The valley sits between the Sangre De Cristo Mountains and San Juan Mountains , and consists of large desert lands that eventually run into the mountains. This area drains to the east and the southeast, ultimately either via the Mississippi River or the Rio Grande into the Gulf of Mexico. Above this only alpine vegetation grows. Only small parts of the Colorado Rockies are snow-covered year round. Much of the alpine snow melts by mid-August with the exception of a few snowcapped peaks and a few small glaciers.
The Colorado Mineral Belt , stretching from the San Juan Mountains in the southwest to Boulder and Central City on the front range, contains most of the historic gold- and silver-mining districts of Colorado. Mount Elbert is the highest summit of the Rocky Mountains. The 30 highest major summits of the Rocky Mountains of North America all lie within the state. The Western Slope area of Colorado includes the western face of the Rocky Mountains and all of the state to the western border. This area includes several terrains and climates from alpine mountains to arid deserts.
The Western Slope includes many ski resort towns in the Rocky Mountains and towns west of the mountains. It is less populous than the Front Range but includes a large number of national parks and monuments.
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From west to east, the land of Colorado consists of desert lands, desert plateaus, alpine mountains, National Forests, relatively flat grasslands, scattered forests, buttes, and canyons in the western edge of the Great Plains. The famous Pikes Peak is located just west of Colorado Springs. Its isolated peak is visible from nearly the Kansas border on clear days, and also far to the north and the south. Here, the Green River briefly crosses over into Colorado. The Colorado River flows through Glenwood Canyon , and then through an arid valley made up of desert from Rifle to Parachute , through the desert canyon of De Beque Canyon , and into the arid desert of Grand Valley , where the city of Grand Junction is located.
Also prominent in or near the southern portion of the Western Slope are the Grand Mesa , which lies to the southeast of Grand Junction; the high San Juan Mountains, a rugged mountain range; and to the west of the San Juan Mountains, the Colorado Plateau , a high arid region that borders Southern Utah. Grand Junction, Colorado is the largest city on the Western Slope.
Grand Junction and Durango are the only major centers of television broadcasting west of the Continental Divide in Colorado, though most mountain resort communities publish daily newspapers. Grand Junction is located along Interstate 70 , the only major highway in Western Colorado. This railroad also provides the tracks for Amtrak 's California Zephyr passenger train, which crosses the Rocky Mountains between Denver and Grand Junction via a route on which there are no continuous highways.
The climate of Colorado is more complex than states outside of the Mountain States region. Unlike most other states, southern Colorado is not always warmer than northern Colorado. Most of Colorado is made up of mountains, foothills, high plains, and desert lands. Mountains and surrounding valleys greatly affect local climate. As a general rule, with an increase in elevation comes a decrease in temperature and an increase in precipitation. Northeast, east, and southeast Colorado are mostly the high plains, while Northern Colorado is a mix of high plains, foothills, and mountains.
Northwest and west Colorado are predominantly mountainous, with some desert lands mixed in. Southwest and southern Colorado are a complex mixture of desert and mountain areas. BSk with low humidity and moderate precipitation, usually from 15 to 25 inches to millimeters annually. The area is known for its abundant sunshine and cool, clear nights, which give this area a great average diurnal temperature range. The difference between the highs of the days and the lows of the nights can be considerable as warmth dissipates to space during clear nights, the heat radiation not being trapped by clouds.
The Front Range urban corridor, where most of the population of Colorado resides, lies in a pronounced precipitation shadow as a result of being on the lee side of the Rocky Mountains. Most of the precipitation comes from thunderstorms, which can be severe, and from major snowstorms that occur in the winter and early spring. Otherwise, winters tend to be mostly dry and cold. In much of the region, March is the snowiest month. April and May are normally the rainiest months, while April is the wettest month overall.
Just west of the plains and into the foothills, there are a wide variety of climate types. Locations merely a few miles apart can experience entirely different weather depending on the topography. Most valleys have a semi-arid climate not unlike the eastern plains, which transitions to an alpine climate at the highest elevations.
Extreme weather changes are common in Colorado, although the majority of extreme weather occurs in the least populated areas of the state. Thunderstorms are common east of the Continental Divide in the spring and summer, yet are usually brief. Hail is a common sight in the mountains east of the divide and in the northwest part of the state. The Eastern Plains have had some of the biggest hail storms in North America. The Eastern Plains are part of the extreme western portion of Tornado Alley ; some damaging tornadoes in the Eastern Plains include the Limon F3 tornado and the Windsor EF3 tornado, which devastated the small town.
Notable examples include the Denver Flood , [31] the Big Thompson River flooding of and the Colorado floods. Hot weather is common during summers in Denver. The new record of 24 consecutive days surpassed the previous record by almost a week. Much of Colorado is a very dry state averaging only 17 inches millimeters of precipitation per year statewide and rarely experiences a time when some portion of the state is not in some degree of drought. However, some of the mountainous regions of Colorado receive a huge amount of moisture from winter snowfalls.
Water flowing out of the Colorado Rocky Mountains is a very significant source of water for the farms, towns, and cities of the southwest states of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada, as well as the Midwest, such as Nebraska and Kansas, and the southern states of Oklahoma and Texas.
A significant amount of water is also diverted for use in California; occasionally formerly naturally and consistently , the flow of water reaches northern Mexico. Despite its mountainous terrain, Colorado is relatively quiet seismically. National Earthquake Information Center is located in Golden. On August 22, , a 5.
It was the second-largest earthquake in Colorado's history. In early morning hours of August 24, , four minor earthquakes rattled the state of Colorado ranging from magnitude 2. Colorado has recorded earthquakes since , a majority of which range 2 to 3. The region that is today the state of Colorado has been inhabited by Native Americans for more than 13, years.
The eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains was a major migration route that was important to the spread of early peoples throughout the Americas. The Ancient Pueblo peoples lived in the valleys and mesas of the Colorado Plateau. The Apache and the Comanche also inhabited Eastern and Southeastern parts of the state. In , Zebulon Pike led a U. Army reconnaissance expedition into the disputed region.
Colonel Pike and his men were arrested by Spanish cavalrymen in the San Luis Valley the following February, taken to Chihuahua , and expelled from Mexico the following July. The treaty took effect February 22, Having settled its border with Spain, the U. The remainder of Missouri Territory, including what would become northeastern Colorado, became unorganized territory, and remained so for 33 years over the question of slavery.
The Texian Revolt of —36 fomented a dispute between the U. Mexico surrendered its northern territory to the U. The federal government of the U. Instead, the Compromise of divided the Mexican Cession and the northwestern claims of Texas into a new state and two new territories, the state of California , the Territory of New Mexico , and the Territory of Utah.
In , Senator Stephen A. Douglas persuaded the U. Congress to divide the unorganized territory east of the Continental Divide into two new organized territories, the Territory of Kansas and the Territory of Nebraska , and an unorganized southern region known as the Indian territory. Each new territory was to decide the fate of slavery within its boundaries, but this compromise merely served to fuel animosity between free soil and pro-slavery factions.
The gold seekers organized the Provisional Government of the Territory of Jefferson on August 24, , but this new territory failed to secure approval from the Congress of the United States embroiled in the debate over slavery. The election of Abraham Lincoln for the President of the United States on November 6, , led to the secession of nine southern slave states and the threat of civil war among the states. Seeking to augment the political power of the Union states , the Republican Party -dominated Congress quickly admitted the eastern portion of the Territory of Kansas into the Union as the free State of Kansas on January 29, , leaving the western portion of the Kansas Territory, and its gold-mining areas, as unorganized territory.
Thirty days later on February 28, , outgoing U. The name Colorado was chosen because it was commonly believed that the Colorado River originated in the territory. While many gold seekers held sympathies for the Confederacy , the vast majority remained fiercely loyal to the Union cause. The object of this Western Campaign was to seize or disrupt the gold fields of Colorado and California and to seize ports on the Pacific Ocean for the Confederacy.
On March 28, the Coloradans and local New Mexico volunteers stopped the Texans at the Battle of Glorieta Pass , destroyed their cannon and supply wagons, and dispersed of their horses and mules. The Texans were forced to retreat to Santa Fe. Having lost the supplies for their campaign and finding little support in New Mexico, the Texans abandoned Santa Fe and returned to San Antonio in defeat. The Confederacy made no further attempts to seize the Southwestern United States.
In , Territorial Governor John Evans appointed the Reverend John Chivington as Colonel of the Colorado Volunteers with orders to protect white settlers from Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors who were accused of stealing cattle. Colonel Chivington ordered his men to attack a band of Cheyenne and Arapaho encamped along Sand Creek.
Chivington reported that his troops killed more than warriors. The militia returned to Denver City in triumph, but several officers reported that the so-called battle was a blatant massacre of Indians at peace, that most of the dead were women and children, and that bodies of the dead had been hideously mutilated and desecrated. Army inquiries condemned the action, and incoming President Andrew Johnson asked Governor Evans for his resignation, but none of the perpetrators was ever punished.
This event is now known as the Sand Creek massacre. In the midst and aftermath of Civil War, many discouraged prospectors returned to their homes, but a few stayed and developed mines, mills, farms, ranches, roads, and towns in Colorado Territory. On September 14, , James Huff discovered silver near Argentine Pass , the first of many silver strikes.
In , the Union Pacific Railroad laid its tracks west to Weir, now Julesburg , in the northeast corner of the Territory. The Denver Pacific Railway reached Denver in June the following year, and the Kansas Pacific arrived two months later to forge the second line across the continent. In , rich veins of silver were discovered in the San Juan Mountains on the Ute Indian reservation in southwestern Colorado.
The Ute people were removed from the San Juans the following year. The United States Congress passed an enabling act on March 3, , specifying the requirements for the Territory of Colorado to become a state. Grant signed a proclamation admitting Colorado to the Union as the 38th state and earning it the moniker "Centennial State". The discovery of a major silver lode near Leadville in triggered the Colorado Silver Boom. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of invigorated silver mining, and Colorado's last, but greatest, gold strike at Cripple Creek a few months later lured a new generation of gold seekers.
Colorado women were granted the right to vote beginning on November 7, , making Colorado the second state to grant universal suffrage and the first one by a popular vote of Colorado men. The repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in led to a staggering collapse of the mining and agricultural economy of Colorado, but the state slowly and steadily recovered. Between the s and s, Denver's floriculture industry developed into a major industry in Colorado.
Colorado became the first western state to host a major political convention when the Democratic Party met in Denver in Census in , the population of Colorado first exceeded one million residents. Colorado suffered greatly through the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl of the s, but a major wave of immigration following World War II boosted Colorado's fortune. Tourism became a mainstay of the state economy, and high technology became an important economic engine. The United States Census Bureau estimated that the population of Colorado exceeded five million in Three warships of the U.
Navy have been named the USS Colorado. The largest increases are expected in the Front Range Urban Corridor , especially in the Denver metropolitan area. The state's fastest-growing counties are Douglas and Weld. According to the United States Census , Colorado had a population of 5,, Racial composition of the state's population was:. People of Hispanic and Latino American of any race made heritage made up Colorado has a high proportion of Hispanic , mostly Mexican-American , citizens in Metropolitan Denver, Colorado Springs, as well as the smaller cities of Greeley and Pueblo, and elsewhere.
Southern, Southwestern, and Southeastern Colorado has a large number of Hispanos , the descendants of the early Mexican settlers of colonial Spanish origin. In , the Census Bureau reported Colorado's population as 8. Colorado also has some large African-American communities located in Denver, in the neighborhoods of Montbello, Five Points, Whittier, and many other East Denver areas.
A relatively large population of African Americans are also found in Colorado Springs on the east and southeast side of the city. The highest population of Asian Americans can be found on the south and southeast side of Denver, as well as some on Denver's southwest side. The Denver metropolitan area is considered more liberal and diverse than much of the state when it comes to political issues and environmental concerns. There were a total of 70, births in Colorado in Birth rate of In , non-Hispanic whites were involved in Births in table don't add up, because Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number.
In , Colorado recorded the second-lowest fertility rate in the United States outside of New England, after Oregon , at 1. Spanish is the second-most spoken language in Colorado, after English. The largest denominations by number of adherents in were the Catholic Church with ,; non-denominational Evangelical Protestants with ,; and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with , According to several studies, Coloradans have the lowest rates of obesity of any state in the US.
A number of historic military forts, railways with trains still operating, mining ghost towns have been utilized and transformed for historical accuracy in well known films. There are also a number of scenic highways and mountain passes that helped to feature the open road in films such as Vanishing Point , Bingo and Starman.
Colorado is known for its Southwest and Rocky Mountain cuisine. Mexican restaurants are prominent throughout the state. Aspen also has a reputation as the culinary capital of the Rocky Mountain region. Denver is known for steak, but now has a diverse culinary scene with many restaurants. Colorado wines include award-winning varietals that have attracted favorable notice from outside the state. The mountain climate ensures warm summer days and cool nights. However, an increasing number of wineries are located along the Front Range. The area of northern Colorado near and between the cities of Denver, Boulder , and Fort Collins is known as the "Napa Valley of Beer" due to its high density of craft breweries.
Colorado is open to cannabis marijuana tourism.
H e's been called a hack. He's been called astonishingly prolific. He's been called "the last of the great pulp writers. He refers to himself as "the world's biggest private eye nut," and certainly, more than anyone else Robert J. Randisi has fought to ensure that P.
No, not just through his many splendid contributions to the genre in the form of his fictional eyes creations of Miles Jacoby , Henry Po , Nick Delvecchio or a host of others, as entertaining as they may be, but through his tireless promotion of the genre through his numerous non-fiction articles, his co-founding, with Ed Gorman, of Mystery Scene magazine and most of all through his founding of The Private Eye Writers of America in With its annual Shamus Awards , which recognize excellence in the genre, its encouragement of young writers, through a contest run in conjunction with St.
Martins Press, and its high visibilty throughout the world of mystery fandom, the PWA has worked steadily through the years to make sure the genre remains not just respected, but vital and potent. And Bob's no love-'em-and-leave-'em kinda guy -- despite annual presidents all private eye writers themselves Bob still pretty much runs the show.
If Bob says "no," the PWA don't go. Not to slight his fiction, mind you. Booklist may damn him with faint praise, tagging him as "the astonishingly prolific Randisi There's also a good deal of wit, and more than a few sly winks and pokes at other writers' work. Even more amazingly, the bulk of Randisi's work isn't even in private eye fiction--he claims to have written over novels in various genres, under a slew of pseudonyms.
I don't think I've forgotten any. Most of those were used during the 80's, when I was writing twenty books a year--twenty-seven in ! This is probably the major difference between publishing today and then. It would be very difficult for an author to write that many books a year these days, although I'm still doing about fifteen or so. In fact, Randisi's biggest claim to literary immortality may not even lay in the mystery genre -- it just may be the or so western novels he's pumped out, under a dozen or so different names, including at least nine or so different series, the longest running of which is The Gunsmith series over books, and counting , which he writes as J.
Mind you, many of Randisi's westerns owe as much to private eye fiction as they do to the standard horse opera fare. Many feature hired guns, lone lawmen and Pinkerton agents, current or retired, as their protagonists, investigating crimes and tracking down the bad guys.
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