Colorado Guide

The word "Colorado" was selected by Congress in 1861 as the name for the Colorado Territory that is today a state. The name has its origins in the Spanish language, where it is directly translated as "colored red". It is named after the Colorado River (Río Colorado), itself named after its reddish-brown color.

The territory that ultimately became Colorado was added to the United States by the 1803 Louisiana Purchase and the 1848 Mexican Cession.

In 1854, the Kansas Territory was organized, including what is now much of Colorado.

The Pike's Peak Gold Rush of 1859 brought many settlers to the Denver area. A convention was held to organize the provisional Jefferson Territory, but an official break from the Kansas Territory did not happen until 1861.

The Colorado Territory was organized as a United States territory on 28 February 1861, with President Buchanan signing an Act of Congress to that effect.

Colorado attained statehood on 1 August 1876, earning it the moniker the "Centennial State".

The Territory of Colorado was a historic, organized territory of the United States that existed between 1861 and 1876. Its boundaries were identical to the current State of Colorado. The territory ceased to exist when Colorado was admitted to the Union as a state on August 1, 1876. The territory was organized in the wake of the 1859 Pike's Peak Gold Rush, which had brought the first large concentration of white settlement to the region. The organic act[1] creating the territory was passed by Congress and signed by President James Buchanan on February 28, 1861, during the secessions by Southern states that precipitated the American Civil War. The organization of the territory helped solidify Union control over a mineral rich area of the Rocky Mountains. Statehood was regarded as fairly imminent, but territorial ambitions for statehood were thwarted at the end of 1865 by a veto by President Andrew Johnson. Statehood for the territory was a recurring issue during the Ulysses Grant administration, with Grant advocating statehood against a less willing Congress during Reconstruction.