Cities & Towns
Select a town name in the list below to view information on specific Colorado communities.
When visiting a Colorado community you have access to:
- Community Profiles & Historic Information
- Real Estate and Homes for Sale
- School and Demographic Information
- Home Buyer, Home Seller and Relocation Guides and Reports
Local CO real estate professionals will provide additional community information that you may request.
Overview
A sprawling natural wonderland at the heart of America's west, Colorado stretches from the rugged peaks of the Rocky Mountains to the flat grass lands of the Great Plains and from the thickly settled suburbs of the Front Range Urban Corridor to the sparse desert of the Colorado Plateau. While the forbidding terrain and harsh weather of Colorado's mountains drew only the hardiest of pioneers before the 1850s, the discovery of vast mineral riches near Pike's Peak drove a land rush, and the state has never looked back. Still growing in population and influence more than a century and a half later, Colorado retains a maverick frontier spirit through innovations in technology, commerce, environmental science and contemporary American thought.
Colorado boasts a history as colorful and varied as its wondrous natural landscape. The state's earliest known inhabitants were native peoples, who migrated to the region before 10,000 B.C. The Ancient Pueblo Peoples carved spectacular dwellings out of the sandstone cliffs of the Colorado Plateau beginning around 1200 B.C. Remnants of Ancient Pueblo cities still stand today, the most famous being the "Cliff Palace" at Mesa Verde National Park in the southwest of the state. By the time European explorers first arrived near the end of the 16th century, native tribes included the Ute Nation of the Colorado Rockies and the Arapaho and Cheyenne peoples of the High Plains.
The first Europeans to visit the region were Spanish conquistadors, who explored the territory as early as 1598. Though they ultimately settled further south, the Spanish kept trade lines open with Colorado's native peoples through the early 19th century.
The United States acquired a territorial claim to the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains with the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803. The U.S. claim conflicted with Spain's claim that a huge region surrounding its colony of Santa Fé de Nuevo Méjico was its sovereign trading zone. Zebulon Pike led a U.S. Army reconnaissance expedition into the disputed region in 1806. Pike and his men were arrested by Spanish cavalry in the San Luis Valley the following February, taken to Chihuahua, and expelled from México the following July.
During the period 1832 to 1856 a number of traders, trappers, and settlers including the French and the Americans established trading posts and small settlements along the Arkansas River, and on the South Platte near the Front Range. Territorial ownership remained in dispute, with the newly independent Mexico laying claim to former Spanish lands extending into the southern Rockies.
The United States invaded México in 1847 and forced México to relinquish its northern territories with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. This opened all of the Southern Rocky Mountains to American settlement. The United States divided the region among the Territory of New Mexico and the Territory of Utah organized in 1850, and the Territory of Kansas and the Territory of Nebraska organized in 1854. Most American settlers avoided the rugged Rocky Mountains until gold was discovered at the confluence of the Cherry Creek and South Platte rivers in 1858. Word of the prospectors' find quickly spread east and the Pike's Peak Gold Rush began.
The Pike's Peak Gold Rush produced a dramatic but temporary influx of 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 the first major European-American population in the region. By 1861, rapid population growth precipitated the creation of the Colorado Territory.
While many prospectors left empty-handed after the first boom, the transformation of Colorado's virgin landscape was permanent. Among the early mining camps were Denver City and Boulder City, now major urban, cultural and economic centers in the state. 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 survive.
President Ulysses Grant declared Colorado a state on August 1, 1876. One century after the birth of the nation, Colorado became known as the "Centennial State." The borders of the new state coincided with the borders established for the Colorado Territory. By this point many of Colorado's gold mines were tapped out, but prospectors soon found vast stores of other minerals throughout the state. In 1879, silver was discovered in Leadville, resulting in the Colorado Silver Boom.
General William Jackson Palmer found additional uses for the state's breathtaking natural scenery and mineral riches after founding the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad in 1870. Recognizing the commercial potential of the striking rock formations and mountain springs just east of Pike's Peak, Palmer founded Colorado Springs as a high-end resort community for wealthy railroad travelers in 1871. By the turn of the century, "mineral resorts" were flourishing throughout the region.
While both mining and so-called "health tourism" suffered major declines in the early years of the 20th century, the years following World War II saw a major influx of population and industry that continues to this day. The United States Air Force established Peterson Air Force Base near Colorado Springs in 1942, and several military bases and institutions followed over the next two decades, including the United States Air Force Academy. Many private high-tech engineering, aerospace and defense firms were developed alongside governmental and military installations across Colorado, providing thousands of new jobs in the region.
Its reputation as a world-class tourist destination already well established, Colorado saw the establishment of major ski resorts such as Vail and Aspen and the restoration of several major historic sites throughout the later years of the 20th century. Home to four national parks, Colorado offers unrivaled opportunities for hiking and outdoor recreation, scenic drives, art and cultural exhibits, retail shopping, amusement and leisure.
Climate
Winter
Winters are very dry with occasional wind-blown snowfall and very cold temperatures intermixed with some surprisingly warm days.
Spring
Spring-time weather is extremely variable with occasional blizzards, extreme changes in temperatures, windy days and periodic gentle soaking rains or wet snow.
Summer
Summer seem to carry very low-humidity with hot days and very comfortable nights. Summertime in CO seems to periodically pose the threat of big thunderstorms, with the Colorado Plains experiencing ferocious hail storms.
Fall
Fall in CO is extremely dry with comfortable temperatures, the occasional early snowfall and bright colors from the Aspen trees.
Population
A rapidly growing state, Colorado has a population of over 4.8 million, an increase of more than 500,000 since the year 2000. The state's population is largely concentrated in the Front Range Urban Corridor, a stretch of urban and suburban population that includes Denver, Boulder, and Colorado Springs in the north-central region of the state. Vast areas of the state remain largely uninhabited, due in great part to the mountainous and semi-arid terrain in the western and southern regions.
Colorado population estimates by county, 2006:
Adams – 414,338
Alamosa – 15,225
Arapahoe – 537,197
Archuleta – 12,386
Baca – 4,017
Bent – 5,551
Boulder – 282,304
Chaffee – 16,918
Cheyenne – 1,906
Clear Creek – 9,130
Conejos – 8,406
Costilla – 3,378
Crowley – 5,386
Custer – 3,926
Delta – 30,401
Denver – 566,974
Dolores – 1,911
Douglas – 263,621
Eagle – 49,085
Elbert – 23,181
El Paso – 576,884
Fremont – 48,010
Garfield – 51,908
Gilpin – 5,042
Grand – 13,406
Gunnison – 14,331
Hinsdale – 819
Huerfano – 7,808
Jackson – 1,406
Jefferson – 526,994
Kiowa – 1,413
Kit Carson – 7,590
Lake – 7,814
La Plata – 47,936
Larimer – 276,253
Las Animas – 15,564
Lincoln – 5,458
Logan – 20,780
Mesa – 134,189
Mineral – 929
Moffat – 13,680
Montezuma – 25,217
Montrose – 38,559
Morgan – 28,109
Otero – 19,452
Ouray – 4,307
Park – 17,157
Phillips – 4,601
Pitkin – 14,798
Prowers – 13,776
Pueblo – 152,912
Rio Blanco – 6,180
Rio Grande – 12,006
Routt – 21,580
Saguache – 7,006
San Juan – 578
San Miguel – 7,143
Sedgwick – 2,467
Summit – 25,399
Teller – 22,243
Washington – 4,630
Weld – 236,857
Yuma – 9,829
(Courtesy of the Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau, March 6, 2008)
Government
The government of Colorado is comprised of three branches: Executive, Legislative and Judicial. The state capital is Montpelier, located on the Winooski River in the north-central region of the state. With just over 8,000 residents, Montpelier is the smallest capital city in America.
Colorado's three branches of government are organized as follows:
Executive
- The Governor serves as Chief Executive
- Colorado's executive branch is headed by a governor elected for a four-year term.
- State Officials – The State of Colorado elects four additional state officials to four-year terms:
- The Lieutenant Governor (elected on a ticket with the Governor)
- The Secretary of the State
- The Treasurer
- The Attorney General
- The executive branch also contains 19 departments, including the Department of Education, the Department of Revenue, the Department of Public Safety and others.
Legislative Branch
- The Colorado General Assembly is the state legislature of the State of Colorado. It is comprised of:
- The Senate, with 35 members elected to four-year terms
- Leadership of the Senate consists of a Senate president, president pro tempore, majority leader, and minority leader
- The House of Representatives, with 65 members elected to two-year terms
- Leadership of the House consists of a Speaker, a majority leader, and a minority leader
Judicial Branch
- The Vermont Judicial Branch is responsible for interpreting the laws and is headed by the Supreme Court. Appointments to the Supreme Court, Superior Court and District Courts are made by the governor and confirmed by the Senate.
- The Colorado Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Colorado. It consists of a Chief Justice, and six Associate Justices. Each Justice is appointed by the Governor of Colorado from a list of three finalist canidates nominated by a Blue Ribbon Commission established by the state constitution. At the end of each term, Justices face a retention election at which voters can choose to retain or not retain a Justice. No appellate judge has ever been dismissed in this manner since the retention election system was put in place in 1966. The Justices are not partisan officials, although they are ultimately selected by a partisan elected official.
- The Colorado Court of Appeals is the intermediate appellate court for the State of Colorado. The Court consists of 19 judges who serve eight-year terms. The Court sits in three-member divisions to decide cases. The Chief Judge, appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, assigns judges to the divisions and rotates their assignments. The mission of the Court of Appeals is to provide the citizens of Colorado with clear, impartial, and timely resolutions of appealed orders and judgments as provided by law.
- District Courts in Colorado are courts of general jurisdiction that serve primarily as trial courts. There are twenty-two judicial districts in the state, although court filings in District Court generally indicate the county within the District in which the action is filed and the District Court generally conducts proceedings in that action in that county.
- County Courts in Colorado are courts of limited jurisdiction limited to misdemeanor cases, preliminary matters in felony cases, evictions, civil cases not involving ownership of real property seeking money damages up to $15,000, and several other narrowly defined types of cases such as name changes and temporary restraining orders. There is one county court in each of Colorado's counties (including the consolidated cities and counties of Denver and Broomfield).
http://www.colorado.gov/k2c/StateOrganizationalDirectory.pdf
Taxes
For more information on the state income tax; estate, inheritance and gift tax; corporate tax; partnership tax; tax exempt entities; and real property tax visit State Tax Information.
Licenses and Fees
Drivers License
Automobile Registration
Boat Registration
Snowmobile Registration
Hunting & Fishing Licenses
Marriage Licenses
Gun Licensing
Attorney's License Information
State Real Estate Licensing Information