CHAPTER 1 ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH Colorado's Colorado’s sports teams aren’t afraid to embrace their unique traits Whether that means wearing brightly colored uniforms playing in picturesque stadiums or adapting to high altitudes Colorado teams are truly Coloradan For thousands of years the Rocky Mountains have called to people From the first inhabitants of North America to the people of today Colorado’s famous mountains have been a destination Players such as the Broncos Von Miller have given Colorado fans much to cheer for over the years 5
Approximately 13,000 years ago native people used the Rocky Mountains as a pathway to the rest of North America Along with the Pacific Coast the Rockies were one of two main migration routes used by American Indians Many native tribes also settled in the mountains The area that is now Rocky Mountain National Park was first occupied 11,000 years ago But native people lived all over Colorado Tribes such as the Comanche and Arapaho settled on the eastern plains The Ute settled in the western mountains Native people lived alone in Colorado until the 1500's when Spanish explorers arrived These explorers noticed the red color of the land and named the place Colorado a word for red in Spanish The first Spanish explorers were looking for gold They didn’t find it right away 6
The Comanche tribe became highly skilled with horses in the late 1600's and early 1700's but Colorado’s land was rich in other natural resources In 1848 following the Mexican American War the United States gained a huge amount of territory Part of this land later became western Colorado In 1858 people found gold near Pikes Peak News of this discovery set off a gold rush 7
