Colorado history is as colorful as Colorado scenery.
There have been human beings living in Colorado for 13 thousand years!
The first human settlement that we know of was built in the cliffs at Mesa Verde by the Ancient Pueblo Peoples, sometimes called the Anasazi.
Since then, there have been many different indigenous tribes living all over Colorado.
Most locally and recently were the Ute, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, and others.
In the 1860s, the tribes who remained were forcefully removed, evicted, relocated to reservations outside of this state.
Europeans have been claiming this land for nearly 400 years.
The first to do so were the French and the Spanish.
After the Louisiana Purchase and the War with Mexico, the United States took control of the territory.
There still remains traces of the earliest Europeans in our local place names.
Like the word 'Platte' for example, as in our Platte River.
If you have seen the Platte River, you will understand why it was so appropriately named 'Platte' because in French the word means 'shallow'.
There is a legend that took place just north of here during a snowstorm, when a band of French Fur Trappers were forced to bury a large quantity of their gunpowder next to a river so they could continue on in the storm.
That river became known as 'Cache la Poudre' or 'Hiding Place of the Gunpowder'.
The name of our County: 'El Paso', is a Spanish word meaning 'The Pass' and refers to Ute Pass, the natural fault line in the mountains where we travel from the east to the west side of the Front Range.
Of course, the name of our State: 'Colorado', is a Spanish word as well. It means 'Color Red' but not just any red, but the ruddy color of the rocks at the Garden of the Gods, the color that the Colorado River used to be before the building of those 20th century dams.
Settlers have been flocking to Colorado for over a hundred years, ever since the great Gold Rush when miners came to strike it rich on Pike's Peak.
One of the richest gold mines in the world was near Cripple Creek.
Then came the health tourists, tuberculosis patients seeking the dry climate and mineral waters of Manitou Springs.
During WWII and the Cold War, Colorado Springs saw the installation of 5 military bases surrounding the city.
With the military comes a diverse ethnic and cultural population.
Many military families enjoy Colorado so much that they decide to retire here.
During the 1970s, John Denver was writing songs about the Rocky Mountains, inspiring many to leave the crowded suburbs and migrate to the wide open spaces of Colorado.
A lot of celebrities like living in Colorado.
In 2006 Money Magazine listed Colorado Springs as the best place to live.
But we already knew that!
No matter where you come from, how you got here, or why, you all have chosen to make Colorado your home.
I implore you to keep taking care of the land that takes care of us.
There is no place else like it.
