Colorado |
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| Entered the Union: August 1, 1876 (38) | Capital: Denver |
| Origin of Name: From the Spanish, “colored red” (a reference to the sediment-rich Colorado River) | |
| State Nickname: The Centennial State. (Colorado was admitted to statehood during the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.) | |
| State Motto: Nil sine Numine (Nothing without Providence) | |
| State Flower: Rocky Mountain Columbine | State Bird: Lark Bunting |
| State Animal: Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep | State Tree: Colorado Blue Spruce |
| State Fish: Greenback Cutthroat Trout | State Gem: Aquamarine |
| State Insect: Colorado Hairstreak Butterfly | State Grass: Blue Grama Grass |
| State Song: “Where the Columbines Grow" | State Folk Dance: Square Dance |
| National Forests: 11 • National Parks: 4 • State Parks: 43 | |
| Famous for: World-Class Skiing, Rocky Mountain National Forest, Pike's Peak, Great Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde Ancient Cliff Village, World's Highest Highway | |
| Famous Coloradans: Scott Carpenter (astronaut), Jack Dempsey (boxer), Gene Fowler (writer), Eugene Foder (violinist), Ouray (Ute Indian Chief), Tim Allen, Lon Chaney, Douglas Fairbanks (actors), Jaye P. Morgan (singer), Lowell Thomas (commentator), Dr. James Dobson (Focus on the Family), Paul Whiteman (jazz conductor) | |
| Native Animals and Birds: Click on photos of the animals and birds on this page to find out more about them and to hear the sounds they make. | |
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| Native Americans in Colorado: the Apache, Kiowa, Comanche, and Pawnee roamed the Great Plains; the Ute lived in the Colorado Plateau. | |||||||||||||||||
| First visited by Spanish explorers in the 1500s, the territory was claimed for Spain by Juan de Ulibarri in 1706. The U.S. obtained eastern Colorado as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the central portion in 1845 with the admission of Texas as a state, and the western part in 1848 as a result of the Mexican War. | |||||||||||||||||
| Colorado has the highest elevation of any state, with more than 1,000 Rocky Mountain peaks over 10,000 ft high and 54 towering above 14,000 ft. Pikes Peak, the most famous of these mountains, was discovered by U.S. Army lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike in 1806. | |||||||||||||||||
| Breathtaking scenery and world-class skiing make Colorado a prime tourist destination. The main tourist attractions in the state include Rocky Mountain National Park, Curecanti National Recreation Area, Mesa Verde National Park, the Great Sand Dunes and Dinosaur National Monuments, Colorado National Monument, and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument. | |||||||||||||||||
| The primary agricultural products in Colorado are cattle, dairy products, corn, hay, and wheat. | |||||||||||||||||
| Once primarily a mining and agricultural state, Colorado's economy is now driven by the service industries. Manufactured products include scientific instruments, food processing, transportation equipment, machinery, chemical products, gold and other mining. | |||||||||||||||||
| Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains (Colorado & Utah) lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world (in the form of oil shale). On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction. When the oil is extracted "America would become the world's single biggest oil source, exceeding Saudi Arabia" (Wall Street Journal) | |||||||||||||||||
| The United States federal government owns more than 1/3 of the land in Colorado. | |||||||||||||||||
| The first license plate on a car in the United States was issued in Denver, Colorado in 1908. | |||||||||||||||||
| Colorado's southwest corner borders Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, the only place in America where the corners of four states meet. | |||||||||||||||||
| Colorado contains 75% of the land area of the U.S. with an altitude over 10,000 feet. Mt. Elbert is the highest point at 14,433 ft. | |||||||||||||||||
| The United States Air Force Academy is located in Colorado Springs. | |||||||||||||||||
| The world's largest flattop mountain is in Grand Mesa. | |||||||||||||||||
| Colorado has the highest paved road in North America. The road to Mt. Blue Sky climbs to 14,258 ft. above sea level. | |||||||||||||||||
| The tallest sand dune in America is in Great Sand Dunes National Park. This bizarre 46,000-acre landscape of 700-foot sand peaks was the creation of ocean waters and wind more than one million years ago. | |||||||||||||||||
| Mesa Verde features an elaborate four-story city carved in the cliffs by the Ancestral Pueblo people between 600 and 1300 A.D. | |||||||||||||||||
| The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad has been in continuous operation since 1881. The line was constructed primarily to haul mine ores, both gold and silver, from the San Juan Mountains. The Railroad continues to provide year round train service and has appeared in more than a dozen movies including "How the West was Won" (1963) and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969). | |||||||||||||||||
| Katherine Lee Bates wrote "America the Beautiful" atop Pikes Peak overlooking Colorado Springs. | |||||||||||||||||
| In 1859, John Gregory discovered "The Gregory Lode" in a gulch near Central City. Within 2 weeks, the gold rush was on and within 2 months the population grew to 10,000 people in search of their fortune. It came to be known as "The Richest Square Mile on Earth". | |||||||||||||||||
| Colorado's Ethnic Roots: German 22%, Irish 12.2%, English 12%, Mexican 9%, American 5%. | |||||||||||||||||
| Religion in Colorado: 65% Christian (32% Protestant, 23% Catholic, 10% Other), 21% No Religion, 2% LDS, 1% Jewish, 1% Buddhist, 1% Jehovah's Witness, 3% Other Religions. | |||||||||||||||||
| Aquamarine gemstone was first discovered in 1881 on Mt. Antero. | |||||||||||||||||
| The world's first rodeo was held on July 4th, 1869 in Deer Trail. Every year Denver hosts the worlds largest Rodeo, the Western Stock Show. | |||||||||||||||||
| The world's largest natural hot springs pool covers 2 blocks in Glenwood Springs. | |||||||||||||||||
| Denver is nicknamed "The Mile-High City" because its official elevation is exactly one mile (5,280 feet) above sea level. | |||||||||||||||||
| The 13th step of the state capital building in Denver is exactly 1 mile high above sea level. | |||||||||||||||||
At a Glance
Colorado Quick Facts
| Entered the Union | August 1, 1876 (38) |
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| Capital | Denver |
| Nickname | The Centennial State. (Colorado was admitted to statehood during the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.) |
| State Bird | Lark Bunting |
| State Flower | Rocky Mountain Columbine |
| State Tree | Colorado Blue Spruce |
New for 2026
More Colorado Facts & Photos
The Royal Gorge Bridge near Cañon City hangs 956 feet above the Arkansas River. Built in just six months in 1929, it was the highest bridge in the world until 2001 and is still the highest in the United States.
Colorado adopted the Stegosaurus as its state fossil in 1982 after a fourth-grade class campaigned for two years to make it happen. The first Stegosaurus skeleton ever found was dug from the hills near Morrison in 1877.
At 10,152 feet above sea level, the old silver-mining town of Leadville is the highest incorporated city in the United States, sitting at the headwaters of the Arkansas River between Colorado's two tallest peaks, Mount Elbert and Mount Massive.
Ski troops of the Army's 10th Mountain Division trained at Camp Hale near Leadville during World War II, and its veterans came home to help build Colorado's ski industry. The site was designated the Camp Hale – Continental Divide National Monument in 2022.
Garden of the Gods was deeded to Colorado Springs in 1909 by the family of railroad man Charles Elliott Perkins on one condition: the red-rock park must remain free to the public forever. More than a century later, it still is.
The Denver Mint has been striking coins stamped with its "D" mint mark since 1906, when it turned out 167 million coins in its first year. Today it is the largest producer of coins in the world.
Voices of America
In Their Own Words
Thomas Jefferson
“I have always said and always will say that the studious perusal of the Sacred Volume will make better citizens, better fathers, better husbands... the Bible makes the best people in the world."
President
Harry Truman
"The fundamental basis of this nation's law was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teaching we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul. I don't think we emphasize that enough these days. If we don't have the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in the right for anybody except the state.
President
John Quincy Adams
“It is essential ... that you should form and adopt certain rules or principles, for the government of your own conduct and temper. Unless you have such rules and principles, there will be numberless occasions on which you will have no guide for your government but your passions ... It is in the Bible, you must learn them, and from the Bible how to practice them.”
President
Abraham Lincoln
"We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
President
Ronald Reagan
"Politics and morality are inseparable. And as morality's foundation is religion, religion and politics are necessarily related. We need religion as a guide."
President
Last updated: July 2026