Photo credit: "Georgetown loop 1899" by William Henry Jackson - http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/det.4a32573. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - Link
Colorado ALHN Site
Colorado was admitted to statehood on August 1, 1876. It is called, The Centenniel State.
History
“When Lieut Pike led his expedition up the Arkansas in 1806-7, he passed the spot where Pueblo now stands, but neither houses nor settlers were there at that period. Indeed, the entire valley was deserted even by the Indians, except now and then a war or hunting party. Pike discovered, however, that Spanish goods and wares were not uncommon among the prairie Indians and that a troop of Spanish cavalry had not long before penetrated to the headwaters of the Kansas and Republican Rivers. But at that time no route existed known to any one, which led to the settlements of New Mexico from the Missouri. The Santa Fe trail was not opened nor traveled until after 1820. Yet in 1824-26 Spanish troops had escorted trains to the Arkansas en route for trade at St Louis or Independence, Mo.” (Source:History of the State of Colorado, Embracing Accounts of the Pre-historic …, 1889, by Frank Hall, pp. 88-89)
