1.
Weld County, Colorado
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Weld County is one of the 64 counties of the U. S. state of Colorado. As of the 2010 census, the population was 252,825, Weld County comprises the Greeley, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Denver-Aurora, CO Combined Statistical Area. On May 30,1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act created the Nebraska Territory, present-day Weld County, Colorado, lay in the southwestern portion of the Nebraska Territory, bordering the Kansas Territory. In July 1858, gold was discovered along the South Platte River in Arapahoe County and this discovery precipitated the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. Many residents of the region felt disconnected from the remote territorial governments of Kansas and Nebraska. The following month, the Jefferson Territorial Legislature organized 12 counties for the new territory, St. Vrain County was named in honor of Ceran de Hault de Lassus de St. Vrain, the French trader who established the first trading post on the upper South Platte River. St. Vrain County encompassed much of what is today Weld County, the Jefferson Territory never received federal sanction, but on February 28,1861, U. S. President James Buchanan signed an act organizing the Territory of Colorado. On November 1,1861, the Colorado General Assembly organized 17 counties, including Weld County, Weld County was named for Lewis Ledyard Weld, a lawyer and territorial secretary. He died while serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, until February 9,1887, Weld Countys boundaries included the area now comprising Weld County, Washington County, Logan County, Morgan County, Yuma County, Phillips County, and Sedgwick County. Graham was tried and convicted of the crime, and executed in 1957, in northeastern Weld County, Minuteman III missile silo N-8, one of the many unmanned silos there, was the target of symbolic vandalism by Catholic peace activists in 2002. In 2013, conservative Weld County commissioners began a campaign to secede from the State of Colorado, the legality of this initiative has been questioned by local attorneys. On Nov 5th,2013,6 out of 11 Colorado counties voted no for secession, elbert, Lincoln, Logan, Moffat, Sedgwick, and Weld counties voted no, while Cheyenne, Kit Carson, Phillips, Washington, and Yuma counties voted yes. Weld County also holds the distinction of having the most confirmed tornado sightings in the U. S. from 1950-2011, with 252 confirmed reports. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 4,017 square miles. It is the third-largest county in Colorado by area, along the western border hilly areas betray the presence of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains further west. The county is served by two highways, I-25 runs through the southwestern corner and I-76 from the south central edge northeastward to the Morgan county border. Other major roads include US85 and US34, which intersect near Greeley, and State Highway 14, pawnee National Grassland Fort Vasquez State History Museum St. The population density was 45 people per square mile, there were 66,194 housing units at an average density of 17 per square mile
2.
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
3.
Greeley, Colorado
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The City of Greeley is the Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Weld County, Colorado, United States. Greeley is in northern Colorado and is situated 49 miles north-northeast of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. According to a July 2015 estimate by the U. S. Census Bureau, the population of the city is 100,883, Greeley is a major city of the Front Range Urban Corridor. The town was named after Horace Greeley, editor of the New-York Tribune and it was founded as the Union Colony in 1869, an experimental utopian society, but the name was later changed in honor of Horace Greeley. Governor Benjamin Harrison Eaton declared Greeley an official city on April 6,1886, Greeley was built on farming and agriculture but kept up with most modern technologies as they grew. Telephones were in town by 1883 with electric lights downtown by 1886, automobiles were on the roads alongside horse drawn buggies by 1910. KFKA became one of the first radio stations to broadcast in the USA in 1922, Greeley housed two POW camps in 1943, during World War II. One was for German POWs and the other was for Italian POWs, a vote to allow the sale of alcohol passed by a mere 477 votes in 1969, thus ending Temperance in the city. The Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra was started in 1911, in 1958, Greeley became the first city to have a Department of Culture. Greeley is still growing and changing today, its population has more than doubled since 1970, Greeley is located in the area previously occupied by the Overland Trail station of Latham. The Latham station was built in 1862 and named in honor of Milton S. Latham, the stagecoach station was at the confluence of the South Platte River and the Cache la Poudre River. It is believed that here occurred the birth of the first white child born in Colorado, fort Latham was the headquarters of the government troops during the Indian conflicts of 1860-64 and the county seat. Greeley began as the Union Colony, which was founded in 1869 as a utopian community based on temperance, religion, agriculture, education. Meeker, a reporter from New York City. The name Union Colony was later changed to Greeley in honor of Horace Greeley, who was Meekers editor at the New York Tribune, Greeley is located at 40°24′54″N 104°43′26″W. Elevation above sea level is 4,658 feet, according to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 30.0 square miles, of which 29.9 square miles is land and 0.1 square miles is water. Greeley is bordered on the south by the towns of Evans and Garden City, the Greeley/Evans area is bounded on the south by the South Platte River, and the Cache la Poudre River flows through north Greeley. Highways 85 and 34 is often cited as the location of Greeley, Greeley contains the western terminus of State Highway 257 and borders State Highway 392 on the north
4.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
5.
United States Forest Service
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The United States Forest Service is an agency of the U. S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nations 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass 193 million acres. Major divisions of the include the National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, Business Operations. Managing approximately 25% of federal lands, it is the major national land agency that is outside the U. S. Department of the Interior. The concept of the National Forests was born from Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation group, Boone and Crockett Club, in 1876, Congress created the office of Special Agent in the Department of Agriculture to assess the quality and conditions of forests in the United States. Hough was appointed the head of the office, in 1881, the office was expanded into the newly formed Division of Forestry. The Forest Reserve Act of 1891 authorized withdrawing land from the domain as forest reserves. In 1901, the Division of Forestry was renamed the Bureau of Forestry, gifford Pinchot was the first United States Chief Forester in the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. As of 2009, the Forest Service has a budget authority of $5.5 billion. The Forest Service employs 34,250 employees in 750 locations, including 10,050 firefighters,737 law enforcement personnel, and 500 scientists. The mission of the Forest Service is To sustain the health, diversity and its motto is Caring for the land and serving people. As the lead agency in natural resource conservation, the US Forest Service provides leadership in the protection, management, and use of the nations forest, rangeland. The agencys ecosystem approach to management integrates ecological, economic, and social factors to maintain and enhance the quality of the environment to meet current, the everyday work of the Forest Service balances resource extraction, resource protection, and providing recreation.5 billion trees per year. Further, the Forest Service fought fires on 2,996,000 acres of land in 2007, the Forest Service organization includes ranger districts, national forests, regions, research stations and research work units and the Northeastern Area Office for State and Private Forestry. Each level has responsibility for a variety of functions, the Chief of the Forest Service is a career federal employee who oversees the entire agency. The Chief reports to the Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment in the U. S. Department of Agriculture, there are five deputy chiefs for the following areas, National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, Research and Development, Business Operations, and Finance. The Forest Service Research and Development deputy area includes five stations, the Forest Products Laboratory. Station directors, like regional foresters, report to the Chief, Research stations include Northern, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Southwest, Rocky Mountain, and Southern. There are 92 research work units located at 67 sites throughout the United States, there are 80 Experimental Forests and Ranges that have been established progressively since 1908, many sites are more than 50 years old
6.
United States National Grassland
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National Grassland is a classification of protected and managed federal lands in the United States authorized by Title III of the Bankhead–Jones Farm Tenant Act of 1937. For administrative purposes, they are identical to United States National Forests. Like National Forests, National Grasslands may be open for hunting, grazing, mineral extraction, recreation, various National Grasslands are typically administered in conjunction with nearby National Forests. All but three National Grasslands are on or at the edge of the Great Plains and those three are in southeastern Idaho, northeastern California, and central Oregon. The three National Grasslands in North Dakota, together with one in northwestern South Dakota, are administered jointly as the Dakota Prairie Grasslands, National Grasslands are generally much smaller than National Forests. Whereas a typical National Forest would be about 1,000,000 acres, the largest National Grassland, the Little Missouri National Grassland in North Dakota, covers 1,028,784 acres, which is approximately the median size of a National Forest. As of September 30,2007, the area of all 20 National Grasslands was 3,838,280 acres. The catastrophic Dust Bowl of the 1930s led to the creation of the Soil Conservation Service in 1933 and this and subsequent federal laws paved the way for establishing national grasslands. Grassland Prairie Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands List of U. S. National Forests Wilderness preservation systems in the United States
7.
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
8.
South Platte River
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The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River. Flowing through the U. S. states of Colorado and Nebraska, it is itself a major river of the American Midwest and it joins the North Platte River in western Nebraska to form the Platte, which then flows across Nebraska to the Missouri. The river serves as the source of water for eastern Colorado. In its valley along the foothills in Colorado, it has permitted agriculture in an area of the Colorado Piedmont and Great Plains that is otherwise arid. The river is formed in Park County, Colorado, southwest of Denver in the South Park grassland basin by the confluence of the South Fork and Middle Fork, approximately 15 miles southeast of Fairplay. Both forks rise along the flank of the Mosquito Range, on the western side of South Park. From South Park, it passes through 50 miles of the Platte Canyon, here, it is joined by the North Fork before emerging from the foothills southwest of the Denver suburb of Littleton. At Littleton, the river is impounded to form Chatfield Reservoir, the river flows north through central Denver, which was founded along its banks at its confluence with Cherry Creek. The valley through Denver is highly industrialized, serving generally as the route for both the lines, as well as Interstate 25. On the north side of Denver it is joined somewhat inconspicuously by Clear Creek, North of Denver it flows through the agricultural heartland of the Piedmont. East of Greeley it turns eastward, flowing across the Colorado Eastern Plains, past Fort Morgan and Brush and it continues past Sterling, and runs into Nebraska between Julesburg, Colorado and Big Springs, Nebraska. In Nebraska, it passes south of Ogallala and joins the North Platte River near the city of North Platte. The South Platte River through Denver is on the U. S. EPAs list of impaired waterbodies for pathogen impairment, other water issues involve the appearance of the New Zealand Mud Snail and of the Zebra Mussel. The South Platte was originally called Niinéniiniicíihéhe by the native Arapaho people who lived on its banks, the early Spanish explorers called it the Rio Chato. The South Platte River also served as a water source in Colorado. Long before the city of Denver was created many travelers came to the South Platte River to escape the arid Great Plains and these people could survive the heat but not without the vital water source that the South Platte River gave them. Buckets and wells sufficed as a system for a while. In an arid region of the United States, the South Platte is marked with several dams, the first notable water impoundment on the South Platte is Antero Reservoir
9.
Sterling, Colorado
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Sterling is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Logan County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 18,211 at the 2010 census, Sterling is located at 40°37′32″N 103°12′42″W. It is 128 miles northeast of Denver, and is located on Interstate 76, According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 6.9 square miles, all of it land. A post office called Sterling has been in operation since 1874, the community was named for Sterling, Illinois, the native home of a railroad official. Sterling is the largest city in Northeastern Colorado and the county seat of Logan County, Sterling is the home of Northeastern Junior College, a residential two year liberal arts college in Colorado. Sterling is the shopping hub for most of northeastern Colorado and hosts stores like Wal-Mart, The Home Depot. Penney, as well as local retailers located primarily on Main Street. Sterling is a center for health care as well, and is the home of the Sterling Regional Medical Center. The Colorado Department of Corrections operates the Sterling Correctional Facility in Sterling, just a few miles northeast of Sterling is located the North Sterling State Park, situated on the North Sterling Reservoir, a man-made lake fed by waters from the South Platte River. This new state park has three state of the art boat ramps, and three camping areas with over 150 camping sites, as well as multiple picnicking sites. The park is famous for its swimming, boating, waterskiing, camping. Pheasant, duck, and deer hunting are excellent in the high plains, Sterling is the home of two beautiful golf courses, Riverview Golf Course and the Northeastern Eighteen, each offering excellent 18-hole courses. Museum admission is three dollars, and picnic grounds are adjacent, the Recreation Center now has an indoor pool with a capacity of 225, including the diving well and an outdoor pool with a capacity of nearly 450. The largest attraction at the pool is the double flumed slide, complete with a translucent blue speed slide about 130 feet long, picnic tables and chairs can accommodate over 300 patrons and the seven shade structures provide plenty of protection from the suns ultra violet rays. Http, //www. sterlingcolo. com/pages/dept/plr/reccenter. php According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Sterling has a semi-arid climate, crosson Field Municipal Airport serves Sterling, but there are no scheduled flights available from there. The closest airport served by scheduled flights is Denver International Airport, Sterling is also served by railroads, although only freight carriers serve the town. The main rail operator is Burlington Northern Santa Fe, but other operators, like Union Pacific, the closest Amtrak station is located in Fort Morgan, about 47 miles away. Scheduled bus service is offered by Black Hills Stage Lines with service to Ft. Morgan and Denver in Colorado, as well as number of cities in Nebraska including North Platte, Kearney, and Omaha
10.
Colorado State Highway 14
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State Highway 14 in the U. S. state of Colorado is an east–west state highway approximately 237 miles long. It provides the most direct route from Fort Collins westward via Cameron Pass to Walden and Steamboat Springs, and eastward across the plains to Sterling. The highway is two-lane along its route, except for portions near Fort Collins where it is concurrent with U. S. Highway 287. The western terminus of the highway is on the continental divide, the eastern terminus is at a junction with U. S. Highway 6 in Sterling. The entire length of the highway is kept open year-round, despite its western end being on the continental divide itself, Route 14 through Cameron Pass can be one of the more reliable routes across the Front Range mountains in stormy winter weather. Going eastward from Muddy Pass southeast of Steamboat Springs, it transverses through North Park and it then transverses along the southern end of the Medicine Bow Mountains at Cameron Pass, where it enters Larimer County. It joins U. S. Highway 287 southbound at Teds Place and it is concurrent with U. S. Route 287 southward to Fort Collins, where it splits from 287, going east from downtown Fort Collins along East Mulberry Street and reaching Interstate 25 at exit 269. East of I-25, it enters Weld County and passes through Ault, East of Ault, it enters a sparsely populated area of the high plains in eastern Weld County, where it passes through three small towns, Briggsdale, New Raymer, and Stoneham. Along this stretch it passes alongside several parcels of the Pawnee National Grasslands and its eastern terminus at Sterling is in central Logan County, along the South Platte River, just across the river from Interstate 76. The section of the road in Fort Collins that is concurrent with Jefferson Street and Riverside Avenue follows a section of the Overland Trail, the section in Fort Collins was known as the Denver Road. The section up the Poudre Canyon was built in the 1920s, the route as a Colorado state highway was established in the 1920s from its current western terminus all the way to Nebraska. In 1926, US38 took over its routing from Sterling, its current eastern terminus, the route was paved in 1936 from Fort Collins to Ault. The entire route was paved by 1963, and the section of the route concurrent with U. S. Highway 6 east of Sterling was eliminated in 1968. The only gap left was eliminated in 1979
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