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Colorado
by J. Younger
Colorado, known as the Centennial State, has a rich history shaped by its dramatic landscapes, resource booms, and diverse peoples. Long before European and Spanish settlement, the region was home to numerous Native American tribes for thousands of years. The Ute people are considered the oldest continuous residents, inhabiting the mountains and western areas, while the Arapaho and Cheyenne dominated the eastern plains. Other groups with historical ties include the Apache, Comanche, Shoshone, and Ancestral Puebloans (who built cliff dwellings in the southwest, such as at Mesa Verde). Treaties like the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty recognized Arapaho claims in areas like modern Denver, but gold discoveries in the late 1850s triggered rapid settler influx, leading to conflicts. A tragic low point was the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre, where Colorado militia attacked a peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho encampment, killing hundreds while the men were out hunting, mostly women and children were killed. Many tribes were eventually relocated to reservations outside Colorado or confined to the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute reservations in the southwest.
The U.S. Congress created the Colorado Territory on February 28, 1861, carved from parts of the Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, and New Mexico territories during the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush era. It initially considered names like “Idaho” but settled on Colorado (Spanish for “colored” or “red,” referring to the reddish soil and canyons). Territorial capitals shifted several times: first Colorado City in 1861-1862, then Golden from 1862 to 1867, before settling in Denver in 1867. After statehood attempts were vetoed by President Andrew Johnson, Colorado achieved statehood on August 1, 1876, exactly 100 years after the Declaration of Independence was implemented, becoming the 38th state under President Ulysses S. Grant. Denver has remained the permanent capital since then, with its current state capitol building completed later.
Colorado’s official symbols reflect its natural beauty and heritage. The state flag, designed by Andrew Carlisle Johnson and adopted in 1911 (with refinements), features three horizontal stripes of blue (sky), white (snowy mountains), and blue again, with a large red “C” (for Colorado) encircling a golden disk (sunshine and mineral wealth) using the same red, white, and blue as the U.S. flag. The state bird is the lark bunting (designated in 1931), a migratory songbird. The state flower is the Rocky Mountain columbine (1899), with white, lavender-blue petals and yellow centers symbolizing sky, snow, and gold. The state tree is the Colorado blue spruce (1939), prized for its silvery blue needles. Other symbols include the state grass (blue grama), motto “Nil Sine Numine” (Latin for “Nothing without Providence” or “Deity”), and nicknames like the Centennial State and Colorful Colorado.
The state’s development was fueled by mining (gold, silver), railroads, agriculture, and later tourism, energy, and technology. Its towering Rocky Mountains, high plains, and canyons continue to define its identity, drawing visitors to sites honoring both its Indigenous heritage and pioneer past.
Historic Sites
Mesa Verde
Mesa Verde National Park
Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado is one of the most remarkable archaeological treasures in North America, preserving the cultural heritage of the Ancestral Puebloans (also known as Anasazi), who allegedly inhabited the region for over 700 years. Established in 1906 as the first U.S. national park dedicated to cultural preservation and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it protects nearly 5,000 archaeological sites, including more than 600 cliff dwellings. The name “Mesa Verde” means “green table” in Spanish, referring to the flat topped mesas covered in piñon juniper forests that rise dramatically above the surrounding canyons.
The Ancestral Puebloans allegedly first settled the Mesa Verde region around 550 A.D., initially living in pithouses. They were semi subterranean dwellings dug into the ground with timber roofs. Over centuries, they transitioned through the Pueblo periods, developing advanced agriculture (corn, beans, squash), pottery, and masonry architecture. By the late 1100s to early 1200s, many moved into protected alcoves beneath the cliffs, building multistory villages of sandstone blocks mortared with adobe. These cliff dwellings, were probably constructed between 1180 and 1300.
They represent the pinnacle of their engineering, offering defense, proximity to springs, and shelter. Communities thrived with kivas (circular underground ceremonial chambers), plazas, storage rooms, and lookout towers. Supposedly sometime around 1300, the sites were largely abandoned, likely due to a combination of prolonged drought and resource depletion, social factors. Migration patterns began southward to areas in present day Arizona and New Mexico, where their descendants include many modern Pueblo peoples.
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Bent's Old Fort
Bent’s Fort
Reconstructed as a living history museum, this 1830s adobe trading post on the Santa Fe Trail served as a key hub for trade among fur trappers, merchants, travelers, and Cheyenne and Arapaho peoples. It played a vital role in opening the American West before the Mexican/American War. Visitors can explore rooms, demonstrations, and exhibits on frontier life.
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Molly Brown House
Leadville Historic District
Leadville
Leadville, Colorado, perched at over 10,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains, is one of the state’s most iconic historic mining towns. Leadville Historic District preserves the legacy of the late19th-century silver boom, with roughly 70square blocks of Victorian architecture, brick and masonry buildings, and a surrounding 20square mile mining district that includes dozens of historic mines.
The area’s history began in 1860 when prospector Abe Lee discovered rich placer gold in California Gulch (about a mile east of modern Leadville). This sparked a gold rush that drew thousands of miners, creating the rough settlement of Oro City. Placer gold played out by the mid1870s, but miners noticed heavy gray “lead” material in the streams, actually was rich silver bearing lead carbonates
The true silver boom ignited in late 1877 with major lode discoveries on Carbonate Hill and elsewhere. Horace (H.A.W.) Tabor, a storekeeper turned mining investor, became the “Silver King” after striking it rich with mines like the Little Pittsburgh. The town was officially named Leadville in 1878 (after the lead content in the ore) when Tabor helped establish its post office. It incorporated quickly and exploded in population, from a few thousand to an estimated 25,000 to 40,000 by 1880, making it Colorado’s 2nd largest city after Denver at the time.
At its height, Leadville was known as the “Greatest Mining Camp in the World.” It produced vast wealth (over $82 million in silver during the boom era), attracted figures like the Guggenheims, and featured opulent buildings, opera houses, and a lively (often rowdy) nightlife. The Tabor Opera House (built in 1879) and grand hotels symbolized its ambition. There was even talk of moving Colorado’s state capital there.
The boom collapsed in 1893 when the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act caused silver prices to plummet. Many mines closed, fortunes evaporated (including Tabor’s), and the population declined sharply. Leadville later saw revivals through molybdenum mining (notably the Climax Mine) in the 20th century, but it never regained its silver era scale.
The Leadville Historic District was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961 (and listed on the National Register in 1966). It features preserved Victorian buildings along Harrison Avenue, including the Delaware Hotel, Tabor Opera House, and numerous commercial structures with original tin ceilings and facades. The district also encompasses key mines and interpretive sites.
Today, visitors can explore the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum, take self guided walking or driving tours of the mining district (with interpretive signs along the Mineral Belt Trail), and experience events like Boom Days. The town’s high elevation and rugged setting add to its authentic frontier character. Leadville stands as a testament to Colorado’s mining heritage; boom, and bust.
The Oxford Hotel
The Oxford Hotel in Lower Downtown (LoDo) Denver opened in 1891 as one of Denver’s earliest luxury hotels, it sits at 1600 17th Street, right near Union Station. It features a notable basement level men’s restroom accessed by stairs, known for its vintage, oversized marble urinals (often described as comically tall or “giant,” dating to the early 20th century).
Denver has a network of historic underground tunnels (mostly from the late 1800s/early 1900s) used for coal delivery, goods transport, and discreet movement between buildings to avoid street traffic or weather. Rumors and local lore frequently link the Oxford Hotel to these tunnels, particularly one rumored to connect toward Union Station (though many passages are now sealed, bricked up, or inaccessible). The basement area, including around the restrooms, ties into these stories and the hotel’s haunted reputation.
The Oxford is considered one of Denver’s most haunted hotels, with reports of activity in the basement (including the restroom area), such as phantom sounds, apparitions, and quirky incidents like self locking stalls or running sinks. Its proximity to old rail infrastructure and LoDo’s mining era history adds to the underground mystique.
The Brown Palace
The Brown Palace Hotel, tucked into downtown Denver at 321 17th Street, stands as one of Colorado’s most legendary landmarks and the city’s 2nd longest continuously operating hotel. It first welcomed guests on August 12, 1892, in the glittering heart of the Gilded Age.
Henry Cordes Brown, a carpenter turned savvy real estate developer arrived from Ohio in 1860, financed and named the hotel. He had once grazed cattle on the very triangular plot where it now rises and had donated the adjacent land for the Colorado State Capitol. Architect Frank Edbrooke, who also designed the nearby Oxford Hotel, gave the building its striking triangular shape to perfectly fit the oddly angled intersection of Broadway, 17th Street, and Tremont Place.
At a cost of roughly $1.6 to 2 million (tens of millions in today’s dollars), the 8 story structure was Denver’s tallest building when it opened. It boasted innovative fireproof iron and steel framing, a sandstone and red granite exterior, and one of the first grand atrium style lobbies in America. From the moment it opened with 400 guest rooms priced at $3 to 5 per night, elegant public spaces, shops, and banquet halls, the Brown Palace became the most luxurious hotel between Chicago and the West Coast…a real dazzling social hub for Denver’s elite.
Presidents have stayed here since Theodore Roosevelt in 1905, with nearly every U.S. president since (save a few). Among its notable guests: “Unsinkable” Molly Brown shortly after surviving the Titanic, The Beatles, Queen Marie of Romania, and Dr. Sun Yatsen. The Boettcher family owned the hotel for much of the 20th century and added the 22 story Brown Palace West annex in 1959. Through continuous renovations, including a modern spa, the hotel has never closed its doors.
Today, listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1970 and part of the Autograph Collection, the Brown Palace still enchants visitors with its soaring atrium lobby and beloved afternoon tea tradition. It perfectly embodies Denver’s evolution from rough mining camp to sophisticated Western city.
Yet its most tantalizing secret lies beneath the streets. When the hotel opened in 1892, builders constructed a tunnel linking it to the Navarre Building across the street (now home to the Anschutz Collection / Museum of the American Cowboy, once a school, then a notorious gambling hall and high end brothel). Officially, the tunnel shared coal for heating and featured small mining cart tracks for efficient supply movement. But local lore whispers of a far more scandalous purpose: discreet passages for wealthy male guests. Espessially politicians and high society figures, to slip between the respectable Brown Palace and the Navarre’s gambling and prostitution services without ever stepping onto the street. Stories tell of intoxicated patrons being wheeled back in carts.
Sealed now for decades with masonry to support the street above, the tunnel remains inaccessible to the public. On the Navarre side, however, visitors can still see marked basement entrances and subterranean tracks disappearing into a brick wall…silent reminders of one of Denver’s earliest and most intriguing underground passages. These legends of hidden tunnels and hauntings only deepen the Brown Palace’s enduring mystique.
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