The shooting deaths of two different gamblers made headlines in the brand-new state of Colorado in early August 1876, though only one would still be the stuff of legend 150 years later. James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok was killed in the boomtown of Deadwood in the Dakota Territory on Aug. 2, though it was more […]

Colorado may have always been destined to attain statehood, but it owes its identity as the Centennial State to the partisan political interests of the Reconstruction-era Republican Party. The timing of Colorado’s admission into the union in 1876, weeks after the celebration of the nation’s centenary and just ahead of that year’s pivotal presidential election, […]

The telegraphic dispatch, dated Aug. 1 and sent from Washington, D.C., appeared in newspapers across Colorado and the nation the following day. “The President, in accordance with the provisions of an act of Congress, approved March 3, 1875, has issued his proclamation declaring and proclaiming the fact that the fundamental conditions imposed by Congress on […]