Colorado was named for the great river which rises among its mountains. It was formed (1861) of portions taken from New Mexico, Utah and Kansas. Besides its mineral wealth, the raising of sheep and cattle has grown to be a great industry. In 1876 Colorado was admitted to the Union.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Nevada, Spanish for "snowy," is aptly called "The Desert State." Except lead and silver it produces little or nothing. Carson, the capital, is named for Fremont's old guide. Though silver-mines were also opened in the Reese River District (Austin) the chief mineral deposits were found about Virginia City. A great rush set in there from California, where the excitement about Washoe quite rivalled, for a time, that of 1849. Here are the great Comstock, Gould and Curry and other rich silver lodes. This explains why population is chiefly concentrated in one spot in the west of the State. California is its natural outlet. In sixteen years the Comstock mines yielded over two hundred million dollars in silver bullion.
[2] Nebraska. When I visited Nebraska (April, 1858), a few settlements were begun on the Nemaha, Saline, Big Blue, and Elkhorn, but all would not have made one good-sized town. The great tide of western travel set through Independence, Kansas City, Leavenworth and St. Joseph. In 1872 the London Times openly discouraged emigration to Nebraska, urging the Red River country instead. Western Nebraska is unfertile.
[3] Omaha is six hundred miles from St. Louis by the Missouri River, five hundred from Chicago, and 1,898 from San Francisco. It has a charming site. In 1866 its population had risen to eight thousand.
THE RECENT STATES.
It is at least worthy of notice, in following out the law governing the movement of our people from east to west, that the great block of wilderness country which Lewis and Clarke first explored should be the last settled. The course their explorations took passes through Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Washington to the Pacific Ocean.
The reason for this long pause between the first and last acts in the story of the Great West is found in the fact that later exploration soon determined in favor of the Platte Valley, as the one affording by far the shortest way through the centre of the continent.
Therefore the new States, just named, are mostly an outgrowth of the more central region in which the great body of emigration has first settled. It may be further remarked, that in those Territories where gold and silver occur, settlement was nearly simultaneous.
Idaho,[1] like Nevada, grew up from the discovery of gold and silver in her borders. The finding of these precious metals goes no farther back than the summer of 1862. These were placer deposits. A year later quartz lodes, rivalling in richness those of Colorado, were brought to light. Soon the old Hudson's Bay post of Fort Boisé[2] was turned into a thrifty town. The mineral find rapidly extended along the Salmon, Boisé, and Clearwater Rivers. In the south, Idaho City sprung up on the Boisé; in the north, Lewiston on the Clearwater was settled. In 1860 Idaho scarcely had any white people: in 1863 they were sufficiently numerous to entitle them to have a Territorial government.