The first General Assembly of the State of Colorado approved the state seal in 1877. Only the Colorado Secretary of State is authorized to affix the Great Seal of Colorado to any document. The person primarilly given credit for the design is Lewis Ledyard Weld, the Territorial Secretary appointed by President Lincoln in 1861 (possibly collaborating with Territorial Governor William Gilpin - both had knowledge of heraldry and symbolism).
Symbols on the State Seal of Colorado:
A Roman fasces comes next, symbolizing a republican form of government. A fasces is a set of rods bound in a bundle which contains an axe (in ancient Rome, the bodyguards of a magistrate carried fasces as symbols of the magistrate's imperium). On the Colorado state seal, the statute specifies that the rods bound together symbolize strength lacking in a single rod, and the axe represents authority and leadership.
The top section of the heraldic shield bears three of Colorado's snow-capped mountains with clouds above against a red background. The lower half of the shield has a pick and sledge hammer (miner's tools) crossed on a golden background.
Below the shield is a banner with the Latin motto, "Nil Sine Numine" (nothing without the Deity), and finally at the bottom "1876" (the year Colorado came into statehood).
Source: State Symbols USA
Colorado- "Centennial State, Colorful Colorado"
- Colorado was the 38th state in the USA; it became a state on August 1, 1876
- Constitution was adopted in 1876
- Capital- Denver
- State Motto- "Nil sine Numine" - Nothing Without Providence
- State Flower- Rocky Mountain Columbine
- Gemstone- Aquamarine
- State Bird- Lark Bunting
- State Tree- Colorado Blue Spruce
- State Animal- Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep
- Major Industries - agriculture (wheat, cattle, sheep), tourism (especially skiers), mining (gold, silver), oil, finance, and manufacturing
Colorado is a Spanish adjective that means “red.” The early Spanish explorers in the Rocky Mountain region named a river they found the Rio Colorado for the reddish silt that the water carried down from the mountains. When Colorado became a territory in 1861, the Spanish word was used as a name because it was commonly thought that the Rio Colorado originated in the territory. This was not the case, however. Prior to 1921, the Colorado River began where the Green River of Utah and the Grand River of Colorado converged outside of Moab, Utah, and the United States Geological Survey identified Green River of Wyoming as the Colorado's actual headwaters. The Rio Colorado did not actually flow through Colorado until 1921, when House Joint Resolution 460 of the 66th United States Congress changed the name of the Grand River.
The official state flag of Colorado was adopted on June 5, 1911. It was designed by Andrew Carlisle Johnson in 1911. The white in the flag symbolizes Colorado's snow-capped mountains, the blue symbolizes clear blue skies, the red symbolizes the reddish soil, and the golden yellow represents the Sun. Attached to the flag is a cord of gold and silver, intertwined with gold and silver tassels.
How did Colorado get its shape?
How the States Got Their Shapes by Mark Stein ©2008, pages 40-43"When Kansas and Nebraska were organized as territories in 1854, their boundaries extended to the crest of the Rockies, thereby encompassing much of what would eventually become Colorado. The rest of what would become Colorado was previously part of the Utah and New Mexico territories. How sections of four separate territories come to be an entirely new territory can be answered in one word: gold.""In 1858, gold was discovered in what is now Colorado but what was then part of the Kansas Territory. Almost immediately, over 50,000 people flooded into the area. This suddenly appearing population needed closer access to, and responsiveness from, its territorial government. But the Kansas territorial government was absorbed in another matter -- its debate over slavery (a debate in which views were expressed in ways that resulted in the nickname "Bleeding Kansas"). Consequently, delegates from the gold fields met in 1859 and created the "Territory of Jefferson".""The borders of the proposed "Territory of Jefferson" sought to encompass as much of the gold and silver waiting to be mined in that region as possible and to provide the territory with agricultural land, so as not to rely entirely on a finite quantity of mineral resources. To achieve this, the residents declared their southern border to be the 38th parallel and their northern border to be the 42nd parallel. On the west they claimed the land as far as the 109th meridian and on the east the 102nd.""Congress created the official Territory of Colorado (as opposed to the unofficial Territory of Jefferson created by its residents) in 1861. In doing so, it accepted the territory's proposed eastern and western borders but not its proposed northern and southern borders. Why one and not the other? The answer gradually surfaced over the next fourteen years.""In the case of Colorado's eastern and western borders, the reason Congress accepted the territory's proposal became apparent with the later creation of the states of Washington (1889), North Dakota (1889), South Dakota (1889), and Wyoming (1890). Like Colorado -- and the previously created state of Oregon (1859) -- all of these western states have seven degrees of width.""Some of the reasons Congress rejected the territory's proposed southern border were immediately apparent. Located at 35º it had been chosen by the territory because it would encompass more gold. But it also would have encompassed America's recently acquired Hispanic-populated Santa Fe, along with (unconstitutionally) a corner of the state of Texas."
"The proposed northern border of 42º corresponded to a preexisting border that dated back to a 1790 agreement between England and Spain called the Nootka Convention. The reason it was rejected would also become apparent over the next fourteen years."
"Congress rejected the southern border of the proposed territory from 35º to 37º, and the northern border from 42º to 41º. These adjustments revealed Congress once again looking ahead, as it had with the eastern and western borders of Colorado. In fact, Colorado's southern border had already been envisioned in 1850, when Congress located the southern border of the New Mexico Territory at 37º. This location enabled a tier of three Rocky Mountain states to be created north of New Mexico, each with four degrees of height. In becoming states, Wyoming (1890) and Montana (1889) -- both with four degrees of height -- would join Colorado to fill the space between New Mexico and the Canadian border."
"The northern and southern borders of Colorado are artifacts of something remarkable. Or perhaps they are artifacts of something we think is remarkable, but which goes on more often than we realize. They are artifacts of foresight and planning by our elected representatives. "
Colorado and World War II
On February 19, 1942, soon after the beginning of World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. The evacuation order commenced the round-up of 120,000 Americans of Japanese heritage to one of 10 internment camps—officially called "relocation centers"—in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas.
No comments:
Post a Comment