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Colorado - Introduction
Area
104,100 square miles. 8th largest state of the USA.
Furthest North to Furthest South
445 miles.
Furthest East to Furthest West
385 miles.
Physical Geography
The eastern third of Colorado is flat, part of the Great Plains. Various ranges of the Rocky Mountains occupy the western two-thirds of Colorado, starting just west of a north-south line through Denver and Colorado Springs.
Population Density
32 per square mile.
Licence Plate
Image: Silhouette of a green mountain range with a white sky.
Text: "Colorado".
State Highway Marker Shield Design
The above image is computer generated and therefore only an approximation of the real sign.
A square. The upper half is a variation on the state flag: two blue horizontal strips enclosing one white horizontal strip, with a red letter "C" with a yellow circle in its middle. The bottom half is a white rectangle containing the road number.
Derivation of Name
From the Colorado River, which in turn derives its name from the Spanish word meaning "red coloured".
Nickname
The Centennial State, so called because Colorado became a state in 1876, exactly 100 years after the American Declaration of Independence.
Hence also the title of James Michener's book "Centennial" which is largely set in Colorado and which was published at the time of the Bicentennial in 1976.
Signs on roads entering the state have the wording "Welcome to Colourful Colorado".
Climate
Denver: January high 44F, July high 87F.
Durango: January high 44F, July 86F.
Official State Tourism Office
Tel (US): 1-800-COLORADO (1-800-265-67236)
Checked Jan-99.
Highway Conditions
Tel (US): 1-303-573-ROAD (1-303-573-7623) or 1-303-639-1111 or 1-303-639-1234 or 1-303-757-9228.
For winter road closure information, including the Trail Ridge Road through Rocky Mountain National Park, select "Alerts and Restrictions". Verified May-04.
Departments of Transportation etc for each US state and Canadian province
State Parks
Official site. Checked Mar-99.
Colorado
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