History UsefulNotes / Colorado

In politics, it's generally considered a swing state, but it has been trending more and more towards the Democratic Party as it's grown and diversified, especially since most of the state's growth is concentrated in urban areas -- today it has two Democrats in the Senate and a Democratic governor, and 4 of its 7 House representatives are Democrats.

* ''Series/ResidentAlien'': Set in the fictional town of Patience.

* ''VideoGame/Wasteland3''

Colorado, nicknamed the "Centennial State" for attaining statehood 100 years after American independence, is a state in the Western UsefulNotes/UnitedStates and the 38th state admitted to the Union, doing so in 1876. It takes its name from the Colorado River, which in turn got its name from the Spanish ''colorado'' meaning "red." Its capital and largest city is UsefulNotes/{{Denver}}, the largest city for over 500 miles in any direction.

* '''The Front Range''': The densely populated urban corridor that (to simplify things dramatically) runs from Fort Collins in the north, through Denver, down to Colorado Springs in the south. [[note]]You could arguably extend it even further south to Pueblo, or further north to Cheyenne in neighboring Wyoming.[[/note]] Has most of the state's population and industry and is where most of the growth described above occurs.

* '''The Western Slope''': The western chunk of the state bordering Utah, west of the Continental Divide. Mostly conservative, but with some blue areas. Not very populous, but it does have cities like Grand Junction.

Colorado today is one of the fastest-growing states in the country, mostly fueled by the Denver metro area, where about half of its 5.8 million residents live. It has a diverse economy, with mining, tourism, government, agriculture, and technology all being major sectors and attracting migrants from all over the country (not, as some grumpy locals might tell you, only from California). The state generally ranks highly in various quality of life statistics -- it routinely has the lowest obesity rates in the country and does well on just about every other metric of health and fitness and it's one of the most highly educated states in the nation. This has resulted in another statistic that's far more annoying to Coloradans: the Denver area has some of the most expensive real estate in the country, a trend that shows no sign of abating.

The gold rush soon fizzled out, and Colorado looked to be just another victim of the boom-and-bust cycle, but Denver managed to become a major railroad hub, cementing the territory's importance and strengthening its claim to statehood. Mining continued to be a major part of the state's economy throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, which made Colorado a hotspot of conflicts between labor unions and business owners. Both state and federal governments generally sided with the latter and happily sent in troops to suppress labor uprisings and break strikes, but union efforts nevertheless made great strides changing federal and state labor laws. After being hit very hard by TheGreatDepression, waves of immigrants after the Second World War turned the state's fortunes around yet again. The increased standards of living in the U.S. as a whole contributed to the growth of the tourism sector; Colorado features some of the best hiking and most gorgeous mountain views in the country, and it's especially famous as a skiing destination.

Colorado today is one of the fastest growing states in the country, mostly fueled by the Denver metro area, where about half of its 5.8 million residents live. It has a diverse economy, with mining, tourism, government, agriculture, and technology all being major sectors and attracting migrants from all over the country (not, as some grumpy locals might tell you, only from California). The state generally ranks highly in various quality of life statistics -- it routinely has the lowest obesity rates in the country and does well on just about every other metric of health and fitness and it's one of the most highly educated states in the nation. This has resulted in another statistic that's far more annoying to Coloradans: the Denver area has some of the most expensive real estate in the country, a trend that shows no sign of abating.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': set in the fictional town of South Park, which is heavily based on the real-life towns of Fairplay and Conifer. [[note]]Conifer is the hometown of series co-creator [[Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone Trey Parker]], while Fairplay is a nearby town along the same highway; the name "South Park" comes from the grassland area where Fairplay is located.[[/note]]

** ''Literature/TheShining'': set at the fictional Overlook Hotel, which was based on the real-life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stanley_Hotel Stanley Hotel]] in Estes Park.

* ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'': "Galt's Gulch" is located in the Colorado Rockies, and is stated by Creator/AynRand herself to have been based on the real-life town of Ouray.

* The Eastern Plains: The long stretch of territory east of the Denver metro area, bordering Kansas and a sliver of Nebraska. Mostly flat, rural and conservative, it's essentially indistinguishable from western Kansas.
* The Front Range: The densely populated urban corridor that (to simplify things dramatically) runs from Fort Collins in the north to the suburbs of Denver in the south (you could arguably extend it to Colorado Springs). Has most of the state's population and industry and is where most of the growth described above occurs.
* The Mountains: AKA The I-70 Corridor. The cities and towns in the actual Rocky Mountains, including places like Vail and Aspen. The cities here tend to be staggeringly wealthy as a whole, though there's a lot of economic diversity here.
* The Western Slope: The western chunk of the state bordering Utah, west of the Continental Divide. Mostly conservative, but with some blue areas. Not very populous, but it does have cities like Grand Junction.

** ''Literature/TheStand'': Boulder is the site of one of two communities of survivors following a "super Flu" that wipes out most of the world's population (the other being Las Vegas, Nevada).

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': set in the fictional town of South Park, which is heavily based on the real-life towns of Fairplay and Conifer. [[note]]Conifer is the hometown of series co-creator [[CreatorTreyParkerAndMattStone Trey Parker]], while Fairplay is a nearby town along the same highway; the name "South Park" comes from the grassland area where Fairplay is located.[[/note]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': set in the fictional town of South Park, which is heavily based on the real-life towns of Fairplay and Conifer. [[note]]Conifer is the hometown of series co-creator [[CreatorMattStoneAndTreyParker Trey Parker]], while Fairplay is a nearby town along the same highway; the name "South Park" comes from the grassland area where Fairplay is located.[[/note]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': set in the fictional town of South Park, which is heavily based on the real-life towns of Fairplay and Evergreen.

* ''Film/WarGames''

* ''Film/{{Interstellar}}''

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''

* ''Series/LandManStanding'': Creator/TimAllen plays Mike Baxter, the director of marketing for a sporting goods store located in Denver.

In politics, it's generally considered a swing state, but it has been trending more and more towards the Democratic Party as it's grown and diversified, especially since most of the state's growth is concentrated in urban areas -- today it has two Democrats in the Senate and a Democratic governor, and 4 of its 7 House representatives are Democrats.

Colorado today is one of the fastest growing states in the country, mostly fueled by the Denver metro area, where about half of its 5.8 million residents live. It has a diverse economy, with mining, tourism, government, agriculture, and technology all being major sectors and attracting migrants from all over the country (not, as some grumpy locals might tell you, only from California). In politics, it's generally considered a swing state, but it has been trending more and more towards the Democratic Party as it's grown and diversified, especially since most of the state's growth is concentrated in urban areas -- today it has two Democrats in the Senate and a Democratic governor, and 4 of its 7 House representatives are Democrats.

The gold rush soon fizzled out, and Colorado looked to be just another victim of the boom-and-bust cycle, but Denver managed to become a major railroad hub, cementing the territory's importance and strengthening its claim to statehood. Mining continued to be a major part of the state's economy throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, which made Colorado a hotspot of conflicts between labor unions and business owners. Both state and federal governments generally sided with the latter and happily sent in troops to suppress labor uprisings and break strikes, but union efforts nevertheless made great strides changing federal and state labor laws. After being hit very hard by UsefulNotes/TheGreatDepression, waves of immigrants after the Second World War turned the state's fortunes around. The increased standards of living in the U.S. as a whole contributed to the growth of the tourism sector; Colorado features some of the best hiking and most gorgeous mountain views in the country, and it's especially famous as a skiing destination.

The gold rush soon fizzled out, and Colorado looked to be just another victim of the boom-and-bust cycle, but Denver managed to become a major railroad hub, cementing the territory's importance and strengthening its claim to statehood.