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110-544: The territory was organized in the wake of the Pike's Peak Gold Rush of 1858–1862, which brought the first large concentration of white settlement to the region. The organic legislative act creating the slave-free Territory of Colorado was passed by the United States Congress and signed by 15th President James Buchanan (1791-1868, served 1857-1861), into law on February 28, 1861. During that period which at

220-600: A Cherokee woman, and through his connections to the tribe, he heard about Ralston's 1850 discovery of gold along the South Platte River. Green Russell organized a party to prospect along the South Platte River, setting off with his two brothers and six companions in February 1858. They rendezvoused with Cherokee tribe members along the Arkansas River in present-day Oklahoma and continued westward along

330-445: A broad denuded area as a piedmont deposit by the rivers which issued from the mountains. Since then, it has been more or less dissected by the erosion of valleys. The central section of the plains thus presents a marked contrast to the northern section. While the northern section owes its smoothness to the removal of local gravels and sands from a formerly uneven surface by the action of degrading rivers and their inflowing tributaries,

440-828: A broad expanse of flatland in North America . The region is located just to the east of the Rocky Mountains , much of it covered in prairie , steppe , and grassland . They are the western part of the Interior Plains , which include the mixed grass prairie , the tallgrass prairie between the Great Lakes and Appalachian Plateau , and the Taiga Plains and Boreal Plains ecozones in Northern Canada . "Great Plains", or Western Plains ,

550-538: A broad stretch of country underlain by nearly horizontal strata extending westward from the 97th meridian west to the base of the Rocky Mountains , a distance of 300 to 500 mi (480 to 800 km). It extends northward from the Mexican boundary far into Canada. Although the altitude of the plains increases gradually from 600 ft (180 m) or 1,200 ft (370 m) on the east to 4,000–5,000 ft (1,200–1,500 m) or 6,000 ft (1,800 m) near

660-528: A force of Texans . Sibley's New Mexico campaign was intended as a prelude to an invasion of the Colorado Territory northward to Fort Laramie , cutting the supply lines between California and the rest of the Union . The Coloradans, under the command of Union Army General Edward Canby and Colonel John P. Slough , Lt. Col. Samuel F. Tappan and Major John M. Chivington , defeated Sibley's force at

770-603: A gradual transition, this rainfall line may be taken to divide the drier plains from the moister prairies. However, in Canada the eastern boundary of the plains is well defined by the presence of the Canadian Shield to the northeast. The plains (within the United States) may be described in northern, intermediate, central and southern sections, in relation to certain peculiar features. In Canada, no such division

880-661: A mining camp Auraria (named for a gold mining camp in Georgia) at the confluence of the South Platte and Cherry Creek . The Georgians left for their home state the following winter. At Bent's Fort along the Arkansas River , Russell told William Larimer, Jr. , a Kansas land speculator, about the placer gold they had found. Larimer, realizing the opportunity to capitalize on it, hurried to Auraria. In November 1858, he laid claim to an area across Cherry Creek from Auraria and named it " Denver City " in honor of James W. Denver ,

990-591: A party of Spanish-speaking gold seekers from Taos, New Mexico , worked a placer deposit along the South Platte River about 3 miles (4.8 km) above Cherry Creek at a location later known as Mexican Diggings near the Overland Park Golf Course in Denver . William Greeneberry "Green" Russell was a Georgian who worked in the California gold fields in the 1850s. Russell was married to

1100-645: A region of human geography , referring to the Plains Indians or the Plains states . In Canada the term is rarely used; Natural Resources Canada , the government department responsible for official mapping, treats the Interior Plains as one unit consisting of several related plateaus and plains. There is no region referred to as the "Great Plains" in the Atlas of Canada . In terms of human geography,

1210-594: A west-northwest direction in what is now Oklahoma and Texas which is now known as the De Soto Trail. The Spanish thought that the Great Plains were the location of the mythological Quivira and Cíbola , a place said to be rich in gold. People in the southwest began to acquire horses in the 16th century by trading or stealing them from Spanish colonists in New Mexico. As horse culture moved northward,

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1320-404: Is about 500 mi (800 km) east to west and 2,000 mi (3,200 km) north to south. Much of the region was home to American bison herds until they were hunted to near extinction during the mid/late-19th century. It has an area of approximately 500,000 sq mi (1,300,000 km ). Current thinking regarding the geographic boundaries of the Great Plains is shown by this map at

1430-556: Is also the ecoregion of the Great Plains or alternatively the western portion of the Great Plains. The Great Plains lie across both the Central United States and Western Canada , encompassing: The term "Great Plains" is used in the United States to describe a sub-section of the even more vast Interior Plains physiographic division, which covers much of the interior of North America. It also has currency as

1540-526: Is extraordinarily smooth. It is very dry, except for occasional shallow and temporary water sheets after rains. Llano is separated from the plains on the north by the mature consequent valley of the Canadian River , and from the mountains on the west by the broad and probably mature valley of the Pecos River . On the east, it is strongly undercut by the retrogressive erosion of the headwaters of

1650-506: Is peculiarly elaborate. Known as the Badlands , it is a minutely dissected form with a relief of a few hundred feet. This is due to several causes: The central section of the Great Plains, between latitudes 42° and 36° , occupying eastern Colorado and western Kansas , is mostly a dissected fluviatile plain. That is, this section was once smoothly covered with a gently sloping plain of gravel and sand that had been spread far forward on

1760-455: Is used: the climatic and vegetation regions are more impactful on human settlement than mere topography, and therefore the region is split into (from north to south), the taiga plains, boreal plains , aspen parkland , and prairie ecoregion regions. The northern section of the Great Plains, north of latitude 44° , includes eastern Montana , eastern Wyoming , most of North Dakota and South Dakota , southwestern Minnesota and portions of

1870-582: The American Civil War of April 1861 to June 1865. The boundaries of the Federals' newly designated Colorado Territory were essentially identical with those of the current / modern State of Colorado , with lands taken from the four surrounding previous Federal territories of Nebraska , Kansas , New Mexico , and Utah (Deseret) established during the 1850s . The organization of the new territory helped solidify Union / Federal control over

1980-563: The American burying beetle (Nicrophorus americus), Salt Creek Tiger Beetle (Cinidela nevadica lincolniana), Great Plains Giant Tiger Beetle (Amblycheila chylindriformis), Microstylum morosum , Bean leaf beetle (Cerotoma trifurcata), Great Plains Camel Cricket (Daihinia brevipes), and the Great plains spittlebug (Lepyronia gibbosa). Some species in the Great plains have gone extinct in

2090-593: The Arikara , Mandan , Pawnee , and Wichita . Wars with the Ojibwe and Cree peoples pushed the Lakota (Teton Sioux) west onto the Great Plains in the mid- to late-17th century. The Shoshone originated in the western Great Basin and spread north and east into present-day Idaho and Wyoming. By 1500, some Eastern Shoshone had crossed the Rocky Mountains into the Great Plains. After 1750, warfare and pressure from

2200-704: The California gold rush by approximately a decade, produced a dramatic but temporary influx of migrants and immigrants into the Pike's Peak Country of the Southern Rocky Mountains . The rush was exemplified by the slogan "Pike's Peak or Bust!", a reference to the prominent mountain at the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains that guided many early prospectors to the region westward over the Great Plains . The prospectors provided

2310-721: The Civil War , the tide of new miners into the territory slowed to a trickle, and many left for the East to fight. The Missourians who stayed formed two volunteer regiments, as well as home guard. Although seemingly stationed at the periphery of the war theaters, the Colorado regiments found themselves in a crucial position in 1862 after the Confederate invasion of the New Mexico Territory by General Henry Sibley and

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2420-669: The Colorado War , in November 1864, a force of 800 troops of the Colorado home guard, after heavy drinking, attacked an encampment of Cheyenne and Arapaho at Sand Creek , murdering between 150 and 200 Indians, mostly elderly men, women and children. This Sand Creek Massacre or 'Massacre of Cheyenne Indians' led to official hearings by the United States Congress Joint Committee on the Conduct of

2530-671: The Colorado gold rush ) was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pike's Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States that began in July 1858 and lasted until roughly the creation of the Colorado Territory on February 28, 1861. An estimated 100,000 gold seekers took part in one of the greatest gold rushes in North American history. The participants in

2640-825: The Department of the Interior . In contrast, U.S. Forest Service , an agency of the U. S. Department of Agriculture , administers the National Forests and National Grasslands, under a multiple-use concept. By law, the U.S. Forest Service must consider all resources, with no single resource emphasized to the detriment of others, including water, soil, grazing, timber harvesting, and minerals (mining and drilling), as well as recreation and conservation of fish and wildlife. Each individual state also administers state lands, typically smaller areas, for various purposes including conservation and recreation. Grasslands are among

2750-761: The Georgia Gold Rush to the California gold fields. The party followed the Trail of Tears west, and on June 22, 1850, they crossed the South Platte River (a few miles north of what is today Denver ) and camped near the confluence of two streams. One of the prospectors, Lewis Ralston panned for gold near the mouth of the smaller stream (in what is now Gold Strike Park in Arvada, Colorado .) He found about ¼ troy ounce (8 g) of gold, then worth about five dollars (about $ 550 USD today.) While Ralston

2860-908: The Great Plains toad ( Anaxyrus cognatus ), plains leopard frog ( Lithobates blairi ), and plains spadefoot toad ( Spea bombifrons ). Some species predominately associated with various river basins in the Great Plains include sturgeon chub ( Macrhybopsis gelida ), peppered chub ( Macrhybopsis tetranema ), prairie chub ( Macrhybopsis australis ), western silvery minnow ( Hybognathus argyritis ), plains minnow ( Hybognathus placitus ), smalleye shiner ( Notropis buccula ), Arkansas River shiner ( Notropis girardi ), Red River shiner ( Notropis bairdi ), Topeka shiner ( Notropis topeka ), plains topminnow ( Fundulus sciadicus ), plains killifish ( Fundulus zebrinus ), Red River pupfish ( Cyprinodon rubrofluviatilis ), and Arkansas darter ( Etheostoma cragini ). The great plains also has many invertebrate species living here both alive and extinct such as

2970-654: The Mexican Cession in 1848. The land claims of Texas were initially controversial. The border between the U.S. and Mexico was redrawn in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at the end of the Mexican–American War , and the final borders of the state of Texas were established by the Congressional Compromise of 1850 . The land that was eventually defined as the Colorado Territory

3080-857: The Pike Expedition of 1806–07 by Zebulon Pike , the journey along the north bank of the Platte River in 1820 by Stephen H. Long to what came to be called Longs Peak, the John C. Frémont expedition in 1845–46, and the Powell Geographic Expedition of 1869 by John Wesley Powell . In 1779, Governor de Anza of New Mexico fought and defeated the Comanches under Cuerno Verde on the Eastern Slope of Colorado, probably south of Pueblo. In 1786, de Anza made peace with

3190-545: The Santa Fe Trail . Others joined the party along the way until their number reached 107. Upon reaching Bent's Fort , they turned to the northwest, reaching the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte on May 23. The site of their initial explorations is in present-day Confluence Park in Denver. They began prospecting in the river beds, exploring Cherry Creek and nearby Ralston Creek but without success. In

3300-628: The United States Congress did not recognize the territory, and it never gained legal status. Congressional grant of territorial status for the region was delayed by the slavery issue, and a deadlock between Democrats, who controlled the Senate, and the antislavery Republicans, who gained control of the House of Representatives in 1859. The deadlock was broken only by the Civil War. In early 1861, enough Democratic senators from seceding states resigned from

3410-434: The "Great Plains" as an ecoregion synonymous with predominant prairies and grasslands rather than as physiographic region defined by topography. The Great Plains ecoregion includes five sub-regions: Temperate Prairies, West-Central Semi-Arid Prairies, South-Central Semi-Arid Prairies, Texas Louisiana Coastal Plains, and Tamaulipas-Texas Semi-Arid Plain, which overlap or expand upon other Great Plains designations. The region

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3520-556: The Blackfoot, Crow, Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho pushed Eastern Shoshone south and westward. Some of them moved as far south as Texas, emerging as the Comanche by 1700. The first known contact between Europeans and Indians in the Great Plains occurred in what is now Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska from 1540 to 1542 with the arrival of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado , a Spanish conquistador. In that same period, Hernando de Soto crossed

3630-503: The Canadian provinces including southeastern Alberta , southern Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba . The strata here are Cretaceous or early Tertiary , lying nearly horizontal. The surface is shown to be a plain of degradation by a gradual ascent here and there to the crest of a ragged escarpment, the escarpment-remnant of a resistant stratum. There are also the occasional lava -capped mesas and dike formed ridges, surmounting

3740-462: The Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln . This definition, however, is primarily ecological, not physiographic. The Boreal Plains of Western Canada are physiographically the same, but differentiated by their tundra and forest (rather than grassland) appearance. The term "Great Plains", for the region west of about the 96th meridian west and east of the Rocky Mountains ,

3850-557: The Comanche were among the first to commit to a fully mounted nomadic lifestyle. This occurred by the 1730s, when they had acquired enough horses to put all their people on horseback. The real beginning of the horse culture of the plains began with the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 in New Mexico and the capture of thousands of horses and other livestock. In 1683 a Spanish expedition into Texas found horses among Native people. In 1690,

3960-650: The Comanches, creating an alliance against the Apaches. A group of Cherokee crossed the South Platte and Cache la Poudre River valleys on their way to California in 1848 during the California Gold Rush . They reported finding trace amounts of gold in the South Platte and its tributaries as they passed along the mountains. In the south, in the San Luis Valley , early Mexican families established themselves in large land grants (later contested by

4070-551: The Great Plains and into the valleys and lower elevations of the eastern Rocky Mountains and portions of the American southwest . Other snakes include the plains hog-nosed snake ( Heterodon nasicus ), western milksnake ( Lampropeltis gentilis ), great plains ratsnake ( Pantherophis emoryi ), bullsnake ( Pituophis catenifer sayi ), plains black-headed snake ( Tantilla nigriceps ), plains gartersnake ( Thamnophis radix ), and lined snake ( Tropidoclonion lineatum ). Reptile diversity increases significantly in southern regions of

4180-564: The Great Plains and that included trade networks west to the Rocky Mountains. Mississippians settled the Great Plains at sites now in Oklahoma and South Dakota . Siouan language speakers may have originated in the lower Mississippi River region. They were agriculturalists and may have been part of the Mound Builder civilization during the 9th–12th centuries. Pressure from other Indian tribes, themselves driven west and south by

4290-588: The Great Plains include National Parks and National Monuments, administers by the National Park Service with the responsibility of preserving ecological and historical places and making them available to the public. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service manages the National Wildlife Refuges, with the primary responsibility of conserving and protecting fish, wildlife, plants, and habitat in the public trust. Both are agencies of

4400-476: The Great Plains include the swift fox ( Vulpes velox ) and the endangered black-footed ferret ( Mustela nigripes ). The lesser prairie chicken ( Tympanuchus pallidicinctus ) is endemic to the Great Plains and the distribution of the greater prairie chicken ( Tympanuchus cupido ) predominantly occurs in the region, although the latter historically ranged further eastward. The Harris's sparrow ( Zonotrichia querula ) spends winter months in southern areas of

4510-512: The Great Plains is the most tornado active area in the world and is sometimes referred to as Tornado Alley . The Great Plains are part of the floristic North American Prairies province , which extends from the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians . Although the American bison ( Bison bison ) historically ranged throughout much of North America (from New York to Oregon and Canada to northern Mexico), they are strongly associated with

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4620-751: The Great Plains where they once roamed in immense herds. Pronghorn ( Antilocapra americana ) range into western areas of the region. The black-tailed prairie dog ( Cynomys ludovicianus ) is another iconic species among several rodents that are linked to the region including the thirteen-lined ground squirrel ( Ictidomys tridecemlineatus ), spotted ground squirrel ( Xerospermophilus spilosoma ), Franklin's ground squirrel ( Poliocitellus franklinii ), plains pocket gopher ( Geomys bursarius ), hispid pocket mouse ( Chaetodipus hispidus ), olive-backed pocket mouse ( Perognathus fasciatus ), plains pocket mouse ( Perognathus flavescens ), and plains harvest mouse ( Reithrodontomys montanus ), Two carnivores associated with

4730-488: The Great Plains. The ornate box turtle ( Terrapene ornata ) and great plains skink ( Plestiodon obsoletus ) occur in southern areas. Although few salamanders are strongly associated with region, the western tiger salamander ( Ambystoma mavortium ) ranges through much of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, as does the Rocky Mountain toad ( Anaxyrus w. woodhousi ). Other anurans related to region include

4840-503: The High Plains) is periodically subjected to extended periods of drought ; high winds in the region may then generate devastating dust storms . The eastern Great Plains near the eastern boundary falls in the humid subtropical climate zone in the southern areas, and the northern and central areas fall in the humid continental climate . Many thunderstorms occur in the plains in the spring through summer. The southeastern portion of

4950-807: The Overland Hotel (1859–1910, 1117 Washington Avenue in Golden, housing the Territorial Council from 1862 to 1866); and the Territorial Executive Building (unknown dates, approximately 14th and Arapahoe Streets in Golden, housing the executive branch of the government from 1866 to 1867). 38°59′50″N 105°32′52″W  /  38.9972°N 105.5478°W  / 38.9972; -105.5478  ( Territory of Colorado (historical) ) Pike%27s Peak Gold Rush The Pike's Peak gold rush (later known as

5060-413: The Pike's Peak country. Some even dared to go out in the winter of 1858 to try to get a head start, only to realize that they would have to wait until the snow melted to begin mining. Hardrock mining boomed for a few years, but then declined in the mid-1860s as the miners exhausted the shallow parts of the veins that contained free gold, and found that their amalgamation mills could not recover gold from

5170-425: The Red, Brazos, and Colorado rivers of Texas and presents a ragged escarpment approximately 500 to 800 ft (150 to 240 m) high, overlooking the central denuded area of that state. There, between the Brazos and Colorado rivers, occurs a series of isolated outliers capped by limestone that underlies both the Llano Uplift on the west and the Grand Prairies escarpment on the east. The southern and narrow part of

5280-426: The Territorial government remain: the historic log building in Colorado City, and the Loveland Block in downtown Golden City (which had housed the complete legislature, Territorial Library and possibly Supreme Court from 1866 to 1867, with library remaining to 1868). Others which served include the original Loveland Building (1859–1933, 1107 Washington Avenue in Golden, housing the Territorial House from 1862 to 1866);

5390-455: The U.S. Senate to give control of both houses to the Republicans, clearing the way for admission of new territories. Three new territories were created in as many days: Colorado (February 28), Nevada (March 1), and Dakota (March 2). Colorado Territory was officially organized by Act of Congress on February 28, 1861 (12  Stat.   172 ), out of lands previously part of the Kansas, Nebraska , Utah , and New Mexico territories. Technically

5500-431: The U.S.) from the Mexican government. In the early 19th century, the upper South Platte River valley had been infiltrated by fur traders , but had not been the site of permanent settlement. The first movement of permanent U.S. settlers in the area began with the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854, which allowed private land claims to be filed. Among the first settlers to establish claims were former fur traders who returned to

5610-428: The U.S., government to build roads, military and other posts on Indian lands. If these roads could be used by U.S. citizens to lawfully pass through the Indian territories was not stated but apparently implied since the U.S. government bound itself to protect Indian nations against depredations by U.S. citizens. The treaty did not grant any rights for the erection of posts or settlements by U.S. civilians. Since this treaty

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5720-412: The United States Congress passed the Admission Act for the territory in late 1865, but it was vetoed by President Andrew Johnson . For the next eleven years, the movement for territorial admission was stalled, with several close calls. President Grant advocated statehood for the territory in 1870, but Congress did not act. In the meantime, the territory found itself threatened by lack of railroads . By

5830-456: The War in March and April 1865. After the hearings, the Congress Joint Committee in their report on May 4, 1865, described the actions of Colonel John Chivington and his Volunteers as "foul, dastardly, brutal, cowardly" and: It is difficult to believe that beings in the form of men, and disgracing the uniform of United States soldiers and officers, could commit or countenance the commission of such acts of cruelty and barbarity as are detailed in

5940-454: The agreement, and became even more belligerent over the 'whites' encroaching on their hunting grounds. Tensions mounted when Colorado territorial governor John Evans in 1862 created a home guard of regiments of Colorado Volunteers returning from the Civil War and took a hard line against Indians accused of theft. On August 21, 1864, a band of 30 Indians attacked four members of the Colorado Cavalry as they were rounding up stray cattle. Three of

6050-437: The area at times. The earliest explorers of European extraction to visit the area were Spanish explorers such as Coronado , although the Coronado expedition of 1540–42 only skirted the future border of the Colorado Territory to the south and southeast. In 1776, Francisco Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante explored southern Colorado in the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition. Other notable explorations included

6160-594: The area of the ancient Great Plains for thousands to millions of years. The vast majority of these animals became extinct in North America at the end of the Pleistocene (around 13,000 years ago). A number of significant fossil sites are located in the Great Plains including Agate Fossil Beds National Monument ( Nebraska ), Ashfall Fossil Beds ( Nebraska ), Clayton Lake State Park ( New Mexico ), Dinosaur Valley State Park ( Texas ), Hudson-Meng Bison Kill (Nebraska), Makoshika State Park (Montana), and The Mammoth Site ( South Dakota ). Public and protected lands in

6270-408: The central section, it is for the most part a dissected fluviatile plain. However, the lower lands which surround it on all sides place it in such strong relief that it stands up as a table-land, known from the time of Mexican occupation as the Llano Estacado . It measures roughly 150 mi (240 km) east-west and 400 mi (640 km) north-south. It is of very irregular outline, narrowing to

6380-434: The deeper sulfide ores. Colorado produced 150,000 ounces of gold in 1861 and 225,000 troy ounces in 1862. This led Congress to establish the Denver Mint . Cumulative Colorado production by 1865 was 1.25 million ounces, of which sixty percent was placer gold . 39°39′35″N 105°00′10″W  /  39.65972°N 105.00278°W  / 39.65972; -105.00278 Great Plains The Great Plains are

6490-475: The encroachment of European settlers as well as economic incentives such as the fur trade, alongside the arrival of the horse and firearms from Europe pushed multiple tribes onto the Great Plains. Among those to have lived on the Great Plains were the Blackfoot , Crow , Sioux , Cheyenne , Arapaho , Comanche , and others. Eastern portions of the Great Plains were inhabited by tribes who lived at Etzanoa and in semi-permanent villages of earth lodges, such as

6600-440: The end of the American Civil War in 1865, the Native American presence had been largely reduced or pacified through military action or peace treaties on the High Plains . The land that eventually became the Colorado Territory fell under the jurisdiction of the United States in three separate stages: the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 (as adjusted by the 1819 Adams–Onis Treaty ), then the Annexation of Texas in 1845, and finally

6710-481: The first major European-American population in the region. The rush created a few gold rush towns such as Denver City and Boulder City that would develop into cities. Many smaller camps such as Auraria and Saint Charles City were absorbed by larger camps and towns. Scores of other mining camps have faded into ghost towns , but quite a few camps such as Central City , Black Hawk , Georgetown , and Idaho Springs survived. For many years, people had suspected

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6820-406: The first week of July 1858, Green Russell and Sam Bates found a small placer deposit near the mouth of Little Dry Creek that yielded about 20 troy ounces (620 g) of gold, then worth about 380 dollars (about $ 44,000 USD today.) This was the first significant gold discovery in the Rocky Mountain region. The site of the discovery is in the present-day Denver suburb of Englewood , just north of

6930-433: The general level by 500 ft (150 m) or more and manifestly demonstrating the widespread erosion of the surrounding plains. All these reliefs are more plentiful towards the mountains in central Montana. The peneplain is no longer in the cycle of erosion that witnessed its production. It appears to have suffered a regional uplift or increase in elevation, for the upper Missouri River and its branches no longer flow on

7040-494: The gold rush were known as " Fifty-Niners " after 1859, the peak year of the rush and often used the motto Pike's Peak or Bust! In fact, the location of the Pike's Peak gold rush was centered 85 miles (137 km) north of Pikes Peak . The name Pike's Peak gold rush was used mainly because of how well known and important Pike's Peak was at the time. The rush created a few towns such as Denver and Boulder that would develop into cities. The Pike's Peak gold rush, which followed

7150-445: The gold, they came up short because he could not quite remember the location. On January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall found placer gold near Coloma, California , and unbeknownst nine days later, Mexico ceded California and the rest of northern Mexico to the United States with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo . The California Gold Rush ensued. In the spring of 1850, John Beck led a party of predominately Cherokee veterans of

7260-426: The great plains like the Rocky Mountain Locust (Melanoplus spretus). During the Cretaceous Period (145–66 million years ago), the Great Plains were covered by a shallow inland sea called the Western Interior Seaway . However, during the Late Cretaceous to the Paleocene (65–55 million years ago), the seaway had begun to recede, leaving behind thick marine deposits and a relatively flat terrain which

7370-462: The intermixed Cheyenne and Arapaho , as well as by the Pawnee , Comanche and Kiowa . In 1861, ten days before the establishment of the Federal territory, the Arapaho and Cheyenne agreed with the United States government in the East in Washington, D.C. to give up most their areas of the Great Plains to white settlement but were allowed to live in their larger traditional areas, so long as they could tolerate homesteaders near their camps. By

7480-578: The junction of U.S. Highway 285 and U.S. Highway 85 . This discovery was announced with great excitement by the Kansas City Journal of Commerce on 26 August 1858 with the headline, "THE NEW ELDORADO!! GOLD IN KANSAS!!" The first decade of the boom was largely concentrated along the South Platte River at the base of the Rocky Mountains, in the canyon of Clear Creek in the mountains west of Golden City, at Breckenridge and in South Park at Como , Fairplay , and Alma . By 1860, Denver City, Golden City , and Boulder City were substantial towns that served

7590-419: The lands they once trapped, including Antoine Janis and other trappers from Fort Laramie , who established a town near Laporte along the Cache la Poudre in 1858. See Forts in Colorado . In 1858, Green Russell and a party of Georgians , having heard the story of the gold in the South Platte from Cherokee after they returned from California, set out to mine the area they described. That summer they founded

7700-413: The lands, ten years earlier designated to their tribes, for white settlement, keeping only a fragment of the original reserve , located between Arkansas River and Sand Creek . This new fragment was assigned in severalty to the individual members of the respective tribes with each member receiving 40 acres (160,000 m) of land. The United States, by the Fort Wise Treaty, wished to have the Indians settle

7810-501: The largest group. They rise like a large island from the sea, occupying an oval area of about 100 mi (160 km) north-south by 50 mi (80 km) east-west. At Black Elk Peak , they reach an altitude of 7,216 ft (2,199 m) and have an effective relief over the plains of 2,000 or 3,000 ft (610 or 910 m) This mountain mass is of flat-arched, dome-like structure, now well dissected by radiating consequent streams. The weaker uppermost strata have been eroded down to

7920-595: The late 1860s, many in Denver had sold their businesses and moved northward to the Dakota Territory communities of Laramie and Cheyenne , which had sprung up along the transcontinental railroad . Faced with the possible dwindling of the town and its eclipse by the new towns to the north, Denverites pooled their capital and built the Denver Pacific Railroad northward to Cheyenne to bring the rail network to Denver. The Kansas Pacific Railway

8030-468: The least protected biomes. Humans have converted much of the prairies for agricultural purposes or to create pastures. Several of the protected lands in the region are centered around aberrant and uncharacteristic features of the region, such as mountains, outcrops, and canyons (e.g. Devil's Tower National Monument , Wind Cave National Park , Scotts Bluff National Monument ), and as splendid and worthy as they are, they are not primarily focused on conserving

8140-426: The level of the plains where their upturned edges are evenly truncated. The next following harder strata have been sufficiently eroded to disclose the core of underlying igneous and metamorphic crystalline rocks in about half of the domed area. In the intermediate section of the plains, between latitudes 44° and 42° , including southern South Dakota and northern Nebraska , the erosion of certain large districts

8250-484: The line that divides the Great Plains into an area that receives 20 in (510 mm) or more of rainfall per year and an area that receives less than 20 in (510 mm). In this context, the High Plains, as well as Southern Alberta , south-western Saskatchewan and Eastern Montana are mainly semi arid steppe land and are generally characterised by rangeland or marginal farmland . The region (especially

8360-487: The members made it back to the stockade at Franktown, Colorado, but the fourth man failed to return. This man, Conrad Moschel, was found a few days later having been shot with a firearm and pierced with an arrow, and had been scalped in the manner of the Cheyenne. This offensive action by the warring Cheyenne further enraged the U.S. people of Colorado. After several minor incidents in what would later come to be designated as

8470-422: The mineral-rich area of the western Rocky Mountains . Statehood was regarded as fairly imminent with the expected growth in the constantly westward moving population, but the local territorial ambitions for full statehood were thwarted at the end of the war in 1865 by a constitutional veto by newly sworn in 17th President Andrew Johnson (1808-1875, served 1865-1869), who was a War Democrat who succeeded to

8580-420: The mines. Rapid population growth led to the creation of the Colorado Territory in 1861. The Pike's Peak gold rush sent many Americans into a frenzy, prompting them to pack up their belongings and head to Colorado. This initial boom influenced people to begin falsifying information, often sending people out to the west without any proof of a true presence of gold. As early as the spring of 1859, people raced to

8690-760: The more common "prairie". The Great Plains are the westernmost portion of the vast North American Interior Plains , which extend east to the Appalachian Plateau . The United States Geological Survey divides the Great Plains in the United States into ten physiographic subdivisions: Further to this can be added Canadian physiographic sub-regions such as the Alberta Plain, Cypress Hills , Manitoba Escarpment (eastward), Manitoba Plain, Missouri Coteau (shared), Rocky Mountain Foothills (eastward), and Saskatchewan Plain. The Great Plains consist of

8800-429: The mountains in present-day Colorado contained numerous rich gold deposits. In 1835, French trapper Eustace Carriere lost his party and ended up wandering through the mountains for many weeks. During those weeks he found many gold specimens which he later took back to New Mexico for examination. Upon examination, they turned out to be "pure gold". But when he tried to lead an expedition back to the location of where he found

8910-414: The mountains quickly, seeking the lode source of the placer gold, and founded mining camps at Black Hawk and Central City . A rival group of civic individuals, including William A.H. Loveland , established the town of Golden City at the base of the mountains west of Denver City, with the intention of supplying the increasing tide of miners with necessary goods. The movement to create a territory within

9020-442: The mountains, the local relief is generally small. The semi-arid climate excludes tree growth and opens far-reaching views. The plains are by no means a simple unit. They are of diverse structure and of various stages of erosional development. They are occasionally interrupted by buttes and escarpments . They are frequently broken by valleys. Yet on the whole, a broadly extended surface of moderate relief so often prevails that

9130-436: The name, Great Plains, for the region as a whole is well-deserved. The western boundary of the plains is usually well-defined by the abrupt ascent of the mountains. The eastern boundary of the plains (in the United States) is more climatic than topographic . The line of 20 in (510 mm) of annual rainfall trends a little east of northward near the 97th meridian. If a boundary must be drawn where nature presents only

9240-479: The new reservation as farmers. The U.S. agreed to pay the tribes a combined total of $ 30,000 per year for 15 years and in addition to provide a lumber mill, one or more mechanic shops, dwelling houses for an interpreter, and a miller engineer. See Article 5 of the Fort Wise Treaty. A good part of their co-nationals repudiated the treaty, declared the chiefs not empowered to sign, or bribed to sign, ignored

9350-427: The office after briefly only serving one month as Vice President after Lincoln's assassination that April. Statehood for the territory was a recurring issue during the subsequent Ulysses S. Grant presidential administration, with Republican 18th President Grant advocating statehood against a less willing Congress during the following post-war Reconstruction era (1865-1877). After a long constant lobbying campaign,

9460-730: The old Colorado Territory finally ceased to exist after only 15 years when the State of Colorado was admitted to the Union as the 38th state during the American Centennial celebrationn in August 1876 East and West of the Continental Divide , which split the North American continent and the Rocky Mountains , plus the new territory which included the western portion of the previous Kansas Territory , as well as some of

9570-434: The plains and prairies. United States: Canada: the Great Plains biome is found to be at the brink of collapse due to woody plant encroachment , with 62% of Northern American grassland lost to date. The first Peoples ( Paleo-Indians ) arrived on the Great Plains thousands of years ago. The introduction of corn around 800 CE allowed the development of the mound-building Mississippian culture along rivers that crossed

9680-568: The present boundaries of Colorado followed nearly immediately. Citizens of Denver City and Golden City pushed for territorial status of the newly settled region within a year of the founding of the towns. The movement was promoted by William Byers , publisher of the Rocky Mountain News , and by Larimer, who aspired to be the first territorial governor. In 1859, settlers established the Territory of Jefferson , and held elections, but

9790-573: The previous governor of the Kansas Territory . Larimer did not intend to mine gold himself; he wanted to promote the new town and sell real estate to eager miners. Larimer's plan to promote his new town worked almost immediately, and by spring 1859 the western Kansas Territory along the South Platte was swarming with miners digging in river bottoms in what became known as the Colorado Gold Rush . Early arrivals moved upstream into

9900-647: The region. Other species migrate from the south in the spring and spend their breeding season on the plains, including the white-faced ibis ( Plegadis chihi ), mountain plover ( Charadrius montanus ), marbled godwit ( Limosa fedoa ), Sprague's pipit ( Anthus spragueii ), Cassin's sparrow ( Peucaea cassinii ), Baird's sparrow ( Centronyx bairdii ), lark bunting ( Calamospiza melanocorys ), chestnut-collared longspur ( Calcarius ornatus ), thick-billed longspur or McCown's longspur ( Rhynchophanes mccownii ), and dickcissel ( Spiza americana ). The prairie rattlesnake ( Crotalus viridis ) ranges throughout much of

10010-533: The river from a better graded preglacial valley by the Pleistocene ice sheet . Here, the ice sheet overspread the plains from the moderately elevated Canadian highlands far on the north-east, instead of from the much higher mountains nearby on the west. The present altitude of the plains near the mountain base is 4,000 ft (1,200 m). The northern plains are interrupted by several small mountain areas. The Black Hills, chiefly in western South Dakota, are

10120-575: The same time (since beginning with South Carolina the previous December 1860), the secession of seven, later eleven southern slave states had been occurring those several months proclaiming / forming a new independent Southern government of the Confederate States of America (which eventually grew in the next year by two more divided state governments to thirteen in the Confederacy, with two alleged western territories) that precipitated

10230-565: The seaway had once occupied. During the Cenozoic era , specifically about 25 million years ago during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs, the continental climate became favorable to the evolution of grasslands. Existing forest biomes declined and grasslands became much more widespread. The grasslands provided a new niche for mammals, including many ungulates and glires , that switched from browsing diets to grazing diets. Traditionally,

10340-405: The south. Its altitude is 5,500 ft (1,700 m) at the highest western point, nearest the mountains whence its gravels were supplied. From there, it slopes southeastward at a decreasing rate, first about 12 ft (3.7 m), then about 7 ft/mi (1.3 m/km), to its eastern and southern borders, where it is 2,000 ft (610 m) in altitude. Like the High Plains farther north, it

10450-459: The southern section owes its smoothness to the deposition of imported gravels and sands upon a previously uneven surface by the action of aggrading rivers and their outgoing distributaries. The two sections are also alike in that residual eminences still here and there surmount the peneplain of the northern section, while the fluviatile plain of the central section completely buried the pre-existent relief. An exception to this statement must be made for

10560-416: The southwest, close to the mountains in southern Colorado, where some lava-capped mesas ( Mesa de Maya , Raton Mesa ) stand several thousand feet above the general plain level, and thus testify to the widespread erosion of this region before it was aggraded. The southern section of the Great Plains, between latitudes 35.5° and 25.5°, lies in western Texas , eastern New Mexico , and western Oklahoma . Like

10670-572: The southwestern decade-old Nebraska Territory , and a small parcel of the northeastern corner of the New Mexico Territory . On the western side of the Divide, the territory included much of the eastern older Utah Territory , all of which besides its substantial while Mormon / L.D.S. population especially around the capital of Salt Lake City , was strongly controlled by the Ute and Shoshoni native tribes The Eastern Plains were held much more loosely by

10780-588: The spread of grasslands and the development of grazers have been strongly linked. However, an examination of mammalian teeth suggests that it is the open, gritty habitat and not the grass itself which is linked to diet changes in mammals, giving rise to the " grit, not grass " hypothesis. Paleontological finds in the area have yielded bones of mammoths , saber-toothed cats and other ancient animals, as well as dozens of other megafauna (large animals over 100 lb [45 kg]) – such as giant sloths , horses , mastodons , and American lion – that dominated

10890-602: The subdued forms of the Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma , the westernmost member of the Ouachita system. The term "Western Plains" is used to describe the ecoregion of the Great Plains, or alternatively the western portion of the Great Plains. In general, the Great Plains have a wide range of weather, with very cold and harsh winters and very hot and humid summers. Wind speeds are often very high, especially in winter. The 100th meridian roughly corresponds with

11000-464: The surface of the plain, but in well graded, maturely opened valleys, several hundred feet below the general level. A significant exception to the rule of mature valleys occurs, however, in the case of the Missouri, the largest river, which is broken by several falls on hard sandstones about 50 mi (80 km) east of the mountains. This peculiar feature is explained as the result of displacement of

11110-590: The table-land, called the Edwards Plateau , is more dissected than the rest, and falls off to the south in a frayed-out fault scarp. This scarp overlooks the coastal plain of the Rio Grande embayment . The central denuded area, east of the Llano, resembles the east-central section of the plains in exposing older rocks. Between these two similar areas, in the space limited by the Canadian and Red Rivers, rise

11220-530: The term prairie is more commonly used in Canada, and the region is known as the Canadian Prairies , prairie provinces or simply "the prairies". The North American Environmental Atlas , produced by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation , a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) agency composed of the geographical agencies of the Mexican, American, and Canadian governments, uses

11330-491: The territory was open to slavery under the Dred Scott Decision of 1857, but the question was rendered moot by the impending American Civil War and the majority pro-Union sentiment in the territory. The name "Colorado" was chosen for the territory. It had been previously suggested in 1850 by Senator Henry S. Foote as a name for a state to have been created out of present-day California south of 35° 45'. During

11440-474: The testimony, but which your committee will not specify in their report. Nevertheless, justice was never served on those responsible for the massacre; and nonetheless, the continuation of this Colorado War led to expulsion of the last Arapaho, Cheyenne, Kiowa and Comanche from the Colorado Territory into Oklahoma . Following the end of the American Civil War, a movement was made for statehood;

11550-712: The two day Battle of Glorieta Pass along the Santa Fe Trail, thwarting the Confederate strategy. In 1851, by the Treaty of Fort Laramie , the United States acknowledged the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes control, in the Colorado area, of the Eastern Plains between North Platte River and Arkansas River eastward from the Rocky Mountains . The Fort Laramie Treaty, in Article 2 of the treaty, did allow

11660-595: Was completed to Denver two months later. The move cemented the role of Denver as the future regional metropolis. The territory was finally admitted to the Union in 1876. Three Colorado cities served as the capital of the Territory of Colorado: For much if not all of its existence, the Colorado Territorial government did not actually own its houses of government, instead renting available buildings for governmental purposes. Today, two buildings which served

11770-485: Was elated, the rest of the party was unimpressed and continued on to California the next morning. Ralston continued panning for gold, but gave up after a few days and caught up with his party. As the hysteria of the California Gold Rush faded, many discouraged gold seekers returned home. Rumors of gold in the Rocky Mountains persisted and several small parties explored the region. In the summer of 1857,

11880-546: Was enacted before the railroads had come and before the finding of gold in the region, few whites had ventured to settle in what is now Colorado. By the 1860s, as a result of the Colorado Gold Rush and homesteaders encroaching westward into Indian terrain, relations between U.S. and the Native American people deteriorated. On February 18, 1861, in the Treaty of Fort Wise , several chiefs of Cheyenne and Arapaho supposedly agreed with U.S. representatives to cede most of

11990-421: Was home to a number of indigenous civilizations. The Ute lived across both Western Colorado and the eastern high plains . The Anasazi lived in the southwestern, southern, and parts of southeastern Colorado. The Comanche and Jicarilla Apache lived in the area that would become the southeastern portions of the Territory. The Arapaho and Cheyenne also had a presence in the eastern and northeastern plains of

12100-577: Was not generally used before the early 20th century. Nevin Fenneman's 1916 study Physiographic Subdivision of the United States brought the term Great Plains into more widespread usage. Before that the region was almost invariably called the High Plains, in contrast to the lower Prairie Plains of the Midwestern states . Today the term " High Plains " is used for a subregion of the Great Plains. The term still remains little-used in Canada compared to

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