For explorers, gold seekers and pioneers, life in the West was their chance to achieve the life of their dreams. As groups traveled west to homestead property, farm or join the mining rush, there became a need to establish order through towns and local governments. The settlement of the state spanned several hundred years from the time first documented explorers arrived in the southern part of the state in the 1540s to the establishment of frontier towns in the early 1900s. Today, you can see evidence of early exploration at Pike’s Stockade or mining boomtowns like Leadville. Famous frontiersman such Kit Carson and Buffalo Bill Cody have left an indelible mark on our State’s history.
