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This list of battles fought in Colorado is an incomplete list of military and other armed confrontations that have occurred within the boundaries of the modern U.S. State of Colorado since European contact. The region was part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1535 to 1682, New France from 1682 to 1762, Kingdom of Spain from 1762 to 1800, French First Republic 1800 to 1803, and part of the United States of America 1803–present (boundaries were disputed by Spain). The southern portion of Colorado was considered by Spain as part of its northern territories. Large portions of Colorado were subsequently under the administrative control of Mexico from 1800 to 1835, and the Republic of Texas from 1836 to 1846. Full administrative control of Colorado was established on February 2, 1848 with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which ended the Mexican–American War.
The Plains Indian Wars directly affected the region during westward expansion. By the end of the Nineteenth Century, Colorado became a focal point of labor violence and the Coal Wars, with instances of large-scale armed conflict between workers, private detectives, and state soldiers and police stretching into the 1920s.
Name | Date | Location | War | Campaign | Dead | Belligerents |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sand Creek Massacre [1] | November 29, 1864 | near modern Eads | Colorado War | 187 [lower-alpha 1] | United States of America vs Cheyenne & Arapaho | |
Battle of Julesburg | January 7, 1865 | near modern Julesburg | Colorado War | 14 | United States of America & civilian volunteers vs Cheyenne, Arapaho, & Lakota Sioux | |
American Ranch massacre | January 14, 1865 | near modern Sterling | Colorado War | 10 | United States of America vs Cheyenne & Sioux | |
Battle of Beecher Island | September 17–19, 1868 | modern Yuma County | Comanche Campaign | 41 [lower-alpha 2] | United States of America vs Arapaho, Cheyenne & Lakota Sioux | |
Battle of Summit Springs | July 11, 1869 | near modern Sterling | Comanche Campaign | ~35 | United States of America vs Arapaho, Cheyenne & Sioux | |
Meeker Massacre | September 29, 1879 | White River Indian Agency, near modern Meeker | 11 | White River Ute vs United States civilians | ||
Battle of Milk Creek | September 29 - October 25, 1879 | near modern Meeker | Ute Wars | White River War | 32-50 [lower-alpha 3] | White River Ute vs United States of America |
Battle of Berwind Canyon | October 24, 1913 | Berwind | Coal Wars | Colorado Coalfield War | 1 | Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, & Colorado National Guard vs United Mine Workers of America |
Ludlow Massacre | April 20, 1914 | Ludlow | Coal Wars | Colorado Coalfield War | 23-29 | Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, Colorado National Guard, & Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency vs United Mine Workers of America |
Battle of Walsenburg | April 28–29, 1914 | Walsenburg | Coal Wars | Colorado Coalfield War | 3+ | United Mine Workers of America-aligned strikers vs Colorado National Guard |
Battle of Forbes | April 30, 1914 | Forbes | Coal Wars | Colorado Coalfield War | 12+ | United Mine Workers of America and other armed strikers vs Rocky Mountain Fuel Company mine guards and streakbreakers |
Columbine Mine massacre | November 21, 1927 | Serene | Coal Wars | 6 | Rocky Mountain Fuel Company, Colorado Mounted Rangers & Colorado National Guard vs United Mine Workers of America-aligned strikers | |
The Territory of Colorado was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 28, 1861, until August 1, 1876, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Colorado.
There are more than 1,500 properties and historic districts in the U.S. State of Colorado listed on the National Register of Historic Places. They are distributed over 63 of Colorado's 64 counties; only the City and County of Broomfield currently has none.
The North Central Colorado Urban Area comprises the four contiguous metropolitan statistical areas in the north central region of the State of Colorado: the Denver–Aurora Metropolitan Statistical Area, the Boulder Metropolitan Statistical Area, the Fort Collins-Loveland Metropolitan Statistical Area, and the Greeley Metropolitan Statistical Area. With the exception of southeastern Elbert County, southeastern Park County, and tiny portions of southern Douglas County, the entire North Central Colorado Urban Area is drained by the South Platte River and its tributaries. The North Central Colorado Urban Area is the central, and the most populous, of the three primary subregions of the Front Range Urban Corridor.