COLORADO. Colorado was organized as a territory, February 28, 1861, and admitted as a state, August 1, 1876. The total land surface of Colorado is, approximately, 103,645 square miles. The average number of persons to the square mile, as shown by the census of 1890, was 3.9, and in 1900, 5.2. Population: 1860, 34,277; 1870, 39,864; 1880, 194,327; 1890, 412,198; 1900, 539,700. Colorado had, in 1860, a population of 34,277, and in 1870 a population of 39,864, but in 1880, the first census taken after its admission as a state, it had grown to 194,327, representing an increase in ten years of 154,463, or 387.4 per cent. During the decade, from 1880 to 1890, its population was again increased by 112.1 per cent., giving a total in 1890, as previously stated, of 412,198. The population of Colorado in 1900, which is 539,700, is nearly sixteen times as large as the population given for 1860, the first year in which its population is given in the census report. Of the fifty-seven counties in the state, forty-two show increases in population since 1890, and in some of them the percentages of increase are very large, namely: Otero, 174.8 per cent.; Archuleta, 156.2 per cent.; Bent, 132.2 per cent.; Mesa, 117.5 per cent.; Delta, 116.5 per cent.; Morgan, 104.1 per cent.; Montezuma, 100 per cent.; Prowers, 91.2 per cent.; Hinsdale, 86.6 per cent., and San Miguel, 84.9 per cent. The fifteen counties showing a decrease in population are Baca, Cheyenne, Clear Creek, Custer, Dolores, Eagle, Kiowa, Kit Carson, Ouray, Park, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington and Yuma. Of the 165 incorporated places in the state, there are only twenty-seven that have a population in 1900 of more than 2,000, and of these only seven have a population of more than 5,000, namely: Denver (city), with 133,859; Pueblo (city), with 28,157; Colorado Springs (city), with 21,085; Leadville (city), with 12,455; Cripple Creek (town), with 10,147; Boulder (city), with 6,150, and Trinidad (city), with 5,345 inhabitants. Denver and Pueblo are the only cities in Colorado that have a population in 1900 of more than 25,000. Denver had a population of less than 5,000 in 1860 and in 1870, but during each of the next two decades it materially increased, showing a total population, in 1880, of 35,629, and in 1890, of 106,713. It has, in 1900, a population of 133,859, representing an increase during the last ten years of 27,146, or 25.4 per cent. Pueblo had a little more than 600 inhabitants in 1870, and less than 3,500 in 1880, but its population had increased in 1890 to 24,558, and in 1900 to 28,157, showing an increase from 1890 to 1900 of about 15 per cent. |