Colorado

Area: 104,332sq.mi/270,219sq.km

Population: 3,295,000

Capital: Denver

Popular name: Centennial State

Situation and topography

The state of Colorado (from Spanish colorado, "colored") lies in the western United States. The smaller eastern part of the state belongs to the Great Plains, lying at altitudes between 3,300ft/1,000m and 5,900ft/1,800m. The soils of this region, originally short-grass steppeland, yield abundant crops with the help of irrigation. The larger western part of Colorado lies in the Rocky Mountains, which are made up mainly of two parallel ranges striking north-south and separate two widely different climatic zones. The Front Range, rising in places to over 13,000ft/4,000m, forms the imposing eastern boundary of the Rockies. The Sawatch Range in western Colorado is the watershed between the Pacific and the Atlantic (Gulf of Mexico), rising to 14,433ft/4,399m in Mount Ebert, the highest peak in Colorado. In the mountains coniferous forests predominate, giving place above the 11,500ft/3,500m mark to a vegetation of alpine type dominated by mountain pines. History

From the 11th to the 13th century the farming culture of the Anasazi Indians, now well documented, flourished in southwestern Colorado. Their heirs are believed to have been the Ute Indians and the bison-hunting Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. In the 17th century Spanish conquistadors explored at least the southern part of the territory and gave it its name (the "colored" country, after the rocks in light and dark reddish tones which outcrop here). Soon afterwards French prospectors pushed into eastern Colorado from Louisiana. Thereafter the French and Spanish fought for predominance until 1763, when the territory passed to the Spanish crown. In the first half of the 19th century the United States gained control of the area; then in 1861 it was incorporated as a U.S. territory, and fifteen years later became the 38th state of the Union. In 1913 a Norwegian introduced skiing to the Rockies and thus sparked off the development of the tourist trade.

Economy

Agriculture is well developed in the Great Plains. In the south and east irrigated arable farming predominates; the northwest is given up to cattle-ranching. In the eastern foreland of the Rockies (particularly in northwestern Colorado) considerable quantities of oil and natural gas are extracted, and there are rich mineral resources in the mountainous west of the state - coal, silver, gold, zinc, vanadium, uranium and, in the Sawatch Range, molybdenum. Steel manufacture and metalworking, as well as arms production, are old-established industries; also of importance are the foodstuffs industries. Younger, but highly successful, is the electronics industry, with its dynamic center round Colorado Springs. Tourism also makes a major contribution to the economy: the Rockies are increasingly popular with summer vacationists, and they also have a number of world-famed winter sports centers, notably Aspen, Vail, Keystone and Steamboat Springs.