Portal:Colorado
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Colorado Events
- Wikimedia US Mountain West Summer 2025 online meeting, Tuesday, August 19, 2025, 8:00-9:00 PM MDT
- Wikimedia US Mountain West Autumn 2025 online meeting, Tuesday, November 11, 2025, 8:00-9:00 PM MST
Previous events:
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Colorado events
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Colorado Facts
- Date admitted to Union: August 1, 1876 (38th State)
- Demonym: Coloradan
- Capital: Denver
- Elected state officers:
- Governor: Jared Polis (D) (2019–)
- Lieutenant Governor: Dianne Primavera (D) (2019–)
- Secretary of State: Jena Griswold (D) (2019–)
- Treasurer: Dave Young (D) (2019–)
- Attorney General: Phil Weiser (D) (2019–)
- Colorado General Assembly:
- Colorado Senate:
- D-23 R-11 1 Vacant (2025–2027)
- Colorado House of Representatives:
- D-43 R-22 (2025-2027)
- Colorado Senate:
- Colorado Supreme Court:
- Monica Márquez, Chief Justice (2024–)
- Brian Boatright (2011-)
- William Hood, III (2014–)
- Richard Gabriel (2015–)
- Melissa Hart (2017–)
- Carlos Samour, Jr (2018–)
- Maria Berkenkotter (2021–)
- U.S. Senators:
- Class 2. John Hickenlooper (D) (2021–)
- Class 3. Michael Bennet (D) (2009–)
- 1. Diana DeGette (D) (1997–)
- 2. Joe Neguse (D) (2019–)
- 3. Jeff Hurd (R) (2025-)
- 4. Lauren Boebert (R) (2025-)
- 5. Jeff Crank (R) (2025-)
- 6. Jason Crow (D) (2019–)
- 7. Brittany Pettersen (D) (2023-)
- 8. Gabe Evans (R) (2025–)
- Total area: 104,094 square miles (269,602 km2) (eighth most extensive state)
- Highest elevation: Mount Elbert 14,440 feet (4,401.2 m) (third highest state)
- Mean elevation: 6,800 feet (2,070 m) (highest state)
- Lowest elevation: Arikaree River 3,317 feet (1,011 m) (highest state)
- Population (2020 census): 5,773,714 (21st most populous state)
- Population density: 55.47 per square mile (21.40 km−2) (39th most densely populated state)
- Number of counties: 64 counties (including two consolidated city and county governments)
- Number of municipalities: 273 municipalities, comprising 2 consolidated city and county governments, 73 cities, and 198 towns
- Time zone: MST=UTC−07, MDT=UTC−06
- USPS code: CO
- ISO 3166 code: US-CO
- Adjacent U.S. states: Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah (tied for third most)
- State government website: Colorado.gov
- State tourism website: Colorado.com
State Symbols
Subcategories
The U.S. State of Colorado has 20 statistical areas that have been delineated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Statistical areas are important geographic delineations of population clusters used by the OMB, the United States Census Bureau, planning organizations, and federal, state, and local government entities.
On July 21, 2023, the OMB delineated three combined statistical areas, seven metropolitan statistical areas, and ten micropolitan statistical areas in Colorado. The most populous of these statistical areas is the 12-county Denver–Aurora–Greeley, CO Combined Statistical Area with a United States Census Bureau estimated population of 3,752,505 as of July 1, 2024. (Full article...)
Selected mountain -
Selected biography -
In 1938, after running unopposed in the Republican primary, Carr was elected to a two-year term as governor of Colorado, defeating Democrat Teller Ammons, the incumbent governor.[1][2]
A conservative Republican, Carr was committed to fiscal restraint in state government and opposed the New Deal policies of President Franklin Roosevelt.[3][4]
In July 1939, he joined 33 other governors is a statement calling for "moral rearmament" as a solution to the current economic crisis.[5] In August he sent the Colorado National Guard to quell violence between AFL-organized strikers and non-strikers at the Green Mountain Dam construction site.[6] In late 1939, when he was mentioned as a possible Republican candidate for vice-president on the national ticket in 1940, he indicated he preferred to seek re-election as governor: "I am not interested in any job outside Colorado right now."[7] At the Republican National Convention in June 1940, Carr supported Wendell Willkie and seconded his nomination.[8]
Selected article -
The Platte Canyon High School hostage crisis was a hostage taking and shooting at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado, on September 27, 2006. The gunman, 53-year-old Duane Roger Morrison, took seven female students hostage and sexually assaulted them, later releasing four. When police broke open the classroom's door with explosives, Morrison opened fire with a semi-automatic pistol before shooting hostage Emily Keyes in the head. The other remaining hostages escaped unharmed, and paramedics confirmed that Morrison had committed suicide shortly before police were able to enter the classroom. Keyes was pronounced dead at 4:32 p.m. MDT (23:32 UTC) at Saint Anthony's Hospital in Denver, Colorado, after undergoing emergency surgery. (Full article...)
Selected image -
Photograph by Carol M. Highsmith, 2007
National Parks in Colorado
The 23 national parks in Colorado:
- Amache National Historic Site
- Arapaho National Recreation Area
- Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site
- Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
- Browns Canyon National Monument
- Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument
- Canyons of the Ancients National Monument
- Chimney Rock National Monument
- Colorado National Monument
- Continental Divide National Scenic Trail
- Curecanti National Recreation Area
- Dinosaur National Monument
- Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument
- Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
- Hovenweep National Monument
- Mesa Verde National Park and World Heritage Site
- Old Spanish National Historic Trail
- Pony Express National Historic Trail
- Rocky Mountain National Park
- Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site
- Santa Fe National Historic Trail
- Yucca House National Monument
Interesting facts-

- The 2013 Colorado floods struck the northeastern Front Range region beginning September 11, 2013, causing extensive flood damage.
- On June 8, 2002, a U.S. Forest Service technician accidentally started the Hayman Fire which became the most extensive wild fire in Colorado history.
- U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton signed an order elevating the national monument to Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve on September 13, 2004.
- President George W. Bush defeated Colorado native John Kerry in the November 2, 2004 election for President of the United States.
- Senator Barack Obama accepted the nomination of the Democratic National Convention for President of the United States in Denver on August 28, 2008.
- The population of Colorado first exceeded five million in 2009.
- Workers uncovered a trove of mammoth, mastodon, and other Pleistocene fossils near Snowmass Village on October 14, 2010.
- President Barack Obama issued a proclamation creating Chimney Rock National Monument on September 21, 2012.
- The Black Forest fire began on June 11, 2013, destroying 486 homes, the most in Colorado history
- Colorado became the first state to legalize cannabis for recreational use on January 1, 2014.
- President Barack Obama issued a proclamation creating Browns Canyon National Monument on February 19, 2015.
Did you know (auto-generated) -

- ... that the 1976 Big Thompson River flood took place several hours before Colorado's 100th anniversary of statehood?
- ... that environmental journalist Gloria Dickie wrote her thesis on how cities in Colorado changed garbage laws to prevent bear incursions?
- ... that "The Potato King of Colorado" survived a shipwreck, mined for gold in Australia, and helped establish an alcohol-free Methodist colony?
- ... that Donald Trump would "much prefer not having a picture than having this one"?
- ... that the No. 1–ranked 2023 Colorado Mines Orediggers, "college football's nerdiest contender", featured players with pigtails and a drawn-on blue mustache, a friar's haircut, and Harry Potter cosplay?
- ... that Ivan Ivan played for the Eagles and the Eagles?
- ... that a volunteer quipped of a Colorado TV station: "We broadcast to more ears of corn and heads of cattle than any other station"?
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Sources
- ^ "Colorado is Carried by Carr, Republican" (PDF). New York Times. November 9, 1938. Retrieved February 20, 2017.
- ^ CO Governor Race - Nov 08, 1938. Our Campaigns. Retrieved September 12, 2021.
- ^ Ralph L. Carr. Colorado State Archives. Retrieved September 12, 2021.
- ^ February 4, 1941. Republican Governor Hits Proposed Western TVA. The Lantern via The Ohio State University. Retrieved September 12, 2021.
- ^ "34 Governors Ask Moral Rearming" (PDF). New York Times. July 18, 1939. Retrieved February 20, 2017.
- ^ "Men Resume Work on Colorado Dam" (PDF). August 5, 1939. Retrieved February 20, 2017.
- ^ "Carr Hints He Will Run" (PDF). New York Times. November 26, 1939. Retrieved February 20, 2017.
- ^ "Convention Opens". New York Times. June 25, 1940.