TheTerritory of Colorado was anorganized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 28, 1861,^[2] until August 1, 1876, when it was admitted to theUnion as the 38thState of Colorado.^[3]

Territory of Colorado
Organized incorporated territory of the United States
1861–1876
Coat of arms
The Territory of Colorado as shown imposed on an 1860 map of the Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico, and Utah Territories.
Capital	Denver City 1861-1862 Colorado City 1862 Golden City 1862-1867 Denver[a] 1867-1876
• Type	Organized incorporated territory
History
• Colorado Organic Act[2]	28 February 1861
• Statehood[3]	1 August 1876
Preceded by Succeeded by Kansas Territory Nebraska Territory New Mexico Territory Utah Territory State of Colorado

The territory was organized in the wake of thePike's Peak Gold Rush of 1858–1862, which brought the first large concentration of white settlement to the region. The organic legislative act creating thefree Territory of Colorado was passed by theUnited States Congress and signed by 15th PresidentJames Buchanan into law on February 28, 1861. This was during the onset of theAmerican Civil War of April 1861 to June 1865. The boundaries of the newly designated Colorado Territory were essentially identical with those of the modernState of Colorado, with lands taken from the four surrounding previous Federal territories ofNebraska,Kansas,New Mexico, andUtah established during the1850s. The organization of the new territory helped solidifyUnion control over the mineral-rich area of the westernRocky 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 constitutionalveto by newly sworn in 17th PresidentAndrew Johnson (1808-1875, served 1865-1869), who was aWar Democrat who succeeded to the office after briefly only serving one month asVice President after Lincoln's assassination that April. Statehood for the territory was a recurring issue during the subsequentUlysses S. Grant presidential administration, withRepublican 18th President Grant advocating statehood against a less willing Congress during the following post-warReconstruction era (1865-1877). After a long constant lobbying campaign, the old Colorado Territory finally ceased to exist after only 15 years when theState of Colorado was admitted to the Union as the 38th state during theAmerican Centennial celebrationn in August1876^[3]

East and West of theContinental Divide, which split theNorth American continent and theRocky Mountains, plus the new territory which included the western portion of the previousKansas Territory, as well as some of the southwestern decade-oldNebraska Territory, and a small parcel of the northeastern corner of theNew Mexico Territory. On the western side of the Divide, the territory included much of the eastern olderUtah Territory, all of which besides its substantial whileMormon / L.D.S. population especially around the capital ofSalt Lake City, was strongly controlled by theUte andShoshoni native tribes TheEastern Plains were held much more loosely by the intermixedCheyenne andArapaho, as well as by thePawnee,Comanche andKiowa. In 1861, ten days before the establishment of the Federal territory, the Arapaho and Cheyenne agreed with theUnited States government in the East inWashington, D.C. to give up most their areas of theGreat Plains to white settlement but were allowed to live in their larger traditional areas, so long as they could toleratehomesteaders near their camps. By the end of theAmerican Civil War in 1865, the Native American presence had beenlargely reduced or pacified through military action or peace treaties on theHigh Plains.

The land that eventually became the Colorado Territory fell under the jurisdiction of the United States in three separate stages: theLouisiana Purchase in 1803 (as adjusted by the 1819Adams–Onis Treaty), then theAnnexation of Texas in 1845, and finally theMexican Cession in 1848. The land claims ofTexas were initially controversial. The border between the U.S. and Mexico was redrawn in 1848 with theTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at the end of theMexican–American War, and the final borders of the state ofTexas were established by theCongressionalCompromise of 1850.

The land that was eventually defined as the Colorado Territory was home to a number of indigenous civilizations. TheUte lived across both Western Colorado and theeastern high plains. TheAnasazi lived in the southwestern, southern, and parts of southeastern Colorado. TheComanche andJicarilla Apache lived in the area that would become the southeastern portions of the Territory. TheArapaho andCheyenne also had a presence in the eastern and northeastern plains of the area at times.

The earliest explorers of European extraction to visit the area wereSpanish explorers such asCoronado, 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 andSilvestre Vélez de Escalante explored southern Colorado in the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition.

Other notable explorations included thePike Expedition of 1806–07 byZebulon Pike, the journey along the north bank of the Platte River in 1820 byStephen H. Long to what came to be called Longs Peak, theJohn C. Frémont expedition in 1845–46, and thePowell Geographic Expedition of 1869 byJohn Wesley Powell.

In 1779, Governorde Anza of New Mexico fought and defeated the Comanches underCuerno Verde on the Eastern Slope of Colorado, probably south of Pueblo. In 1786, de Anza made peace with the Comanches, creating an alliance against the Apaches.

A group ofCherokee crossed the South Platte andCache la Poudre River valleys on their way toCalifornia in 1848 during theCalifornia 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 theSan Luis Valley, early Mexican families established themselves in large land grants (later contested by the U.S.) from the Mexican government.

In the early 19th century, the upperSouth Platte River valley had been infiltrated byfur traders, but had not been the site of permanent settlement. The first movement of permanent U.S. settlers in the area began with theKansas–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 the lands they once trapped, includingAntoine Janis and other trappers fromFort Laramie, who established a town nearLaporte along the Cache la Poudre in 1858. SeeForts in Colorado.

In 1858,Green Russell and a party ofGeorgians, 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 a mining campAuraria (named for a gold mining camp in Georgia) at the confluence of the South Platte andCherry Creek. The Georgians left for their home state the following winter. AtBent's Fort along theArkansas River, Russell toldWilliam Larimer, Jr., a Kansas land speculator, about theplacer 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 ofJames W. Denver, the previous governor of theKansas 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 theColorado Gold Rush. Early arrivals moved upstream into the mountains quickly, seeking the lode source of the placer gold, and founded mining camps atBlack Hawk andCentral City. A rival group of civic individuals, includingWilliam A.H. Loveland, established the town ofGolden 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 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 byWilliam Byers, publisher of theRocky Mountain News, and by Larimer, who aspired to be the first territorial governor. In 1859, settlers established theTerritory of Jefferson, and held elections, but theUnited 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 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, andNew Mexico territories. Technically the territory was open to slavery under theDred Scott Decision of 1857, but the question was rendered moot by the impendingAmerican 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 SenatorHenry S. Foote as a name for a state to have been created out of present-day California south of 35° 45'.

During theCivil 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 theConfederate invasion of theNew Mexico Territory byGeneral Henry Sibley and a force ofTexans. Sibley'sNew Mexico campaign was intended as a prelude to an invasion of the Colorado Territory northward toFort Laramie, cutting the supply lines between California and the rest of theUnion. The Coloradans, under the command of Union ArmyGeneral Edward Canby and ColonelJohn P. Slough, Lt. Col.Samuel F. Tappan and MajorJohn M. Chivington, defeated Sibley's force at the two dayBattle of Glorieta Pass along the Santa Fe Trail, thwarting the Confederate strategy.

In 1851, by theTreaty of Fort Laramie, the United States acknowledged theCheyenne andArapaho tribes control, in the Colorado area, of the Eastern Plains betweenNorth Platte River andArkansas River eastward from theRocky Mountains. The Fort Laramie Treaty, in Article 2 of the treaty, did allow 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 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 theColorado Gold Rush andhomesteaders encroaching westward into Indian terrain, relations between U.S. and theNative American people deteriorated. On February 18, 1861, in theTreaty of Fort Wise, several chiefs of Cheyenne and Arapaho supposedly agreed with U.S. representatives to cede most of the lands, ten years earlier designated to their tribes, for white settlement, keeping only a fragment of the originalreserve, located between Arkansas River andSand Creek. This new fragment was assigned in severalty to the individual members of the respective tribes with each member receiving 40 acres (160,000 m²) of land. The United States, by the Fort Wise Treaty, wished to have the Indians settle 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 the agreement, and became even more belligerent over the 'whites' encroaching on their hunting grounds. Tensions mounted when Colorado territorial governorJohn Evans in 1862 created a home guard of regiments of Colorado Volunteers returning from theCivil 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 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 theColorado War, in November 1864, a force of 800 troops of the Colorado home guard, after heavy drinking, attacked an encampment of Cheyenne and Arapaho atSand Creek, murdering between 150 and 200 Indians, mostly elderly men, women and children. ThisSand Creek Massacre or 'Massacre of Cheyenne Indians' led to official hearings^[5] by theUnited States Congress Joint Committee on the Conduct of 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 ColonelJohn 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 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 andComanche from the Colorado Territory intoOklahoma.

Following the end of the American Civil War, a movement was made for statehood; the United States Congress passed the Admission Act for the territory in late 1865, but it was vetoed byPresident 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 ofrailroads. By the late 1860s, many in Denver had sold their businesses and moved northward to theDakota Territory communities ofLaramie andCheyenne, which had sprung up along thetranscontinental 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 theDenver Pacific Railroad northward to Cheyenne to bring the rail network to Denver. TheKansas Pacific Railway 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:

1. Denver City: from creation on February 28, 1861, until July 7, 1862.
2. Colorado City: July 7 until August 14, 1862.
3. Golden City: August 14, 1862 until December 9, 1867.
4. Denver:^[a] December 9, 1867 until statehood on August 1, 1876.

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 the Territorial government remain: the historic log building in Colorado City, and theLoveland 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); 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).

• Colorado in the American Civil War
• Colorado War
• Comanche Campaign
• List of governors of the Territory of Colorado
• List of territorial claims and designations in Colorado
• Pike's Peak Country
• Pike's Peak Gold Rush
• Territory of Jefferson
• Bibliography of Colorado
• Geography of Colorado
• History of Colorado
• Index of Colorado-related articles
• List of Colorado-related lists
• Outline of Colorado

• Hawes, J. W. (1879)."Colorado, a territory of the United States" .The American Cyclopædia.

38°59′50″N105°32′52″W / 38.9972°N 105.5478°W /38.9972; -105.5478 (Territory of Colorado (historical))