Links to Colorado CCW related sites.

Colorado

Colorado's first inhabitants were probably the Anasazi Indians who, four centuries before Columbus, lived in multi-story cliff dwellings in canyons in the southwestern corner of Colorado. At the end o f the thirteenth century, these Indians abandoned their cliff dwellings and apparently moved southward. The first Europeans to venture into Colorado were the Spanish.

In 1800, Spain ceded a vast area, including Colorado, to Napoleon Bonaparte and the French. Three years later, the same parcel of land was sold by Napoleon the United States as the "Louisiana Purchase". In 1806, President Jefferson commissioned Lieutenant Zebulon Pike to explore the recently purchased territory.

At about the same time as the Long expedition, fur trappers and traders began working their trade in the Rocky Mountains. Beaver fur was considered on of the most precious commodities on the continent. The beaver pelt, small and light in weight, provide d a high-priced product in a small package.

Many Indian tribes roamed Colorado and contributed to the state's history. The Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche, and Kiowa were the most important plains tribes. Most  were nomadic, hunting and making clothes from the skins of buffalo and deer, living in teepees, and depending on berries and roots for vegetables.

The discovery of gold in California in 1849 touched off a search for gold in other regions including the Rocky Mountains and accounted for the first extensive settlement of Colorado. In July of 1858, William Green Russell, a Georgia miner, discovered several hundred dollars worth of gold at the mouth of Dry Creek in the present-day Denver suburb of Englewood. Russell's find started the "Pike's Peak or Bust" gold rush of 1858-59. Historians estimate that approximately 50,000 people came to Colorado in search of gold in 1858-59.

After Russell and his brothers made another gold discovery on Cherry Creek, General William Larimer led a group of men from the Kansas Territory to establish a settlement there.  The first permanent white settlements in the state were in the San Luis Valley. The town of San Luis founded in 1851 is generally considered the oldest continually occupied town in Colorado.

In January of 1861, Congress voted statehood for Kansas. A bill to create Colorado Territory was passed almost immediately thereafter. President Lincoln appointed William Gilpin as the state's first territorial governor. The population of Colorado in 1861 was 21,000. The first legislature, sitting in Denver, selected Colorado City (west of present day Colorado Springs) as the capitol. The second legislature met there only a few days, in 1862, and adjourned to Denver. The assembly met in Denver and Golden up to 1867 when Denver was named the permanent seat of the territory. In the years following the establishment of the territory, numerous attempts were made to gain statehood for Colorado. However, it was not until 1876 - fifteen years after becoming a territory - that Colorado was admitted as the thirty-eighth state in the union. Colorado was called the "Centennial State" in honor of the one-hundredth year of the Declaration of Independence.

Below you are links to informational sites related to the Colorado Gun laws and regulations. ( Legal lawyer stuff as follows: Center-fire- Greenfield Industries are not responsible nor endorses any information found on listed links. blah, blah, blah. You get the picture. Take everything you read with a grain of salt.)  We have even included some comical links such as the Brady Campaign , because everybody enjoys a little fictional reading from time to time.