Colorado organized as a territory, boundaries set: February 28, 1861.
Colorado obtains statehood: August 1, 1876.
North boundary: 41º latitude. North-South Distance: 276 miles
South boundary: 37º latitude.
West boundary: 102º 03’ 02” East-West Distance: 387 miles.
East boundary: 109º 03’ 02”
Colorado is a straight-line state. Its boundaries are entirely political, and follow straight lines rather than natural landmarks. The state is a symmetrical 4-degree-Latitude by 7-degree-Longitude quadrangle. Only two other states – Wyoming and Utah – are straight-line states, having not a single boundary delineated by nature.
Total Area: 104,247 square miles. (approx. 270,000 Km2)
High Point: Mount Elbert, Lake County. 14,433 feet (4,398 meters)
Low Point: Arickaree River at Kansas border, Yuma County.,3,315 feet (1,010 meters).
The United States Geological Survey lists Colorado’s low point as 3,350 feet in Prowers County where the Arkansas River crosses the Colorado-Kansas border. Dale Sanderson, of Denver, a cartographer for Qwest Communications in Denver, researched USGS maps to discover the new Arickaree River low point.
Even at 3,315 feet, Colorado has the highest low point of the 50 states. Wyoming is second at 3,099, where the Belle Fourche River enters South Dakota.
Geographical center of state: In Spinney Mountain Reservoir, 30 miles northwest of Pikes Peak in Park County. Take a boat.
Distance from West Coast: 995 miles (1,600 km).
Distance from East Coast: 1,989 miles (3,200 km).
Mean elevation: 6,800 feet (1,020 m).
Number of separate peaks 14,000 feet or higher: 54.
Number of separate peaks 13,000 feet or higher: 584. (See Appendix)
Excluding Alaska, three-fourths of the nation’s land area 10,000 feet or higher is in Colorado.
Temperatures typically drop 3.3 to 3.6 degrees F for every 1,000 feet elevation gain, or about 1.8 to 2 degrees C for every 300 meters.
Any area 9,000 feet or higher will experience a very short growing season. Frost can occur any day of the year at 9,000 feet. Fraser, in the upper reaches of Middle Park, is credited with having the shortest growing season in the state, averaging 48 frost-free days a year. Denver, only 50 miles away as the crow flies, enjoys warm summer nights and 211 days of frost-free weather. On the Continental Divide between the two is Berthoud Pass, 11,310 feet, where the annual average high temperature is 40 degrees and the record high is only 76. Compare that to Denver’s average high of 64 degrees and record high of 104. Fruita, near the Utah border in the Grand Valley, enjoys the state’s longest growing seasons.
Average humidity: 38% (measured at noon).
Higher elevations are analogous to northern latitudes. In a 16-mile drive from Colorado Springs to the summit of Pikes Peak, one passes through four separate ecosystems: Grassland, Montane Forest, Subalpine Forest and Alpine Tundra. To pass through similar life zones without gaining altitude, one would have to travel as far north as Northern Alaska or Canada. Many of the plants and animals living in Colorado between 9,000 and 11,500 feet, in the spruce-fir forest life-zones, thrive at 1,000 feet in northern Canada. The low tundra vegetation above timberline (approx. 11,000 feet) is similar to plant life found in the Arctic tundra.
