Part 39

The public school system of Colorado dates from 1861, when a school law was passed by the Territorial legislation; this law was superseded by that of 1876, which with subsequent amendments is still in force. In expenditure for the public schools per capita of total population from 1890 to 1903 Colorado was one of a small group of leading states. In 1906 there were 187,836 persons of school age (from 6 to 21) in the state, and of these 144,007 were enrolled in the schools; the annual cost of education was $4.34 per pupil. In 1902-1903, 92.5% of persons from 5 to 18 years of age were enrolled in the schools. The institutions of the state are: the University of Colorado, at Boulder, opened 1877; the School of Mines, at Golden (1873); the Agricultural College, at Fort Collins (1870); the Normal School (1891) at Greeley; and the above-mentioned industrial schools. All are supported by special taxes and appropriations--the Agricultural College receiving also the usual aid from the federal government. Experiment stations in connexion with the college are maintained at different points. Colorado College (1874) at Colorado Springs, Christian but not denominational, and the University of Denver, Methodist, are on independent foundations. The United States maintains an Indian School at Grand Junction.

_History._--According as one regards the Louisiana purchase as including or not including Texas to the Rio Grande (in the territorial meaning of the state of Texas of 1845), one may say that all of Colorado east of the meridian of the head of the Rio Grande, or only that north of the Arkansas and east of the meridian of its head, passed to the United States in 1803. At all events the corner between the Rio Grande and the Arkansas was Spanish from 1819 to 1845, when it became American territory as a part of the state of Texas; and in 1850, by a boundary arrangement between that state and the federal government, was incorporated in the public domain. The territory west of the divide was included in the Mexican cession of 1848. Within Colorado there are pueblos and cave dwellings commemorative of the Indian period and culture of the south-west. Coronado may have entered Colorado in 1540; there are also meagre records of indisputable Spanish explorations in the south in the latter half of the 18th century (friars Escallante and Dominguez in 1776). In 1806 Zebulon M. Pike, mapping the Arkansas and Red rivers of the Louisiana Territory for the government of the United States, followed the Arkansas into Colorado, incidentally discovering the famous peak that bears his name. In 1819 Major S. H. Long explored the valleys of the South Platte and Arkansas, pronouncing them uninhabited and uncultivable (as he also did the valley of the Missouri, whence the idea of the "Great American Desert"). His work also is commemorated by a famous summit of the Rockies. There is nothing more of importance in Colorado annals until 1858. From 1804 to 1854 the whole or parts of Colorado were included, nominally, under some half-dozen territories carved successively out of the Trans-Mississippi country; but not one of these had any practical significance for an uninhabited land. In 1828 (to 1832) a fortified trading post was established near La Junta in the Arkansas valley on the Santa Fé trail; in 1834-1836 several private forts were erected on the Platte; in 1841 the first overland emigrants to the Pacific coast crossed the state, and in 1846-1847 the Mormons settled temporarily at the old Mexican town of Pueblo. John C. Frémont had explored the region in 1842-1843 (and unofficially in later years for railway routes), and gave juster reports of the country to the world than his predecessors. Commerce was tributary in these years to the (New) Mexican town of Taos.

Colorado was practically an unknown country when in 1858 gold was discovered in the plains, on the tributaries of the South Platte, near Denver. In 1859 various discoveries were made in the mountains. The history of Denver goes back to this time. Julesburg, in the extreme north-east corner, at the intersection of the Platte valley and the overland wagon route, became transiently important during the rush of settlers that followed. Emigration from the East was stimulated by the panic and hard times following 1857. During 1860, 1861 and 1862 there was a continuous stream of immigration. Denver (under its present name), Black Hawk, Golden, Central City, Mount Vernon and Nevada City were all founded in 1859; Breckenridge, Empire, Gold Hill, Georgetown and Mill City date from 1860 and 1861. The political development of the next few years was very complicated. "Arapahoe County," including all Colorado, was organized as a part of Kansas Territory in 1858; but a delegate was also sent to Congress to work for the admission of an independent territory (called "Jefferson"). At the same time, early in 1860, a movement for statehood was inaugurated, a constitution being framed and submitted to the people, who rejected it, adopting later in the year a constitution of territorial government. Accordingly the Territory of Jefferson arose, assuming to rule over six degrees of latitude (37°-43°) and eight of longitude (102°-110°). Then there was the Kansas territorial government also, and under this a full county organization was maintained. Finally, peoples' court, acting wholly without reference to Kansas, and with no more than suited them (some districts refusing taxes) to the local "provisional" legislature, secured justice in the mining country. The provisional legislature of the Territory of Jefferson maintained a wholly illegal but rather creditable existence somewhat precariously and ineffectively until 1861. Its acts, owing to the indifference of the settlers, had slight importance. Some, such as the first charter of Denver, were later re-enacted under the legal territorial government, organized by the United States in February 1861. Colorado City was the first capital, but was soon replaced by Golden, which was the capital from 1862 until 1868, when Denver was made the seat of government (in 1881 permanently, by vote of the people). In 1862 some Texas forces were defeated by Colorado forces in an attempt to occupy the territory for the Confederacy. From 1864 to 1870 there was trouble with the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians. A sanguinary attack on an Indian camp in Kiowa county in 1864 is known as the Sand Creek Massacre. In 1867 the Republican party had prepared for the admission of Colorado as a state, but the enabling act was vetoed by President Johnson, and statehood was not gained until 1876. Finally, under a congressional enabling act of the 3rd of March 1875, a constitution was framed by a convention at Denver (20th of December 1875 to 14th of March 1876) and adopted by the people on the 1st of July 1876. The admission of Colorado to the Union was thereupon proclaimed on the 1st of August 1876.

From this time on the history of the state was long largely that of her great mining camps. After 1890 industrial conditions were confused and temporarily set greatly backward by strikes and lockouts in the mines,

## particularly in 1894, 1896-1897 and 1903-1904, several times threatening

civil war and necessitating the establishment of martial law. Questions of railways, of franchises, union scales and the recognition of the union in contracts, questions of sheep and cattle interests, politics, civic, legal and industrial questions, all entered into the economic troubles of these years. The Colorado "labour wars" were among the most important struggles between labour and capital, and afforded probably the most sensational episodes in the story of all labour troubles in the United States in these years. A state board of arbitration was created in 1896, but its usefulness was impaired by an opinion of the state attorney-general (in 1901) that it could not enforce subpoenas, compel testimony or enforce decisions. A law establishing an eight-hour day for underground miners and smelter employees (1899) was unanimously voided by the state supreme court, but in 1902 the people amended the constitution and ordered the general assembly to re-enact the law for labourers in mines, smelters and dangerous employments. Following the repeal of the Sherman Law and other acts and tendencies unfavourable to silver coinage in 1893 and thereafter, the silver question became the dominant issue in politics, resulting in the success of the Populist-Democratic fusion party in three successive elections, and permanently and greatly altering prior party organizations.

The governors of Colorado have been as follows:--

_Territorial._

W. Gilpin 1861 E. M. McCook 1869 J. Evans 1862 S. H. Elbert 1873 A. Cummings 1865 E. M. McCook 1874 A. C. Hunt 1867 J. L. Routt 1875

_State._

J. L. Routt Republican 1876 F. W. Pitkin " 1879 J. B. Grant Democrat 1883 B. H. Eaton Republican 1885 A. Adams Democrat 1887 J. A. Cooper Republican 1890 J. L. Routt " 1891 D. H. Waite Populist 1893 A. W. M'Intire Republican 1895 A. Adams Dem.-Populist 1897 C. S. Thomas " 1899 J. B. Orman " 1901 J. H. Peabody Republican 1903 A. Adams Democrat 1905[5] Jesse F. M'Donald Republican 1905[5] Henry A. Buchtel " 1907 John H. Shafroth Democrat 1909

AUTHORITIES.--For _topography and general description_: Hayden and assistants, reports on _Colorado_, U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories (13 vols., 1867-1878), various reports, especially annual report for 1874; Captain J. C. Frémont, _Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1842_, published 1845 as Congressional document 28th Congress, 2nd Session, House Executive Document No. 166, and various other editions. Other early exploring reports are: _The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike ... Through Louisiana Territory and in New Spain in the Years 1805-6-7_, edited by E. Coues (3 vols., New York, 1895); _Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, 1819-20, under the Command of Major S. H. Long; compiled ... by Edwin James_ (3 vols., London; 2 vols., Philadelphia, 1823); Captain H. Stansbury, _Exploration of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake_ (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1852; also as Senate Executive Document No. 3, 32nd Congress Special Session); Francis Parkman, _The California and Oregon Trail_ (New York, 1849; revised ed., Boston, 1892),--a narrative of personal experience, as are the two following books: Bayard Taylor, _Colorado; A Summer Trip_ (New York, 1867); Samuel Bowles, _The Switzerland of America, A Summer Vacation in Colorado_ (Springfield, Mass., 1869); F. Fossett, _Colorado; A Historical, Descriptive and Statistical Work on the Rocky Mountain Gold and Silver Region_ (Denver, 1878; New York, 1879, 2nd ed., 1880).

On _fauna and flora_: United States Biological Survey, _Bulletins_ (especially No. 10), &c.; the _Biennial Report_ of the State Game and Fish Commissioner; United States Geological Survey, _10th Annual Report_, pt. v., and 20th A.R., pt. 5, and various publications of the United States Forestry Division for forest and forest reserves; Porter and Coulter, _Synopsis of the Flora of Colorado_ (1879); and scattered papers in scientific periodicals. On _climate_: United States Department of Agriculture, _Colorado Climate and Crop Service_ (monthly). On _soil and agriculture_: _Annual Report_ of the State Board of Agriculture (since 1878), of the State Agricultural College, Agricultural Experiment Station (since 1887), and of the State Board of Horticulture; _Biennial Report_ of the State Board of Land Commissioners (since 1879); publications of the United States Department of Agriculture, various bulletins on agrostology, water supply and irrigation, &c. (See Department bibliographies); United States Census, 1900 (States), _Bulletin_ 177, "Agriculture in Colorado" (Special), _Bulletin_ 16, "Irrigation in the United States" (1902), &c.; United States Geological Survey, various materials, consult bibliographies in its Bulletins 100, 177, 215, 301, &c. On _manufactures_: publications of United States Census, 1900, and the special census of manufactures, 1905. On _mineral industries_: United States Geological Survey, _Annual Report_, annual volume on "Mineral Resources"; also the annual _Mineral Industry_ (Rothwell's New York-London); Colorado State Bureau of Mines, _Biennial Report_, Inspector of Coal Mines, _Biennial Report_ (since 1883-1884); and an enormous quantity of information in the publications of the United States Geological Survey. For labour troubles see below. On _railways_, see annual _Statistics of Railways_ of the United States Interstate Commerce Commission, and Poor's Manual (Annual, New York). _Rivers_, see _Index to Reports of the Chief of Engineers_, United States Army (3 vols., 1900, covering 1866-1900); publications United States Geological Survey. On _population_: United States Census, 1900. _Administration_: J. W. Mills' _Annotated Statutes of the State of Colorado ..._ (2 vols., Denver, 1891; vol. iii. 1896); Helen L. Sumner, _Equal Suffrage in Colorado_ (New York, 1909,); J. E. Snook, _Colorado History and Government_ (Denver, 1904), is a reliable school epitome.

On _history_: F. L. Paxson, "A Preliminary Bibliography of Colorado History," being vol. iii., No. 3, of _University of Colorado Studies_ (June 1906); H. H. Bancroft, _History of ... Nevada, Colorado and Wyoming, 1540-1888_ (San Francisco, 1890); on _labour conditions and troubles_ consult: _Reports_ of the State Bureau of Labour Statistics (since 1892); _Annual Reports_ of the State Board of Arbitration (since 1898); publications of United States Bureau of Labour (bibliographies); also especially Senate Document 122, 58th Congress, 3rd Session, covering the years 1880-1904. See also CRIPPLE CREEK and LEADVILLE.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The market value of silver varied in the years 1870-1885 from $1.32 to $1.065 an ounce; 1886-1893, $0.995 to $0.782; 1894-1904, $0.630 to $0.5722.

[2] The mineral yield for 1907, according to _The Mineral Resources of the United States_, 1907, amounted to $71,105,128.

[3] The special census of manufactures of 1905 was concerned only with the manufacturing establishments of the state conducted under the so-called factory system. The capital invested in such establishments was $107,663,500, and the product was valued at $100,143,999. The corresponding figures for 1900 reduced to the same standard for purposes of comparison were $58,172,865 and $89,067,879. Thus during the five years the capital invested in factories increased 85.1%, and the factory product 12.4%. The increase in product would undoubtedly have been much greater but for the labour disturbances (described later in the article), which occurred during this interval. Of the total product in 1905 more than four-fifths were represented by the smelting of lead, copper and zinc ores, the manufacture of iron and steel, the production of coke, and the refining of petroleum. The value of the flour and grist-mill product was $5,783,421.

[4] Census figures before 1890 do not include Indians on reservations.

[5] Adams was inaugurated on the 10th of January, having been elected on the return of the vote, which had been notoriously corrupted in Denver and elsewhere. The Republican legislature, after investigating the election and upon receiving from Peabody a written promise that he would resign in twenty-four hours, declared on the 16th of March that Peabody was elected. His resignation on the 17th of March made Lieutenant-Governor M'Donald governor of the state.

COLORADO RIVER, a stream in the south of the Argentine Republic. It has its sources on the eastern slopes of the Andes in the lat. of the Chilean volcano Tinguiririca (about 34° 48' S.), and pursues a general E.S.E. course to the Atlantic, where it discharges through several channels of a delta extending from lat. 39° 30' to 39° 30' S. Its total length is about 620 m., of which about 200 m. from the coast up to Pichemahuida is navigable for vessels of 7 ft. draft. It has been usually described as being formed by the confluence of the Grande and Barrancas, but as the latter is only a small stream compared with the Grande it is better described as a tributary, and the Grande as a part of the main river under another name. After leaving the vicinity of the Andes the Colorado flows through a barren, arid territory and receives no tributary of note except the Curaco, which has its sources in the Pampa territory and is considered to be part of the ancient outlet of the now closed lacustrine basin of southern Mendoza. The bottom lands of the Colorado in its course across Patagonia are fertile and wooded, but their area is too limited to support more than a small, scattered population.

COLORADO RIVER, a stream in the south-west of the United States of America, draining a part of the high and arid plateau between the Rocky mountains and the Sierra Nevada in California. The light rainfall scarcely suffices over much of the river's course to make good the loss by evaporation from the waters drained from mountain snows at its source. Its headwaters are known as the Green river, which rises in north-west Wyoming and after a course of some 700 m. due south unites in south-east Utah with the Grand river, flowing down from Colorado, to form the main trunk of the Colorado proper. The Green cuts its way through the Uinta mountains of Wyoming; then flowing intermittently in the open, it crosses successive uplifts in a series of deep gorges, and flows finally at the foot of canyon walls 1500 ft. high near its junction with the Grand.

The Colorado in its course below the junction has formed a region that is one of the most wonderful of the world, not only for its unique and magnificent scenery, but also because it affords the most remarkable example known of the work of differential weathering and erosion by wind and water and the exposure of geologic strata on an enormous scale. Above the Paria the river flows through scenery comparatively tame until it reaches the plateau of the Marble Canyon, some 60 m. in length. The walls here are at first only a few score of feet in height, but increase rapidly to almost 5000 ft. At its southern end is the Little Colorado. Above this point eleven rivers with steep mountain gradients have joined either the Green or the Grand or their united system. The Little Colorado has cut a trench 1800 ft. deep into the plateau in the last 27 m. as it approaches the Colorado, and empties into it 2625 ft. above the sea. Here the Colorado turns abruptly west directly athwart the folds and fault line of the plateau, through the Grand Canyon (q.v.) of the Colorado, which is 217 m. long and from 4 to 20 m. wide between the upper cliffs. The walls, 4000 to 6000 ft. high, drop in successive escarpments of 500 to 1600 ft., banded in splendid colours, toward the gloomy narrow gorge of the present river. Below the confluence of the Virgin river of Nevada the Colorado abruptly turns again, this time southward, and flows as the boundary between Arizona and California and in part between Arizona and Nevada, and then through Mexican territory, some 450 m. farther to the Gulf of California. Below the Black Canyon the river lessens in gradient, and in its lower course flows in a broad sedimentary valley--a distinct estuarine plain extending northward beyond Yuma--and the channel through much of this region is bedded in a dyke-like embankment lying above the flood-plain over which the escaping water spills in time of flood. This dyke cuts off the flow of the river to the remarkable low area in southern California known as the Salton Sink, or Coahuila Valley, the descent to which from the river near Yuma is very much greater than the fall in the actual river-bed from Yuma to the gulf. In the autumn of 1904, the diversion flow from the river into a canal heading in Mexican territory a few miles below Yuma, and intended for irrigation of California south of the Sink, escaped control, and the river, taking the canal as a new channel, recreated in California a great inland sea--to the bed of which it had frequently been turned formerly, for example, in 1884 and 1891--and for a time practically abandoned its former course through Mexican territory to the Gulf of California. But it was effectively dammed in the early part of 1907 and returned to its normal course, from which, however, there was still much leakage to Salton Sea; in July 1907 the permanent dam was completed. From the Black Canyon to the sea the Colorado normally flows through a desert-like basin, to the west of which, in Mexico, is Laguna Maquata (or Salada), lying in the so-called Pattie Basin, which was formerly a part of the Gulf of California, and which is frequently

## partially flooded (like Coahuila Valley) by the delta waters of the

Colorado. Of the total length of the Colorado, about 2200 m., 500 m. or more from the mouth are navigable by light steamers, but channel obstacles make all navigation difficult at low water, and impossible about half the year above Mojave. The whole area drained by the river and its tributaries is about 225,000 sq. m.; and it has been estimated by Major J. W. Powell that in its drainage basin there are fully 200,000 sq. m. that have been degraded on an average 6000 ft. It is still a powerful eroding stream in the canyon portion, and its course below the canyons has a shifting bed much obstructed by bars built of sediment carried from the upper course. The desert country toward the mouth is largely a sandy or gravelly aggradation plain of the river. The regular floods are in May and June. Others, due to rains, are rare. The rise of the water at such times is extraordinarily rapid. Enormous drift is left in the canyons 30 or 40 ft. above the normal level. The valley near Yuma is many miles wide, frequently inundated, and remarkably fertile; it is often called the "Nile of America" from its resemblance in climate, fertility, overflows and crops. These alluvial plains are covered with a dense growth of mesquite, cottonwood, willow, arrowwood, quelite and wild hemp. Irrigation is essential to regular agriculture. There is a fine delta in the gulf. The Colorado is remarkable for exceedingly high tides at its mouth and for destructive bores.

In 1540, the second year that Spaniards entered Arizona, they discovered the Colorado. Hernando de Alarcon co-operating with F. V. de Coronado, explored with ships the Gulf of California and sailed up the lower river; Melchior Diaz, marching along the shores of the gulf, likewise reached the river; and Captain Gárcia López de Cárdenas, marching from Zuñi, reached the Grand Canyon, but could not descend its walls. In 1604 Juan de Oñate crossed Arizona from New Mexico and descended the Santa Maria, Bill Williams and Colorado to the gulf. The name Colorado was first applied to the present Colorado Chiquito, and probably about 1630 to the Colorado of to-day. But up to 1869 great portions of the river were still unknown. James White, a miner, in 1867, told a picturesque story (not generally accepted as true) of making the passage of the Grand Canyon on the river. In 1869, and in later expeditions, the feat was accomplished by Major J. W. Powell. There have been since then repeated explorations and scientific studies.

See C. E. Dutton, "Tertiary History of the Grand Canyon," _U.S. Geological Survey, Monograph II_. (1882); J. W. Powell, _Exploration of the Colorado River_ (Washington, 1875), and _Canyons of the Colorado_ (Meadville, Pa. 1895); F. S. Dellenbaugh, _Romance of the Colorado River_ (New York, 1902), and _Canyon Voyage_ (1908); G. W. James, _Wonders of the Colorado Desert_ (2 vols., Boston, 1906).