Prior to the Colorado Gold Rush and organization of Colorado Territory from the western portion of Kansas, the eastern portion of Utah Territory, the southwestern portion of Nebraska Territory and a small portion of northeastern New Mexico Territory on February 28, 1861 , [1], a number of French, Spanish and American explorers and military expeditions as well as fur traders and trappers and early settlers had penetrated the land that would later become the State of Colorado.

During the period 1832 to 1856 a number of trading posts and small settlements were established along the Arkansas River as well as on the South Platte near the Front Range. Prominent trading posts were Bent's Fort and Fort Pueblo on the Arkansas and Ft. St. Vrain on the South Platte.

The Colorado Gold Rush of 1859 (see also Fifty-Niner) brought large numbers of settlers to the Denver area. Gold in paying quantities was soon discovered in the Central City area. By 1860 the population of Central City was 60,000. Like all resource extraction, mining is a boom or bust situation and over the years many small towns were established then abandoned when the paying ore ran out or the market collapsed. Some like Aspen, Telluride, and Cripple Creek have found new life as ski resorts, cultural centers, or gambling towns; others never recovered and became ghost towns.

References and further reading

• Janet Lecompte, Pueblo, Hardscrabble, Greenhorn: The Upper Arkansas, 1832-1856, University of Oklahoma Press, 1977, hardcover, 354 pages, ISBN 0-8061-1462-2
• Adapted from the Internet-Encyclopedia article, History of Colorado http://www.internet-encyclopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=History_of_Colorado