Forests, which abut along the range divide. Most of the northeast side is located within the San Isabel National Forest, the central part of the range is designated as the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness. The Great Sand Dunes National Park sits on the flank of the range at the edge of the San Luis Valley. The range divide is traversed by no paved roads, only by four wheel drive and foot trails over Hayden Pass, Hermit Pass, Music Pass, Medano Pass, and Mosca Pass. The highest peak in the range, located in the south, is Blanca Peak, other well-known peaks are the fourteeners of the Crestone group, Kit Carson Mountain, Crestone Peak, Crestone Needle, and Humboldt Peak. Two sub-peaks of Kit Carson Mountain, Challenger Point and Columbia Point, are named in memory of the crews of the Space Shuttle Challenger, the range is also home to many high peaks in the 13,000 to 14,000 foot range. See the Sangre de Cristo Mountains article for other noteworthy summits in the greater range, in 1719 the Spanish explorer Antonio Valverde y Cosio named the Sangre de Cristo mountains after being impressed by the reddish hue of the snowy peaks at sunrise, alpenglow. Today tourism is the economic activity. The Sangre de Cristos are fault-block mountains similar to the Teton Range in Wyoming, there are major fault lines running along both the east and west sides of the range and, in places, cutting through the range. The mountains were pushed up around 5 million years ago, basically as one mass of rock. The Sangre de Cristo range is still being uplifted today as faults in the area remain active, on the west side is the San Luis Valley, a portion of the Rio Grande Rift. On the southeast side is the Raton Basin, a quiet and these sedimentary rocks originated as sediment eroded from the Ancestral Rocky Mountains
3.
Crestone, Colorado
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The Town of Crestone is a Statutory Town in Saguache County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 127 at the 2010 United States Census and it is a small village at the foot of the western slope of the Sangre de Cristo Range, in the northern part of the San Luis Valley. Crestone was a mining town, but little paying ore was discovered. In the 1970s, a land development, the Baca Grande, was established to the south and west. Crestone is easily accessible to visitors, a National Forest Service campground is about 3/4 of a north of town. Activities in the area include camping, fishing, hiking, climbing, Crestone is named for the 14, 000-foot peaks that lie just east of the town, Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle. The first settlement in the Crestone area occurred after the American Civil War with the granting of the Luis Maria Baca Grant No.4 to the heirs of the original Baca Grant at Las Vegas, New Mexico. Title to the grant at Las Vegas was clouded by a grant of the same land. The Baca heirs were offered alternative lands from the lands of the United States. The square tract selected is 12.5 miles on a side south of Saguache County Road T south of Crestone, the Bacas deeded the land to their attorney, but it soon passed by tax sale to a third party. The ranch headquarters were on Crestone Creek to the southwest of Crestone, the Baca Grant was one of the first large tracts of land to be fenced in the West and in its heyday was the home of prize Hereford cattle. In addition to ranching there was mining in the area to the east. In 1880 the town of Crestone was platted by George Adams, however, lacking good ore, the boom was short-lived. A long period of decline followed, by 1948 Crestone had declined to its post-war population of 40, mostly retirees and cowboys who worked on the Grant, as the Baca Grant was called. Many of the old cabins were used as vacation homes, by 1971 the Baca Grant came into the ownership of a corporation which subdivided a portion of the Grant, creating the Baca Grande, a subdivision originally platted for about 10,000 lots. At great expense, underground utilities were installed and roads built, however, sales lagged and by 1979 the development was considered a liability by the corporation. Maurice Strong, owner of a controlling interest and his fiancée, Hanne Marstrand, visited the development and they were inspired to create a world spiritual center and began granting parcels of land to traditional spiritual organizations. The population gradually began to increase and by 2006 several hundred homes had been built, Crestone is located near the 38th parallel, in the San Luis Valley in south central Colorado
4.
Colorado
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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
5.
Crestone Peak
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Crestone Peak is the seventh-highest summit of the Rocky Mountains of North America and the U. S. state of Colorado. The prominent 14, 300-foot fourteener is the highest summit of the Crestones, the summit is located in the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness of Rio Grande National Forest,5.0 miles east by south of the Town of Crestone in Saguache County, Colorado, United States. Crestone Peak rises 7,000 feet above the east side of the San Luis Valley and it shares its name with the nearby Crestone Needle, another fourteener of the Crestones. The Crestones are a cluster of high summits in the Sangre de Cristo Range, comprising Crestone Peak, Crestone Needle, Kit Carson Peak, Challenger Point, Humboldt Peak and they are usually accessed from common trailheads. Generally climbs of Crestone Peak or Crestone Needle start from a camp at South Colony Lakes, east of the peak. This route involves nearly 6,000 ft of elevation gain, then it ascends a long gully on the northwest side of Crestone Peak, which involves some rockfall danger. Crestone Peak is one of the more dangerous fourteener climbs in Colorado, accidents occur often in the Crestones, alternatively, the Cottonwood Creek route begins in the San Luis Valley and approaches the Crestones from the west. The route follows Cottonwood Creek to Cottonwood Lake, from there, the South Face route of Crestone Peak is accessible. From Crestone Peak, it is a mildly technical ridge scramble to the summit of Crestone Needle, however, Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle are more commonly climbed separately. com
6.
Crestone Needle
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Crestone Needle is a high mountain summit of the Crestones in the Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The 14, 203-foot fourteener is located 6.9 miles east-southeast of the Town of Crestone in Saguache County, Colorado, United States. The Crestones are a cluster of high summits in the Sangre de Cristo Range, comprising Crestone Peak, Crestone Needle, Kit Carson Peak, Challenger Point, Humboldt Peak and they are usually accessed from common trailheads. While not as high as Crestone Peak, and connected to it by a high, jagged ridge, the easiest route is the South Face, usually accessed via Broken Hand Pass from South Colony Lakes. This is an exposed scramble with a few tricky moves. However the classic route on the mountain is the Ellingwood Arete and this is a steep ridge on the northeast side of the peak, leading directly up from the Upper South Colony Lake basin to the summit. It is a technical rock climb. It is particularly popular because of its inclusion in the well-known book Fifty Classic Climbs of North America by Steve Roper, the peak consists mainly of granite and conglomerate. Knobby handholds are frequent near the summit, snow fields linger around the peak throughout the summer. Almost all fatalities on the peak occur on either the Class 4 traverse from Crestone Peak or the technical Ellingwood Ledges Route, List of mountain peaks of Colorado List of Colorado fourteeners Crestone Needle
7.
Kit Carson Peak
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Kit Carson Peak is a high mountain summit of the Crestones in the Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. Officially designated Kit Carson Mountain, the 14, 171-foot fourteener is located 5.2 miles east by south of the Town of Crestone in Saguache County, Colorado, United States. The name Kit Carson Mountain is used for both the massif with three summits, or to describe the summit only. The mountain is named in honor of frontiersman Christopher Houston Kit Carson, the Crestones are a cluster of high summits in the Sangre de Cristo Range, comprising Crestone Peak, Crestone Needle, Kit Carson Peak, Challenger Point, Humboldt Peak, and Columbia Point. They are usually accessed from common trailheads, in January 2002, the Nature Conservancy announced the signing of a $31 million purchase agreement for the Baca Ranch. The purchase significantly expanded the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in 2004, as part of that complex transaction Kit Carson Mountain was transferred to the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness within the Rio Grande National Forest. Kit Carson Mountain features complex terrain that has misled climbers in the past, contributing to deaths in the summer of 2006,2010, the proposal had been put forward because Carson had led an 1863-64 campaign to dislodge Navajo Indians, who had sided with the Confederacy. Incidentally, local residents for decades had called the mountain Crestone Peak, one popular route on Kit Carson Mountain climbs from the west side of the range, starting at Willow Creek Trailhead. This route first climbs Challenger Point, just to the west of Kit Carson, climbing from the saddle between Challenger Point to Kit Carson peak involves crossing a path commonly called Kit Carson Avenue. Total elevation gain for this route is 6,250 ft, Kit Carson can also be reached from the east side of the Sangre de Cristos via the South Colony Lakes access. This route starts by using part of the trail for Humboldt Peak, a sub-peak named Columbia Point is climbed on the way to the main summit. Kit Carson does not have any glaciers but it does have a semi-permanent ice patch on its north face. Fatalities also occur because climbers make the mistake of descending the couloir between the summit and Challenger Point, search and Rescue teams regularly recover bodies from the bottom of the couloir. Bodies that do not make it to the bottom require highly specialized technical teams, not local to the area, and thus not as quickly available to respond
8.
Humboldt Peak (Colorado)
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Humboldt Peak is a high mountain summit of the Crestones in the Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The 14, 070-foot fourteener is located in the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness of San Isabel National Forest,11.9 miles south-southwest of the Town of Westcliffe in Custer County, Colorado, United States. The Crestones are a cluster of high summits in the Sangre de Cristo Range, comprising Crestone Peak, Crestone Needle, Kit Carson Peak, Challenger Point, Humboldt Peak, Humboldt Peak is the least challenging climb of the Crestones. The standard route on the peak is a hike along a trail. The trail climbs the peak from the South Colony Lakes basin and this basin is a popular site that is also the base for most climbs of Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle. A very rugged four-wheel drive road follows the South Colony drainage to near the Lakes, however, there is a lower parking lot for two-wheel drive access at the San Isabel National Forest boundary. As of 8/30/2007, 2WD lot has been moved back, from here climb involves 5,200 feet of elevation gain in an 18-mile round trip. When hiking Humboldt be sure to stay right on the ridge because the left is the north face, List of mountain peaks of Colorado List of Colorado fourteeners Humboldt Peak on 14ers. com
9.
Monsoon
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Usually, the term monsoon is used to refer to the rainy phase of a seasonally changing pattern, although technically there is also a dry phase. The term is sometimes used for locally heavy but short-term rains. The major monsoon systems of the world consist of the West African and Asia-Australian monsoons, the inclusion of the North and South American monsoons with incomplete wind reversal has been debated. The south-west monsoon winds are called Nairutya Maarut in India, the English monsoon came from Portuguese monção, ultimately from Arabic mawsim and/or Hindi mausam, perhaps partly via early modern Dutch monsun. Strengthening of the Asian monsoon has been linked to the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau after the collision of the Indian sub-continent and Asia around 50 million years ago. Because of studies of records from the Arabian Sea and that of the wind-blown dust in the Loess Plateau of China, testing of this hypothesis awaits deep ocean sampling by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. The monsoon has varied significantly in strength since this time, largely linked to climate change. A study of marine plankton suggested that the Indian Monsoon strengthened around 5 million years ago, then, during ice periods, the sea level fell and the Indonesian Seaway closed. When this happened, cold waters in the Pacific were impeded from flowing into the Indian Ocean and it is believed that the resulting increase in sea surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean increased the intensity of monsoons. Five episodes during the Quaternary at 2.22 Ma,1.83 Ma,0.68 Ma,0.45 Ma and 0.04 Ma were identified which showed a weakening of Leeuwin Current. The weakening of the LC would have an effect on the sea surface temperature field in the Indian Ocean, thus these five intervals could probably be those of considerable lowering of SST in the Indian Ocean and would have influenced Indian monsoon intensity. The impact of monsoon on the weather is different from place to place. In some places there is just a likelihood of having a more or less rain. In other places, quasi semi-deserts are turned into green grasslands where all sorts of plants. The Indian Monsoon turns large parts of India from a kind of semi-desert into green lands, see photos only taken 3 months apart in the Western Ghats. In places like this it is crucial for farmers to have the right timing for putting the seeds on the fields, Monsoons are large-scale sea breezes which occur when the temperature on land is significantly warmer or cooler than the temperature of the ocean. These temperature imbalances happen because oceans and land absorb heat in different ways, in contrast, dirt, sand, and rocks have lower heat capacities, and they can only transmit heat into the earth by conduction and not by convection. Therefore, bodies of water stay at an even temperature
10.
Scrambling
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Scrambling is a walk up steep terrain involving the use of ones hands. It is a term that lies somewhere between hiking, hillwalking, mountaineering, and easy rock climbing. Alpine scrambling is a term applied to scrambling in high mountains like the Alps and the Rockies of North America, the Mountaineers climbing organization defines alpine scrambling as follows, Alpine Scrambles are off-trail trips, often on snow or rock, with a non-technical summit as a destination. A non-technical summit is one that is reached without the need for certain types of climbing equipment, however, this can mean negotiating lower angle rock, traveling through talus and scree, crossing streams, fighting ones way through dense brush, and walking on snow-covered slopes. Although ropes may be sensible on harder scrambles, sustained use of rope and belay counts as climbing, typically, for this reason mountain walkers are advised to carry a rope on harder scrambles. Scramblers are also advised to know their limits and to turn back before they get into difficulties, some mountain tops may be reached by walking or scrambling up their least-steep side. The essence of a modern via ferrata is a cable which runs along the route and is periodically fixed to the rock. Using a via ferrata kit, climbers can secure themselves to the cable, the cable can also be used as aid to climbing, and additional climbing aids, such as iron rungs, pegs, carved steps and even ladders and bridges are often provided. Thus via ferratas allow otherwise dangerous routes to be undertaken without the associated with unprotected scrambling and climbing or the need for climbing equipment such as ropes. Many of theses routes include a bad step, where the scrambling suddenly becomes more serious. The bad step on Crib Goch for example, involves only 20 feet or so of climbing, the rock face here is well polished by countless boots, but there are many holds which offer firm support. By contrast, the traverse of the Cuillin Ridge on Skye demands use of a rope at one point at least, the ridge routes of Liathach and Beinn Eighe in Wester Ross are easier to traverse but are extremely exposed. Descent from such ridges is very limited, so once committed, an Teallach to the north offers scrambling, as does Stac Pollaidh further north in Sutherland, which includes a bad step. One resource for scramblers in Britain are the guides by W A Poucher, though these are now dated, a guide to 156 scrambling routes in the Canadian Rockies can be found in Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies by Alan Kane. Backpacker magazine has featured the book as an expedition guide. The Canadian Alpine Journal referred to it as a scree gospel, mount Jefferson is in Coos County, New Hampshire, and is the third highest mountain in the state. Mount Jefferson has a direct ascent along the Caps Ridge Trail, whose base and this route, gaining only 2,700 feet vertically to the summit, makes for the easiest ascent of any Presidential mountain. However, climbing over the caps involves some exposed scrambling and can be steep, many easy scrambles become serious climbs in bad weather
11.
Rockfall
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A rockfall or rock-fall refers to quantities of rock falling freely from a cliff face. The term is used for collapse of rock from roof or walls of mine or quarry workings. Alternatively, a rockfall is the downward motion of a detached block or series of blocks with a small volume involving free falling, bouncing, rolling. The mode of failure differs from that of a rockslide, a tree may be blown by the wind, and this causes a pressure at the root level and this loosens rocks and can trigger a fall. The pieces of rock collect at the bottom creating a talus or scree, rocks falling from the cliff may dislodge other rocks and serve to create another mass wasting process, for example an avalanche. A cliff that has favorable geology to a rockfall may be said to be incompetent, one that is not favorable to a rockfall, which is better consolidated, may be said to be competent. Typically, rockfall events are mitigated in one of two ways, either by passive mitigation or active mitigation, the rockfall still takes place but an attempt is made to control the outcome. In contrast, active mitigation is carried out in the initiation zone, some examples of these measures are rock bolting, slope retention systems, shotcrete, etc. Other active measures might be by changing the geographic or climatic characteristics in the zone, e. g. altering slope geometry, dewatering the slope, revegetation. Design guides of passive measures have been proposed by Ritchie, Pierson et al, the effect of rockfalls on trees can be seen in several ways. The tree roots may rotate, via the energy of the rockfall. The tree may move via the application of translational energy, and lastly deformation may occur, either elastic or plastic. Dendrochronology can reveal a past impact, with missing tree rings, as the tree rings grow around and close over a gap, a macroscopic section can be used for dating of avalanche and rockfall events. Earthquake Kinetic energy Landslide Potential energy Protection forest Rockslide Slope stability SMR classification Q-slope
12.
Challenger Point
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Challenger Point is a high mountain summit of the Crestones in the Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The 14, 087-foot fourteener is located 5.0 miles east by south of the Town of Crestone in Saguache County, Colorado, the summit is on the northwest shoulder of Kit Carson Mountain, and is a subpeak of the latter. It was renamed in memory of the seven astronauts who died when the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated shortly after liftoff on January 28,1986, the proposal to name the summit Challenger Point was made by Colorado Springs resident Dennis Williams in 1986. The USGS Board of Geographic Names approved the application on April 9,1987, local climber Alan Silverstein organized and led an expedition on the weekend of July 18,1987 to place a 6 by 12 inches memorial plaque on the summit. Trailhead, Willow Creek Trailhead,8,900 feet List of mountain peaks of Colorado List of Colorado fourteeners Challenger Point and Kit Carson Peak on 14ers. com
13.
Columbia Point
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Columbia Point is a high mountain summit of the Crestones in the Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The 13, 986-foot thirteener is located 5.5 miles east by south of the Town of Crestone in Saguache County, Colorado, United States. The Crestones are a cluster of high summits in the Sangre de Cristo Range, comprising Crestone Peak, Crestone Needle, Kit Carson Peak, Challenger Point, Humboldt Peak, Columbia Point is subpeak of Kit Carson Mountain. With a topographic prominence over 300 ft, it qualifies as a separate summit under the standard cutoff, the USGS Board of Geographic Names approved the name of Columbia Point in June,2003. On the weekend of August 7,2003, a group consisting of members, astronauts, friends. The trip included a service for the memorial, and an F16 flyby in missing man formation
14.
Rocky Mountains
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The Rocky Mountains, commonly known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than 3,000 miles from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the Southwestern United States. Within the North American Cordillera, the Rockies are somewhat distinct from the Pacific Coast Ranges, the Rocky Mountains were initially formed from 80 million to 55 million years ago during the Laramide orogeny, in which a number of plates began to slide underneath the North American plate. The angle of subduction was shallow, resulting in a belt of mountains running down western North America. Since then, further tectonic activity and erosion by glaciers have sculpted the Rockies into dramatic peaks, at the end of the last ice age, humans started to inhabit the mountain range. The first mention of their present name by a European was in the journal of Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre in 1752, the Rocky Mountains are commonly defined as stretching from the Liard River in British Columbia south to the Rio Grande in New Mexico. The United States definition of the Rockies includes the Cabinet and Salish Mountains of Idaho and their counterparts north of the Kootenai River, the Columbia Mountains, are considered a separate system in Canada, lying to the west of the huge Rocky Mountain Trench. This runs the length of British Columbia from its beginnings in the middle Flathead River valley in western Montana to the bank of the Liard River. The Rockies vary in width from 70 to 300 miles, also west of the Rocky Mountain Trench, farther north and facing the Muskwa Range across the trench, are the Stikine Ranges and Omineca Mountains of the Interior Mountains system of British Columbia. A small area east of Prince George, British Columbia on the side of the Trench. In Canada geographers define three main groups of ranges, the Continental Ranges, Hart Ranges and Muskwa Ranges, the Muskwa and Hart Ranges together comprise what is known as the Northern Rockies. The western edge of the Rockies includes ranges such as the Wasatch near Salt Lake City, the Great Basin and Columbia River Plateau separate these sub-ranges from distinct ranges further to the west, most prominent among which are the Sierra Nevada, Cascade Range and Coast Mountains. The Rocky Mountain System within the United States is a United States physiographic region, the Rocky Mountains are notable for containing the highest peaks in central North America. The ranges highest peak is Mount Elbert located in Colorado at 14,440 feet above sea level, Mount Robson in British Columbia, at 12,972 feet, is the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. The Continental Divide of the Americas is located in the Rocky Mountains, triple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park is so named because water that falls on the mountain reaches not only the Atlantic and Pacific, but Hudson Bay as well. Farther north in Alberta, the Athabasca and other rivers feed the basin of the Mackenzie River, see Rivers of the Rocky Mountains for a list of rivers. Human population is not very dense in the Rocky Mountains, with an average of four people per square kilometer, however, the human population grew rapidly in the Rocky Mountain states between 1950 and 1990. The 40-year statewide increases in range from 35% in Montana to about 150% in Utah
15.
Southern Rocky Mountains
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The Southern Rockies include the highest mountain ranges of the Rocky Mountains and include all 30 of the highest major peaks of the Rockies. The Southern Rocky Mountains are generally divided from the Western Rocky Mountains by the Green River, the southern end of the Rocky Mountains are considered to be the Jemez Mountains and the Southern Sangre De Cristo mountains of New Mexico. Mountains south of here in N. M. are classified as the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains using the EPA Level III Ecoregions System. This article defines a significant summit as a summit with at least 100 meters of prominence. An ultra-prominent summit is a summit with at least 1500 meters of topographic prominence, all elevations in this article include an elevation adjustment from the National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 to the North American Vertical Datum of 1988. For further information, please see this United States National Geodetic Survey note, the following table lists the mountain ranges and subranges of the Southern Rocky Mountains with their highest summit. The following sortable table lists the 57 mountain peaks of the Southern Rocky Mountains with at least 4,000 meters of topographic elevation, the following sortable table lists progressively the easternmost Rocky Mountain summits of their respective elevation
16.
Sangre de Cristo Mountains
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The Sangre de Cristo Mountains are the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains. They are located in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico in the United States, the mountains run from Poncha Pass in South-Central Colorado, trending southeast and south, ending at Glorieta Pass, southeast of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The mountains contain a number of fourteen thousand foot peaks in the Colorado portion, the name of the mountains may refer to the occasional reddish hues observed during sunrise and sunset, and when alpenglow occurs, especially when the mountains are covered with snow. Although the particular origin of the name is unclear, it has been in use since the early 19th century, before that time the terms La Sierra Nevada, La Sierra Madre, La Sierra, and The Snowies were used. According to tradition, sangre de Cristo were the last words of a Catholic priest who was killed by Indians, sometimes the archaic Spanish spelling Christo is used. Much of the mountains are within various National Forests, the Rio Grande and San Isabel in Colorado, and these publicly accessible areas are popular for hunting, camping, hiking, mountain biking, backpacking, climbing, and cross-country and downhill skiing. The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve lies on the southwest side of the mountains in Colorado, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains are divided into various subranges, described here from north to south. They form a ridge separating the San Luis Valley on the west from the watershed of the Arkansas River on the east. The Crestones are a group of four 14, 000+ foot peaks in the Sangre de Cristo Range above Crestone, Colorado. The Spanish Peaks are a pair of mountains, West Spanish Peak,13,626 feet/4,153 m. The Spanish Peaks were designated a National Natural Landmark in 1976 as one of the best known examples of igneous dikes. The mountains can be seen as far north as Colorado Springs, as far west as Alamosa, points south to Raton, New Mexico, and points east to La Junta, Colorado. The Culebra Range runs almost due north and south, with its limit at La Veta Pass in Colorado. Its highest point is Culebra Peak, which is notable for being the only fourteener in Colorado which is on private land, climbers wishing to ascend Culebra must pay a fee, and the number of climbers per year is limited. Standing to the east of the main crest are the two prominent Spanish Peaks, unlike the rest of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, these are volcanic, with conical shapes and prominent dikes radiating outward. These peaks were important landmarks on the branch of the Santa Fe Trail. The Taos Mountains span the western lobe of the range from Costilla Creek in the north and they include the highest point in New Mexico, Wheeler Peak 13,161 feet, which is part of the small Wheeler Peak Wilderness. Other notable peaks include Pueblo Peak 12,305 feet, which rises dramatically above Taos Pueblo, williams Lake is located below Wheeler Peak in the Wheeler Peak Wilderness
17.
Geography of Colorado
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The geography of the state of Colorado is diverse, encompassing both rugged mountainous terrain, vast plains, desert lands, desert canyons, and mesas. The state of Colorado is defined as the rectangle that stretches from 37°N to 41°N latitude. Colorado is one of only three U. S. states that have lines of latitude and longitude for boundaries. The summit of Mount Elbert at 14,440 feet elevation in Lake County is the states highest point, Colorado has approximately 550 mountain peaks that exceed 4000 meters elevation. Colorado is the only U. S. state that lies entirely above 1000 meters elevation, the states lowest elevation is 3,317 feet at the point on the eastern boundary of Yuma County where the Arikaree River flows into the state of Kansas. To the east of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado are the Colorado Eastern Plains/High Plains, the Midwest states of Kansas and Nebraska border Colorado to the east and northeast. The plains are sparsely settled with most population along the South Platte, rainfall is meager, averaging about 15 inches annually. There is some irrigated farming, but much of the land is used for farming or ranching. Winter wheat is a crop and most small towns in the region boast both a water tower and a grain elevator. The bulk of Colorados population lives along the edge of the Rocky Mountains in the Front Range Urban Corridor. This region is protected from prevailing storms by the high mountains to the west. To the west lies the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains with notable peaks such as Longs Peak, Mount Evans, Pikes Peak, and this area drains to the east, is forested, and partially urbanized. With urbanization, utilization of the forest for timbering and grazing resulted in accumulation of fuel, during the drought of 2002 devastating forest fires swept this area. The Continental Divide stretches along the crest of the Rocky Mountains, to the west of the Continental Divide is the Western Slope. Water west of the Continental Divide drains west into the Pacific Ocean via the Colorado River, Western Colorado is made up of mountains, mesas, desert canyons, and desert lands. Within the interior of the Rocky Mountains are several large parks or high broad basins, in the north, on the east side of the Continental Divide is North Park. North Park is drained by the North Platte River, which flows north into the northwest state of Wyoming, just south but on the west side of the Continental Divide is Middle Park, drained by the Colorado River. South Park is the headwaters of the South Platte River, to the south lies the San Luis Valley, the headwaters of the Rio Grande, which drains into New Mexico
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Mountain ranges of Colorado
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The following table lists the major mountain ranges of the U. S. State of Colorado. All of these ranges are all subranges of the Rocky Mountains, topographic elevation is the vertical distance above the reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earths sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface. The topographic prominence of a summit is the difference between that summit and the highest or key col to a higher summit. The topographic isolation of a summit is the minimum distance to a point of equal elevation. All elevations in this include an elevation adjustment from the National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 to the North American Vertical Datum of 1988. For further information, please see this United States National Geodetic Survey note, if an elevation or prominence is calculated as a range of values, the arithmetic mean is shown. com Peakbagger. com Peaklist. org Peakware. com Summitpost. org
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Mountain peaks of Colorado
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This article comprises three sortable tables of major mountain peaks of the U. S. State of Colorado. The summit of a mountain or hill may be measured in three ways, The topographic elevation of a summit measures the height of the summit above a geodetic sea level. The first table ranks the 55 highest major summits of Colorado by elevation. The topographic prominence of a summit is a measure of how high the summit rises above its surroundings, the second table below ranks the 50 most prominent summits of Colorado. The topographic isolation of a summit measures how far the summit lies from its nearest point of equal elevation, the third table below ranks the 50 most isolated major summits of Colorado. Of the highest major summits of Colorado, the following 55 peaks exceed 4000 meters elevation and 117 peaks exceed 3000 meters elevation, of the most prominent summits of Colorado, only Mount Elbert exceeds 2000 meters of topographic prominence. Three peaks are ultra-prominent summits with more than 1500 meters of prominence and 14 peaks exceed 1000 meters of topographic prominence
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The Dallas Morning News
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The Dallas Morning News is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average of 271,900 daily subscribers. It was founded on October 1,1885, by Alfred Horatio Belo as a publication of the Galveston Daily News, of Galveston. Today it has one of the 20 largest paid circulations in the United States, the company has its headquarters in Downtown Dallas. The Dallas Morning News was founded in 1885 as a spin-off of the Galveston Daily News by Alfred Horatio Belo, in 1926, the Belo family sold a majority interest in the paper to its longtime publisher, George Dealey. In July 1986, the Times Herald was purchased by William Dean Singleton, after 18 months of efforts to turn the paper around, Singleton sold it to an associate. On 8 December 1991, Belo bought the Times Herald for $55 million, when Belos efforts to purchase the Herald failed, he sent George Bannerman Dealey to launch a new paper, the Morning News, which began publication on October 1,1885. From the outset the Morning News enjoyed the advantage of strong financial support and an accumulation of journalistic experience, and within a month. Historically, the Morning News has tilted conservative, mirroring Texas′ drift to the Republican Party, however, on September 7,2016 it endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, the first time it had endorsed a Democrat for president since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940. This came a day after it ran an editorial declaring Republican candidate Donald Trump not qualified to serve as president. It was the first time that the paper had refused to endorse a Republican since 1964, fresh Ink, Behind the Scenes of a Major Metropolitan Newspaper. Denton, Texas, University of North Texas Press, state of The American Newspaper, Giant. College Park, University of Maryland Foundation, official website Dallas Morning News from the Handbook of Texas Online Dallas Morning News Building Photos
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U.S. state
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A U. S. state is a constituent political entity of the United States of America. There are 50 states, which are together in a union with each other. Each state holds administrative jurisdiction over a geographic territory. Due to the shared sovereignty between each state and the government, Americans are citizens of both the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons covered by certain types of court orders. States range in population from just under 600,000 to over 39 million, four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names. States are divided into counties or county-equivalents, which may be assigned some local authority but are not sovereign. County or county-equivalent structure varies widely by state, State governments are allocated power by the people through their individual constitutions. All are grounded in principles, and each provides for a government. States possess a number of powers and rights under the United States Constitution, Constitution has been amended, and the interpretation and application of its provisions have changed. The general tendency has been toward centralization and incorporation, with the government playing a much larger role than it once did. There is a debate over states rights, which concerns the extent and nature of the states powers and sovereignty in relation to the federal government. States and their residents are represented in the federal Congress, a legislature consisting of the Senate. Each state is represented in the Senate by two senators, and is guaranteed at least one Representative in the House, members of the House are elected from single-member districts. Representatives are distributed among the states in proportion to the most recent constitutionally mandated decennial census, the Constitution grants to Congress the authority to admit new states into the Union. Since the establishment of the United States in 1776, the number of states has expanded from the original 13 to 50, alaska and Hawaii are the most recent states admitted, both in 1959. The Constitution is silent on the question of states have the power to secede from the Union. Shortly after the Civil War, the U. S. Supreme Court, in Texas v. White, as a result, while the governments of the various states share many similar features, they often vary greatly with regard to form and substance
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Denver
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Denver, officially the City and County of Denver, is the capital and most populous municipality of the U. S. state of Colorado. Denver is in the South Platte River Valley on the edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The Denver downtown district is immediately east of the confluence of Cherry Creek with the South Platte River, Denver is nicknamed the Mile-High City because its official elevation is exactly one mile above sea level, making it the highest major city in the United States. The 105th meridian west of Greenwich, the reference for the Mountain Time Zone. Denver is ranked as a Beta- world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. With a 2015 estimated population of 682,545, Denver ranks as the 19th-most populous U. S. city, and with a 2. 8% increase in 2015, the city is also the fastest-growing major city in the United States. The 10-county Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area had an estimated 2015 population of 2,814,330 and ranked as the 19th most populous U. S. metropolitan statistical area. The 12-city Denver-Aurora, CO Combined Statistical Area had an estimated 2015 population of 3,418,876, which ranks as the 16th most populous U. S. metropolitan area. Denver is the most populous city of the 18-county Front Range Urban Corridor, Denver is the most populous city within a 500-mile radius and the second-most populous city in the Mountain West after Phoenix, Arizona. In 2016, Denver was named the best place to live in the USA by U. S. News & World Report and this was the first historical settlement in what was later to become the city of Denver. The site faded quickly, however, and by the summer of 1859 it was abandoned in favor of Auraria, Larimer named the townsite Denver City to curry favor with Kansas Territorial Governor James W. Denver. Larimer hoped the name would help make it the county seat of Arapaho County but, unbeknownst to him. The location was accessible to existing trails and was across the South Platte River from the site of seasonal encampments of the Cheyenne, the site of these first towns is now the site of Confluence Park near downtown Denver. Larimer, along with associates in the St. Charles City Land Company, sold parcels in the town to merchants and miners, Denver City was a frontier town, with an economy based on servicing local miners with gambling, saloons, livestock and goods trading. In the early years, land parcels were often traded for grubstakes or gambled away by miners in Auraria, in May 1859, Denver City residents donated 53 lots to the Leavenworth & Pikes Peak Express in order to secure the regions first overland wagon route. Offering daily service for passengers, mail, freight, and gold, in 1863, Western Union furthered Denvers dominance of the region by choosing the city for its regional terminus. The Colorado Territory was created on February 28,1861, Arapahoe County was formed on November 1,1861, Denver City served as the Arapahoe County Seat from 1861 until consolidation in 1902. In 1867, Denver City became the territorial capital, with its newfound importance, Denver City shortened its name to Denver
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Elections in Colorado
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A political organization is a political party when its candidate for governor receives at least 10 percent of the vote in the latest general election. Party members choose their partys nominees for the election in a primary election. To be designated to contest the partys nomination at a primary election, party members also elect the county central committee members at the primary election. Colorado uses a primary system. There are three aspects of party organization, the committee system, the designating assembly system. The committee system runs the party, the designating assembly system designates candidates to be elected as party nominees for public office. The major purpose of the system is to ultimately select delegates to the national convention. The systems operate with respect to public offices for the state, counties, US congressional districts, state senatorial districts, state representative districts, a precinct caucus is held in each precinct by each political party, where party members elect delegates to the county assembly. The county assembly chooses candidates to contest the election for county elected offices and elects members of the state assembly. The partys state assembly governs the party when it is in session, the precinct caucus also elects delegates to the county convention. The county conventions elect delegates for the convention and district conventions. The state convention members to the partys national committee, nominates electors to the US Electoral College. The precinct caucus also nominates candidates for the county committee, composed of precinct committeeman. The county central committee runs the party within the county, through a chairman who is assisted by an executive committee in larger counties. The county central committee chairman also compose the state central committee along with additional members, the district committees are also composed of the county central committee chairman. The state central committees also have a chairman and a state executive committee. The state central committee governs the party when the state assembly is not in session
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Government of Colorado
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The Government of Colorado is the governmental structure as established by the Constitution of the State of Colorado. The constitution also allows participation of the electorate by initiative, referendum, recall. The statewide elected officers are, The Lieutenant Governor is elected on a ticket with the Governor, all statewide elected officers serve four-year terms. As a result, the Governor does not have direct management authority over either the Department of Education or any of the institutions of higher education. The legislative body of Colorado is the Colorado General Assembly made up of two houses, the House of Representatives and the Colorado Senate, members of the House are elected for two year terms from single-member, equal population districts. Approximately half of the members of the senate are elected each two years to four year terms from single-member, equal population districts. The House of Representatives has 65 members and the Senate has 35 for a total of 100 legislators in Colorado, the session laws are published in the Session Laws of Colorado. The laws of a general and permanent nature are codified in the Colorado Revised Statutes, the judiciary of Colorado is defined by Article VI of the Colorado Constitution as well as the law of Colorado. The administration of the judicial system is the responsibility of the Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court as its executive head. Colorado courts include the, Colorado Supreme Court, Colorado Court of Appeals, Colorado district courts, Colorado county courts, Colorado water courts, all of the courts above, other than municipal courts and Denvers county court, are part of the state court system. Outside Denver, these matters are within the jurisdiction of the district courts, most crimes in Colorado are prosecuted by a district attorney. One district attorney is elected for each of the states 22 judicial districts in a partisan election, the state attorney general also has power to prosecute certain crimes, and in rare circumstances a special prosecutor may be appointed to prosecute a crime on a case by case basis. Municipal ordinance violations are prosecuted by city attorneys, Colorado is divided into 64 counties. Counties are important units of government in Colorado since the state has no secondary civil subdivisions, two of these counties, the City and County of Denver and the City and County of Broomfield, have consolidated city and county governments. A municipality may extend into multiple counties, Colorado law makes a few distinctions between a city and a town. gov Colorado Information Marketplace
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History of Colorado
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This article covers Colorados historic period, when events were recorded. For Colorados prehistoric history, go to Prehistory of Colorado, the human history of Colorado extends back more than 13,000 years. The region that is today the state of Colorado was first inhabited by Native Americans, the Lindenmeier Site in Larimer County, Colorado, is a Folsom culture archaeological site with artifacts dating from approximately 8710 BCE. When explorers, early trappers and hunters and gold miners visited and settled in Colorado, in the early days of the Colorado gold rush, Colorado was a Territory of Kansas and Territory of Jefferson. On August 1,1876, Colorado was admitted as a state, Arapaho Nation — An Algonquian-speaking nation that migrated westward to the base of the Rocky Mountains in the late 19th century and settled on the piedmont and the eastern plains. They were relocated out of Colorado in 1865 following the Colorado War. Cheyenne Nation — An Algonquian-speaking nation very closely related to the Arapaho, like the Arapaho, they migrated westward in the 18th century to the base of the Rockies. They often lived in bands interspersed among the Arapaho, and were relocated out of Colorado in the 1860s. Comanche Nation — A Numic-speaking nation that lived on the High Plains of southeastern Colorado, closely related to the Shoshone, they acquired the horse from the Spaniards and roamed the southern Great Plains. The Comanche were removed to Indian territory, Shoshone Nation — A Numic-speaking nation that inhabited intermountain valleys along the north edge of the state, especially in the Yampa River valley, up through the late 19th century. Areas included North Park and Browns Park, Ute Nation — A Numic-speaking nation that has lived in the Southern and the Western Rocky Mountains for many centuries. Their leaders were Chief Ouray and his wife Chipeta and they often clashed with the Arapaho and Cheyenne, and resisted the encroachment of these nations into the mountains. Until the 1880s, the Ute controlled nearly all of Colorado west of the continental divide, after clashing with white settlers in the 1880s in the Meeker Massacre, they were nearly entirely relocated out of the state into Utah, except for two small reservations in southwestern Colorado. The first Europeans to visit the region were Spanish conquistadors, Juan de Oñate who lived until 1626, founded what would become the Spanish province of Santa Fé de Nuevo México among the pueblos of the Rio Grande on July 11,1598. In 1706 Juan de Ulibarri claimed the territory of Colorado, in 1787 Juan Bautista de Anza established the settlement of San Carlos near present-day Pueblo, Colorado, but it quickly failed. This was the only Spanish attempt to create a settlement north of the Arkansas River, Colorado became part of the Spanish province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México as part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The Spaniards traded with Native Americans who lived there and established the Comercio Comanchero among the Spanish settlements, in 1803 the United States acquired a territorial claim to the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains by the Louisiana Purchase from France. However, the conflicted with Spains claim to sovereignty over the territory
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Law of Colorado
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The law of Colorado consists of several levels, including constitutional, statutory, regulatory, local, and case law. The Colorado Revised Statutes form the general statutory law, the Constitution of Colorado is the foremost source of state law. Legislation is enacted by the Colorado General Assembly, published in the Session Laws of Colorado, state agencies promulgate regulations in the Colorado Register, which are in turn codified in the Code of Colorado Regulations. Counties and municipalities may also promulgate local ordinances, in addition, there are also several sources of persuasive authority, which are not binding authority but are useful to lawyers and judges insofar as they help to clarify the current state of the law. The foremost source of law is the Constitution of Colorado. The Colorado Constitution in turn is only to the Constitution of the United States. Pursuant to the constitution, the Colorado General Assembly has enacted various laws. These in turn have been codified in the Colorado Revised Statutes, colorados legal system is based on a political party common law. Like all U. S. states except Louisiana, Colorado has a statute providing for the reception of English law. All statutes, regulations, and ordinances are subject to judicial review, pursuant to common law tradition, the courts of Colorado have developed a large body of case law through the decisions of the Colorado Supreme Court and the Colorado Court of Appeals. The Colorado Reporter is a reporter for appellate decisions from 1883. Colorado is divided into 64 counties, as well as some 271 active incorporated municipalities, including 196 towns,73 cities, all such ordinances of a general or permanent nature and those imposing any fine, penalty, or forfeiture must be published
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Colorado State Public Defender
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The Office of the Colorado State Public Defender provides legal assistance to individuals charged with a crime in Colorado state court who are financially unable to retain private counsel. The office consists of 21 regional trial offices, a centralized appellate office that handles appeals from every jurisdiction, in 1963, after Gideon v. Wainwright, the Colorado General Assembly passed the Colorado Defender Act. Four county public offices were established under the Act, Denver, Brighton, Pueblo. In 1970, the State Legislature passed Senate Bill 126, which created the Office of the State Public Defender as an independent state agency, initially, the Colorado Supreme Court appointed the Colorado State Public Defender. Rollie R. Rogers was the first State Public Defender and he served from October 1969 through February 1978. On August 1,1982, David F. Vela was appointed State Public Defender and he fulfilled the responsibilities of the office for more than 17 years, David S. Kaplan became the State Public Defender and served from January 1,2000 until October 31,2006. Upon his resignation, Douglas K. Wilson was appointed the 6th State Public Defender, robert E. Allen Michael L. Bender John L. Kane Jr. Claire Levy Larry Pozner Nancy E. Rice
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Paleontology in Colorado
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Paleontology in Colorado refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U. S. state of Colorado. The geologic column of Colorado spans about one third of Earths history, Fossils can be found almost everywhere in the state but are not evenly distributed among all the ages of the states rocks. During the early Paleozoic, Colorado was covered by a shallow sea that would come to be home to creatures like brachiopods, conodonts, ostracoderms, sharks. This sea withdrew from the state between the Silurian and early Devonian leaving a gap in the rock record. Areas of the state not submerged were richly vegetated and inhabited by amphibians who left behind footprints that would later fossilize, during the Permian the sea withdrew and alluvial fans and sand dunes spread across the state. Many trace fossils are known from these deposits, the sea returned during the Triassic, while exposed areas were a richly vegetated coastal plain that was home to dinosaurs. Colorado was again submerged by a sea during the Cretaceous period that was home to plesiosaurs up to 70 feet long, during the early part of the Cenozoic era, rainforests grew in Colorado. Later, another rich flora and fauna would come to be preserved in the Florissant beds, more recently the states modern prairies began to form and the state was home to creatures like bison, camels, horses, and mammoths. Local Native Americans have devised myths to explain local fossil bones, by the late 19th century, local fossils had attracted the attention of formally trainer scientists. Major finds include the Late Jurassic dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation, the Jurassic plated dinosaur Stegosaurus armatus is the Colorado state fossil. Stegosaurus is also the state dinosaur of Colorado, no Precambrian fossils are known from Colorado, so the states fossil record does not begin until the Paleozoic. At the start of the Paleozoic, Colorado was located near the equator, the state was submerged under a warm shallow sea. At least part of Colorado was covered by water during the Middle Ordovician. At the time, Colorado was home to invertebrates like articulated brachiopods, conodonts, gastropods, ostracods, pelecypods, sponges, trilobites, contemporary vertebrates included armored jawless fish called ostracoderms. Sometime between the Silurian and early Devonian the sea withdrew from the state, while the sea was gone local sediments were eroded away rather than deposited. During the Carboniferous the absent sea returned, although areas of the state remained dry land. Brachiopods, crinoids, sharks, and trilobites inhabited the sea, a rich variety of plants grew in Colorados terrestrial environments. Examples include Calamites, conifers, and lycopods, Mountain ranges were being raised in the western part of the state by geologic forces
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Transportation in Colorado
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Colorados transportation network consists of a network of highway, surface street, rail, and air transportation options. While the public system in Denver is much more complex and developed than other parts of the state, tourism. Colorado is a state, so ground and air transportation are the primary focus of the state. Also, due to low population density outside of the Denver and Colorado Springs metropolitan areas, the main north–south route in Colorado is Interstate 25. The I-25 corridor follows the front range of the Colorado Rockies and connects Denver, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Fort Collins, Greeley, Trinidad, I-70 crosses Colorado from west to east and is a primary viaduct for tourists and locals to visit mountain communities. Due to winter conditions, sections of I-70 are regularly closed during the winter and are expensive to maintain. Interstates I-225 and I-270 provide connection through heavy traffic corridors in the Denver Area, i-76 connects the Denver area with I-80 in Nebraska to the northeast. In 2011, Colorado ranked among the five deadliest states for debris/litter–caused vehicle accidents per total number of registered vehicles, in the United States, including Colorado, most civil aviation incidents are investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board, as well as the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Colorado maintains state highways for high-volume travel routes that do not qualify for federal funding, denvers Regional Transportation District, known locally as RTD, is the largest public transportation system in Colorado. The RTD system provides bus and light rail services in the majority of the Denver-Aurora-Boulder Combined Statistical Area. Through its FasTracks initiative, RTD is working to build light rail. Other transportation services exist throughout the state, some systems, such as in Colorado Springs, focus on the local area. Other systems, such as found on the Western Slope connecting Glenwood Springs, Aspen. Denver and Colorado Springs are serviced by the FREX regional bus, Fort Collins, Loveland, Berthoud, and Longmont are serviced by the FLEX regional bus. Denver International Airport handles the majority of air traffic in Colorado and is the fifth busiest airport in the world, Colorado Springs Airport also handles commercial flights and offers service to national destinations. The majority of airports in the state handle on regional or private aviation needs. Centennial Airport, located in Arapahoe County, is one of the busiest general aviation airports in the country, due to Colorados population growth, many highways are in need of expansion. Project proposals include expanding US36, I-70, and completing the Colorado State Highway 470 loop by building a highway between Golden and Boulder to replace Colorado State Highway 93
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Seal of Colorado
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The Seal of the State of Colorado is an adaptation of the Territorial Seal which was adopted by the First Territorial Assembly on November 6,1861. The only changes made in the Territorial Seal design being the substitution of the words, State of Colorado, the first General Assembly of the State of Colorado approved the adoption of the state seal on March 15,1877. The Colorado Secretary of State alone is authorized to affix the Great Seal of Colorado to any document whatsoever. Below the eye is a scroll, the Roman fasces, a bundle of birch or elm rods with a battle ax bound together with a ribbon of red, white and blue with the words, Union and Constitution. The bundle of rods bound together symbolizes strength which is lacking in the single rod, the axe symbolizes authority and leadership. Below the scroll is the shield bearing across the top a red sky behind three snow-capped mountains and clouds above them. The lower half of the shield has two tools, the pick and sledge hammer, crossed on a golden ground. There is also evidence that Territorial Governor William Gilpin also was at least partially responsible for the design, both Weld and Gilpin were knowledgeable in the art and symbolism of heraldry. Elements of design from both the Weld and Gilpin families’ coats of arms are incorporated in the Territorial Seal, Nil sine numine is the state motto of Colorado. The Latin phrase appears to be an adaptation from Virgils Aeneid where in Book II, others say it is Nothing without God. Merriam Websters translates it as Nothing without the divine will, in the early mining days of the State, the unregenerate said it meant nothing without a new mine. The word numen means any divinity, god or goddess, or divine spirit, the motto appeared when Colorados first Territorial Governor William Gilpin asked the Secretary of the Territory L. C. Weld for a motto for the state seal. According to the story, Weld said, Well, Governor, Gilpin is said to have paused in thought for a moment and then responded Nil Sine Numine. On November 6,1861 by Joint Resolution the First Territorial Assembly adopted the motto with the territorial seal, list of Colorado state symbols Flag of Colorado Seal of the State of Colorado
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Economy of Colorado
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The economy of the US state of Colorado according to The Bureau of Economic Analysis gross state product estimates for 2008 was $248.6 billion. The Colorado economy ranked 20th largest in the United States in 2008, per capita personal income in 2003 was $34,561, putting Colorado 8th in the nation. The states economy broadened from its mid-19th century roots in mining when irrigated agriculture developed, early industry was based on the extraction and processing of minerals and agricultural products. Current agricultural products are cattle, wheat, marijuana, dairy products, corn, in the second half of the 20th century, the industrial and service sectors have expanded greatly. The states economy is diversified and is notable for its concentration of scientific research, other industries include food processing, transportation equipment, machinery, chemical products, minerals such as gold and molybdenum, and tourism. Denver is an important financial center, as of August 2013, Colorado had 53,800 nonmilitary federal employees, which made of 2.3 percent of the state’s total nonfarm employment, slightly above the national average of 2.0 percent. In addition, there were 37,285 active military in Colorado, before Colorado was a state, it was a federal prison territory. There is also a significant amount of lands in the state, including 11 National Forests. There are also private companies that have operations in Colorado that deal with the governmental agencies in states. The Colorado income tax rate is a flat 4.63 percent of taxable income regardless of income level. Colorados state sales tax is 2.9 percent on retail sales, full-year Colorado residents can claim an excess sales tax refund on their individual state income tax return. Many counties and cities charge their own rates in addition to the state rate. There are also certain county and special taxes that may apply. The states senior property tax exemption was temporarily suspended by the Colorado Legislature in 2003, the tax break is scheduled to return for assessment year 2006, payable in 2007. Denvers economy, is based largely on its geographic position, the Denver metropolitan area is the largest in the area. Denver is the location of federal, high-tech, educational, commercial, financial, cultural, tourist, storage, the city is also home to several large corporations in the central United States. Many federal agencies are based or have offices in the Denver area, in addition to federal agencies, there are many companies based on federal defense and space projects. Lockheed-Martin and Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. are examples, being the capital of the state of Colorado also gives many state jobs to Denver
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Politics of Colorado
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Colorado has elected 17 Democrats and 12 Republicans to the governorship in the last 100 years. The people of the state of Colorado are also represented in the government of the United States by two United States Senators and seven Congressional Representatives. Of Colorados seven members of the United States House of Representatives, four are Republicans, the Senators were Michael Farrand Bennet and Cory Gardner. The Representatives were Diana Louise DeGette, Jared Schutz Polis, Scott Tipton, Ken Buck, Douglas L. Doug Lamborn, Michael Mike Coffman, until the election of Barack Obama, the people of Colorado had voted Republican in every U. S. Presidential Election since 1964, with the exception of 1992 when a plurality voted for Bill Clinton, Conversely, Colorado has a history of voter initiatives which severely restrict the power of state government. Some of these initiatives include Term Limits on legislators, Taxpayer Bill of Rights, and Amendment 23, passed in 2000, voters passed Referendum C in 2005, amending some restrictions of TABOR and Amendment 23. Colorado supported George W. Bush in both 2000 and 2004, Republicans have generally held control of statewide offices and the state legislature since the 1960s. In 2010, however, Republicans made big gains in the state and they won the statewide races of Attorney General, Secretary of State and Treasurer. Republicans also defeated two incumbent Democratic House members to hold a 4-3 majority in the states House delegation, furthermore, Republicans took control of the Colorado House of Representatives. This occurred even as Democrat John Hickenlooper won the governorship, albeit over weak and divided opposition, however, the Democrats regained the Colorado House by a large margin during the 2012 election. Colorado was a state in the 2008 U. S. Presidential Election between Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama, Obama won Colorado, by a margin of 8%, with 53% of the vote to McCains 45%. Currently, the Assembly is split with Democrats controlling the House, the 64th Colorado General Assembly was the first to be controlled by the Democrats in forty years, as the Republican Party traditionally held control of the state government. Colorado now being a state has seen increased competitiveness and consequently. The current Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives is Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, the Colorado Senate is the upper house of the Colorado General Assembly, composed of 35 seats of approximately 143,000 people each. Senators are constitutionally limited to two consecutive four-year terms, the Senate is currently composed of 18 Republicans and 17 Democrats, and is led by President of the Senate, Bill Cadman, Majority Leader Mark Scheffel, and Minority Leader Morgan Carroll. 18 seats are up for election in 2016, the Colorado House of Representatives is the lower house of the Colorado General Assembly, composed of 65 seats of approximately 77,000 people each. Representatives are constitutionally limited to four consecutive two-year terms, the House is currently composed of 34 Democrats and 31 Republicans, and is led by Speaker of the House Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, Majority Leader Crisanta Duran, and Minority Leader Brian DelGrosso
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Sports in Colorado
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Sports in Colorado include professional teams, college sports, and individual sports. Colorado is the least populous state with a franchise in each of the professional sports leagues. The state is able to support the teams because it contains a large area with a higher population than any other city within 550 miles. Therefore, many of the residents in the states support the teams in Denver. Colorado is home to five NCAA Division I schools, plus a number of schools competing at lower levels. One school that competes at the lowest NCAA level, Division III, the Unser family includes Al Unser, Al Unser Jr. Bobby Unser, Robby Unser and Louis Unser, and have won the Indianapolis 500 among other motorsports events, the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is a major motorsports event held at the Pikes Peak roads. Notable drivers include Mario Andretti, Michèle Mouton, Walter Röhrl, Ari Vatanen, Nobuhiro Tajima, Stig Blomqvist, Sébastien Loeb, the Cherry Hills Country Club has hosted professional golf tournaments such as the U. S. Open, U. S. Senior Open, U. S. Womens Open and PGA Championship
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Denver metropolitan area
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Denver is the central city of a conurbation region in the U. S. state of Colorado. The conurbation includes one continuous region consisting of the six counties of Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas. The Denver region is part of the Front Range Urban Corridor, the continuously urbanized area extends northwest into the City and County of Broomfield, bordering Jefferson and Adams counties, and south into Douglas County, adjoining Arapahoe County. Also included in the federally defined MSA are four counties, Elbert County on the southeastern prairie and Clear Creek, Gilpin. The Denver-Aurora-Lakewood Metropolitan Statistical Area comprises ten counties, in 2005 the RTD developed a twelve-year comprehensive plan, called FasTracks, to build and operate rail transit lines and expand and improve bus service throughout the region. Electricity is provided by Xcel Energy, cable television is provided by Comcast. Severity of pollution in this area has varied enormously over the years, in the late 1980s the area was frequently in violation of multiple National Ambient Air Quality Standards established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The Regional Air Quality Council was formed in 1989 to create plans to address the problem, through a variety of measures the areas air quality was improved and in 2002 the EPA designated the area in compliance with all federal health-based air quality standards. Denver was the first major city in the United States to reach compliance with all six of these standards after previously violating five of them, since then the EPA introduced a new standard for small particulates and made the existing ozone standard stricter. In 2003 the new standard was frequently exceeded in the area and was occasionally exceeded as far away as Rocky Mountain National Park. The RAQC hopes to implement plans enabling the area to comply with the new standards by 2007. S
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Eastern Plains
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The Eastern Plains of Colorado refers to a region of the U. S. state of Colorado east of the Rocky Mountains and east of the population centers of the Front Range. The Eastern Plains are part of the High Plains, which are the westernmost portion of the Great Plains, the region is characterized by mostly rolling plains, divided by the South Platte River and Arkansas River valleys. There are also several deciduous forests, canyons, buttes, the Eastern Plains rise from approximately 3,400 feet at the eastern border of Colorado with Kansas, where the Arkansas River leaves the state, to 7,500 feet east of the Denver Basin. Most of the Eastern Plains region lies within Colorados 4th congressional district, the Eastern Plains have a semi-arid climate and receive little rainfall. Much of the area relies on irrigation to survive, summers are typically hot and dry, often bringing thunderstorms, which are often severe, to the area, with some occasionally forming landspouts and tornadoes. Eastern Colorado winters are cold and dry, with significant snowfalls, temperatures can sometimes fall to -40 to -30 degrees Fahrenheit in extreme cold waves, although this is rare. Eastern Colorado was once home to many Native American tribes, the Plains Indians that lived in the region included the Arapahoe, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Pawnee, and Sioux. The Ute people formally ruled all over central and western Colorado, the Comanche once ruled all over southeastern Colorado, and the Jicarilla Apache ruled in southeastern Colorado as well. In 1541, the Spanish came to the now known as the south eastern portion of Colorado. Not having found any gold, the Spanish largely left the area untouched, during the late 17th and 18th century Spain and France claimed southeastern Colorado. In 1803 the United States gained possession of the land east of Rocky Mountains with the Louisiana Purchase, Pike was sent by the federal government to lay out the boundary lines of territory in 1806. This expedition investigated the area now known as Colorado Springs, the prominent mountain in the area was named Pikes Peak after Pike, the leading commander of the exploration. There were multiple expeditions sent to lay out and explore the territory throughout the early 1800s and this created multiple trading posts with fur trades attracting many backcountry adventurers. There was still no permanent settlement created until after the conclusion of the Mexican War in 1848, San Luis was founded on the Culebra River in 1851. Spanish-speaking settlers who had moved north from New Mexico founded it, San Luis was shortly followed by settlements of San Pedro, San Acacio and Guadalupe. The Eastern Colorado plains are among the most sparsely populated areas in the continental United States, the Dust Bowl devastated the region and further accelerated this outmigration. Kiowa County demonstrates the population decline and its associated effects, both the Pawnee National Grasslands and Comanche National Grasslands are located in the Eastern Plains. They are composed of marginal farmlands that were withdrawn from agriculture, Eastern Colorado is largely farmland, with many small farming communities
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Front Range Urban Corridor
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The corridor derives its name from the Front Range, the mountain range that defines the west central boundary of the corridor. The Front Range Urban Corridor had an population of 4,757,713 on July 1,2015. The corridor comprises three primary subregions, the South Central Colorado Urban Area, the North Central Colorado Urban Area, the influence of the Corridor extends well beyond its defined boundaries. The Colorado Eastern Plains, Nebraska Panhandle and Albany County, Wyoming, among other areas, are culturally and economically tied to the Corridor, the definition included here is not used for the greater Front Range Megaregion, one of the 11 megaregions of the United States. The table below includes the information, The urban region. The Core Based Statistical Area as designated by the United States Office of Management, the CBSA population as of July 1,2015, as estimated by the United States Census Bureau. The county population as of July 1,2015, as estimated by the United States Census Bureau, the county population as of April 1,2010, as enumerated by the 2010 United States Census. The percent county population change from April 1,2010, to July 1,2015. In the State of Wyoming, the Front Range Urban Corridor includes the Town of Albin, the Town of Burns, the City of Cheyenne, the Town of Pine Bluffs, and unincorporated Laramie County. S. S
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Grand Valley (Colorado-Utah)
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The Grand Valley is an extended populated valley, approximately 30 miles long and 5 miles wide, located along the Colorado River in Mesa County, Colorado and Grand County, Utah in the United States. The valley contains the city of Grand Junction, as well as smaller communities such as Fruita. The valley is noted as a fruit growing region, with a large number of orchards. It takes its name from the Grand River, the name of the Colorado River upstream from its confluence with the Green River that was used by locals in the late 19th. Interstate 70 and U. S. Highway 6 run through the valley from west-to-east, the Grand Valley is part of the larger Colorado Plateau desert lands. The valley begins where the Colorado River widens at the mouth of De Beque Canyon to the east of Palisade, the Colorado receives the Gunnison River, one of its major tributaries, just south of Grand Junction near the midpoint of the valley. The valley is surrounded by large formations, including the Bookcliffs along the north side, the Grand Mesa along the southeast side. Colorado National Monument sits on a ridge on the southwest side of the valley west of Grand Junction, much of the surrounding table land areas rimming the valley are public lands controlled by the Bureau of Land Management. The valley was an area occupied by the Ute people. White settlers began to arrive in the 1880s, farming the valley for a variety of grains, in the 1890s, it was discovered that sugar beets grown in the valley had a high sugar content, leading to widespread cultivation of that crop. At the turn of the 20th century, evaporation techniques allowed fruit growers to ship their products more efficiently to distant markets, in 1918, the Government_Highline_Canal was completed to provide water to cultivate 50,000 acres in the valley. The project included a dam in De Beque Canyon, the largest of three such dams of this type in the nation. According to local legend, the valley was cursed by the native Utes upon their forced exodus to federal reservation grounds in Utah, the sand is supposed to alleviate the curses effects of a supernatural and metaphysical attraction by the valleys soil to the native individual. Of course, this is a myth and cannot be confirmed, however, many exiting locals, native and non-native alike, prefer not to take their chances with the alleged curse and keep the sand long after emigrating from the valley
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High Plains (United States)
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The southern region of the Western High Plains ecology region contains the geological formation known as Llano Estacado which can be seen from a short distance or from miles away on satellite maps. From east to west, the High Plains rise in elevation from around 1,160 feet to over 7,800 feet. The term Great Plains, for the region west of about the 96th or 98th meridian, nevin Fennemans 1916 study, Physiographic Subdivision of the United States, brought the term Great Plains into more widespread usage. Prior to 1916, the region was almost invariably called the High Plains, today the term High Plains is usually used for a subregion instead of the whole of the Great Plains. The High Plains has a cold semi-arid climate—Köppen BSk—receiving between 10–20 inches of precipitation annually, due to low moisture and high elevation, the High Plains commonly experiences wide ranges and extremes in temperature. This is the record for the greatest temperature change in 24 hours. The region is known for the steady, and sometimes intense, the winds add a considerable wind chill factor in the winter. The development of farms in the High Plains is one of the newest areas of economic development. The High Plains are anomalously high in elevation, an explanation has recently been proposed to explain this high elevation. As the Farallon plate was subducted into the mantle beneath the region, within the crust this water caused the hydration of dense garnet and other phases into lower density amphibole and mica minerals. The resulting increase in crustal volume raised the elevation about one mile, plants endemic to the region are shortgrass prairie, prickly pear cacti and scrub. Agriculture in the forms of ranching and the growing of wheat, corn. Some areas of the High Plains have significant petroleum and natural gas deposits, the combination of oil, natural gas, and wind energy along with plentiful underground water, has allowed some areas to sustain a range of economic activity, including occasional industry. For example, the ASARCO refinery in Amarillo, Texas has been in operation since 1924 due to the plentiful and inexpensive natural gas and water that are needed in metal ore refining. The High Plains has one of the lowest population densities of any region in the continental United States, Wyoming, smaller towns, on the other hand, often struggle to sustain their population. High Plains Regional Climate Center High Plains climatological resources High Plains information - U. S. Department of the Interior Trains on the High Plains Texas counties map showing the ecoregion
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Northern Colorado
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Northern Colorado is the name for a region in the state of Colorado and a proposed state in the northeastern portion of Colorado. Northern Colorado is a region in the portion of Colorado. It borders northwestern Colorado, northeastern Colorado, the portion of Central Colorado, western and southwestern portions of Nebraska. Northern Colorado receives over 300 days of sunshine per year and has a Semi-arid climate, however, the parts located in upper elevations of the Rocky Mountains receive 300 inches of snow per year and have an Alpine climate. The University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado State University, and the University of Northern Colorado are all located in Northern Colorado. S, State which would consist of several counties in the northeast portion of Colorado and possible counties from Nebraska and Kansas. A County Commissioner of Weld County stated his belief that the county sends more oil and gas revenue to the state than it receives back for schools, roads, and other services. In 2013 the Democratic-controlled Colorado General Assembly passed tighter gun laws, higher renewable energy reliance laws. A higher environmental standard oil and gas law was narrowly defeated. During the debates over these laws, talk of secession began in the Eastern Plains area, at a meeting of the states county commissioners in early June, a State House leader indicated that they would attempt to pass the oil environmental standards law again. Along with Weld County, several counties were invited to or interested in being involved with this proposal, Morgan, Logan, Sedgwick, Phillips, Washington, Yuma. Also interested in joining the new state are parts of Nebraska, colorados Eastern Plain counties all may possibly be involved in the split, but Larimer County Commissioners indicated that their county would not likely approve of a split. On July 8,2013 a meeting of representatives from 10 counties was held in Akron, the news media reported that some people in Lincoln and Cheyenne counties wish to join in forming the state. Additionally, the organizers reported that three other Colorado and two Kansas counties also wish to join in forming the state, the county commissioners involved discussed an alternative plan if breaking away is not feasible. Cheyenne County – outside of the proposed area – became the first county to refer the measure to the people on July 23,2013. A total of eleven counties placed the measure on the November 5,2013, voters in Cheyenne, Kit Carson, Phillips, Washington, and Yuma counties approved the measure. Initial invited county 51st State Initiative - secession campaign group
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Colorado Piedmont
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The Colorado Piedmont is an area along the base of the foothills of the Front Range in north central Colorado in the United States. The region includes much of the populated and cultivated area of Colorado, the name Colorado Piedmont also refers to the physiographic section of the Great Plains province. The Colorado Piedmont elevation is lower than the foothills, but is slightly lower elevation than the High Plains to the east. This uplift resulted in increased streamflow and rapid erosion on the side of the Rocky Mountains. It was during this time that the South Platte River, which had previously flowed eastward across the Plains, the drop off from the Plains to the Piedmont is noticeable to motorists driving southward from Cheyenne, Wyoming on Interstate 25. The transition from High Plains to Piedmont is likewise accompanied by a change in agriculture, in the 19th century, the Piedmont region was inhabited primarily by the Southern Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes. From the earliest time of settlement in the middle 19th century. The region was not widely settled in the early Colorado Territory, the use of irrigation in the Piedmont starting in the 1860s led to widespread homesteading and cultivation of wheat and sugar beets, as well as cattle and sheep ranching. Much of the water in the Piedmont comes from shallow wells that tap the layers of Pleistocene gravel. Water diversion projects, locally from the Cache la Poudre and other rivers, as well as the Colorado-Big Thompson Project, roadside Geology of Colorado, Halka, Chronic, Mountain Press Publishing,1980
