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 Reprinted from University of Colorado Studies, Vol. Ill, No. 4, 
 Boulder, Colo., August, 1906 
 
 THE COUNTY BOUNDARIES^ OF COLORADO 
 
 By Frederic L. Paxson 
 
 The early history of the state of Colorado is of necessity closely con- 
 nected with that of the territories from which lands were taken to endow 
 the new commonwealth. Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, and New Mexico 
 were all levied upon, and out of the lands thus provided was erected, 
 under the stimulus of the discovery of gold near Pike's Peak in 1858, 
 the new territory bearing the name of Colorado, by the act of February 
 28, 1861.^ 
 
 The territorial history of the Colorado lands in connection with Ne- 
 braska, Utah, and New Mexico has not yet been made accessible. Kan- 
 sas three times passed laws which are of interest in the history of the new 
 terrritory.^ In the year 1855 she created the county of Arapahoe, em- 
 bracing all of her territory west of the one hundred and third meridian, 
 while the county of Washington, south of thirty-eight degrees and thirty 
 minutes, included the southeast corner of Colorado. Neither of these 
 counties was ever organized, Arapahoe being attached to Marshall, as was 
 Washington to Allen, for purposes of government, and both of them being 
 reshaped before their local settlement justified any formal organization. 
 The discovery of gold in Arapahoe county in 1858 brought about the 
 repeal of the act of 1855, and the substitution for the two counties of 
 Arapahoe and Washington, within Colorado limits, of the counties of Ore, 
 Broderick, Montana, Arapahoe, El Paso, and Fremont, all lying west of 
 the one hundred and third meridian. The southern end of the single 
 degree east of this meridian, losing even its nominal Washington county 
 in 1859, became in the following year a part of the county of Peketon. 
 And in this condition all of Kansas west of the twenty- fifth meridian from 
 Washington (approximately the one hundred and second from Green- 
 wich) was cast adrift when Kansas was admitted into the union on Janu- 
 ary 29, 1861. 
 
 » F. L. Paxson, "The Boundaries of Colorado," in University of Colorado Studies, Vol. II, pp. 87-94 
 ' H. G. Gill, "The Establishment of Counties in Kansas," in Kansas Historical Society Collections 
 Vol. VIII, pp. 1-23, with sixteen outline maps. 
 
 197 
 
 f i^l 
 
198 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 
 
 The first legislative assembly of the territory of Colorado met in Den- 
 ver in the autumn of 1861 to pass, among others, a law dividing the 
 whole territory into seventeen counties.^ Of these original counties, six 
 embraced large areas of plains lands of the eastern slope — Weld, Arapa- 
 hoe, Douglas, El Paso, Pueblo, and Huerfano. Three covered the whole 
 
 31 
 
 i 
 I 
 I 
 I 
 
 L/ 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 Territory 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 H 
 
 3Z 
 
 25 
 —\4J 
 
 NEBRASKA TERRITORY 
 
 ^ — \ 
 
 ^ 
 
 — !%> h — -1 
 
 ^ I 
 ^ I 
 
 3roc/er/cA 
 
 Hew Mexico 
 Tbrritoky 
 
 
 31 
 
 ZS 
 
 Map I. — 1861 — Before Admission of Kansas. 
 
 unoccupied western slope — Summit, Lake, and Conejos.^ Two, Fre- 
 mont and Costilla, divided the eastern and western slopes at the south 
 while six mountain counties in the center of the state — Larimer, Boulder, 
 Gilpin, Clear Creek, Jefferson, and Park — have until this day remained 
 in their original limits as witnesses to the wisdom of the legislature which 
 brought them into existence. ^ 
 
 In defining the boundaries for these first counties the legislature made 
 large use of the Hnes of the United States survey, which had begun in the 
 
 » Act of November i, 1861 (First Legislative Assembly, Session Laws, pp. 52-57). 
 
 ' The act of November i, 1861, created a county of Guadaloupe, whose name was changed by the act 
 of November 7, 1861, to Conejos {Sess. Laws, 1861, p. 14s). 
 
 3 These central counties contained most of the population of the territory, for here were the great mining 
 camps. 
 
COUNTY BOUNDARIES OF COLORADO 
 
 199 
 
 territory a few months before the act was passed. The eighth guide meri- 
 dian, passing through the town of Pueblo, gives the location to ranges in 
 the whole state, save the southwest comer. And the base line of the 
 fortieth parallel is used over the same area. In the southwest, and in 
 later years, the New Mexico principal meridian replaces the eighth guide 
 of the eastern slope. The six eastern counties were all defined with 
 reference to these base and range lines, in existence or projected. 
 
 L ar/mer 
 
 iSummit 
 
 We/c/ 
 
 Arapahoe' 
 
 Doaa/cfs 
 
 El Pc 
 
 'atso 
 
 Pueblo 
 
 Arapahoe 
 Cheyenne Qe^erve^ 
 
 Huerfano 
 
 Map II. — 1861 — First Legislative Assembly. 
 
 The central counties made much use of the Snowy Range, which the 
 courts later determined to mean the continental divide when not further 
 qualified by a local name, as Mosquito or Sangre de Christo or La Plata 
 range.'' The western counties, beyond the region of accurate survey 
 or actual settlement, were open to confusion in the case of the Lake- 
 
 ' This ruling was made in a sviit in which Grand county endeavored to establish the Medidne Bow 
 range as its eastern bovmdary, which was by definition the "Snowy Range" (Grand County v. Larimer Co. 
 Colorado Supreme Court Reports, Vol. IX, p. 268, April term, 1886). In the following year the legislatiu:e 
 provided that disputed county boundaries should be determined and surveyed by the state engineer (Act of 
 April 4, 1887, Sess. Laws, 1887, p. 388). 
 
200 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 
 
 Conejos line which was defined as running along a range, the La Plata, 
 which was misplaced in the maps used by the legislature ; but this mis- 
 take was corrected before the opening of the San Juan country made it 
 a matter of importance.^ It is worthy of note that four of the eastern 
 
 Map III. — 1866 — Second to Sixth Assemblies. 
 
 counties were bounded in part by the Cheyenne and Arapahoe reserva- 
 tion, established by treaty of February 18, 186 1, and lasting until after 
 the treaty of Little Arkansas, of October 14, 1865, which followed the 
 serious plains war of 1864.' In no other instance did Colorado allow a 
 reservation to interfere with the extension of county boundaries over its 
 area. The Ute reservations in the west were always covered by these hnes. 
 From 1864 until the arrival of the railways in 1870 Colorado failed to 
 continue in the rapid growth which had been hoped for in the early sixties. 
 
 » There is a range indicated as "La Plata" in the position evidently contempJated in 1861, in "Map No. 
 4: From the Coo-che-to-pa Pass to the Wahsatch Mountains," in Reports of Explorations . ... for a Rail- 
 road from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean (Washington, 1861), Vol. XI. This range separates the 
 livers San Juan and Dolores, along which divide the line is drawn in the maps accompanying this article. 
 
 ' C. C. RoYCE, "Indian Land Cessions in the United States," in Bureau of American Ethnology, 
 Eighteenth Report, 1896-97, Part 2, pp. 824, 838, and maps. 
 
COUNTY BOUNDARIES OF .COLORADO 
 
 20I 
 
 Her mines were in a measure discredited, statehood failed in spite of 
 the exigencies of the Repubhcan party in Congress, and population seems 
 actually to have fallen away during these years. The county process 
 indicates this stagnation in its own leisurely development. 
 
 Map IV. — 1868 — Seventh Assembly. 
 
 With the exception of Saguache, formed out of that part of Costilla 
 north of La Loma del Norte and Moscow Creek,^ no new county was 
 created on the western slope during these years. Saguache was the work 
 of the sixth legislative assembly sitting at Golden in 1866-67. I^s north- 
 west boundary was not the original Costilla-Lake line of 186 1, but a new 
 line erected for Costilla-Conejos by the third legislature in 1864, and ex- 
 tending from the top of Cochetopa Pass to "the mouth of the canon of 
 the Snowy Range from whence flows the Rio Grande del Norte,'" the 
 southern point being later determined by the state engineer as the town 
 of Del Norte, situated in La Loma del Norte.^ 
 
 ' Sess. Laws, 1866-67, p. S4. act of December 29, 1866. 
 
 ' Sess. Laws, 1864, p. 68,; February 24, 1864. 
 
 ' Cochetopa Pass was in 1892 defined by the state engineer as sitiiated in S. W. Cor., Twp. 46 N., Range 
 No. 4, East, of New Mexico Principal Meridian (jColoradc State Engineer, Sixth Biennial Report, p. 49). The 
 ' ^moutb".of the Canon was located in this same report (p. 44). 
 
202 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 
 
 On the eastern slope the comers of Fremont county were straightened 
 out by the fifth and seventh assemblies of 1866 and 1868,^ while the county 
 of Las Animas made its appearance in the former year, formed from that 
 part of Huerfano county south of thirty-seven degrees and thirty minutes.' 
 
 Summit 
 
 WelJ 
 
 A ra /pcjhoe 
 
 Do ua J (7 s 
 
 Oreenwood 
 
 Bent 
 
 La^ AnJmas 
 
 Map V. — 1870 — Eighth Assembly. 
 
 The disappearance of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe reservation, and the 
 removal of the Indians, forced a revision of these southeastern lines in 
 1868, with the result that the seventh legislature restricted Huerfano 
 county to its modern irregular bounds and divided its old territory be- 
 tween Pueblo and Las Animas, its neighbors on the northeast and south- 
 east.5 
 
 ' An act of March ii, 1864 {JSess. laws, 1864, p. 69), had given a conditional modification to Fremont, 
 depending upon a certain Beaver Creek. This act was repealed by the act of February 6, 1866 {Sess. La-wsi 
 1866, p. 47). The later act of January 6, 1868 (Revised Statutes, 1868, p. 163), substituted the range of moun- 
 tains cast of the Arkansas River for the original northwestern line, the new line crossing the Arkansas three 
 miles below the mouth of the South Arkansas in order to connect with the range mentioned. 
 
 • February 9, 1866 (Sess. Laws, 1866, p. 49). 
 
 » Act of January 9, i868 (Revised Statutes, 1868, p. 164). These Revised Statutes were authorized by 
 the'sBventh assembly and form the first revision of Colorado laws.. ... 
 
COUNTY BOUNDARIES OF COLORADO 
 
 203 
 
 The advent of the railway in Colorado left its necessary imprint upon 
 county organization. The Denver Pacific, connecting Denver and Chey- 
 enne, and the Kansas Pacific, otherwise known as the Eastern Division of 
 the Union Pacific, reaching the territorial capital from the east, both came 
 into operation in the summer of 1870, Greenwood and Bent counties 
 
 Map VI. — 1874 — ^Ninth and Tenth Assemblies. 
 
 had preceded the Kansas Pacific by some months,^ while the activity 
 around the county seat of the former. Kit Carson, caused by the heavy 
 Santa F^ trade springing from the railway at that point,* gave a consider- 
 able activity to speculation in territorial lands. The county of Elbert, 
 south of Arapahoe, came with the tenth legislature in 1874 at the expense 
 of Douglas and Greenwood,^ while the latter gave to Bent what Elbert 
 did not need and itself disappeared from the map.'* In this condition, 
 
 ■ Act of February ii, 1870 {Sess. Laws, 1870, p. 53). 
 
 " The Arkansas Valley Railroad was constructed by Kansas Pacific interests to connect Kit Carson and 
 Pueblo. It was built as far as La Junta, further extension being unnecessary since the Sante F6 had already 
 reached Pueblo by La Junta. The Arkansas Valley was never a success, closed down in 1877, was sold under 
 foreclosure in 1878, and is today abandoned. (Poor, Railway Manual, 1878, p. 894.) 
 
 3 Act of February 2, 1874 (JSess. Laws, 1874, p. 69). 
 
 * Act of February 6, 1874 {.Sess. Laws, 1874, p. 61). The Ninth Census, 1S70, had given to Greenwood 
 a population of 5x0 (Vol. I, Population, p. 16). 
 
204 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 
 
 save for the county of Custer, made in 1877,' the eastern slope remained 
 through the rest of the seventies and through the eighties to 1887. 
 
 On the western slope of Colorado the seventies show a greater county 
 activity than on the eastern. The early counties beyond the range had 
 lost much of their importance from the fact that the Ute reservation cov- 
 ered most of the useful lands. But the Indians receded before the pros- 
 pecter during this decade,^ allowing the creation of many new counties in 
 place of the original three — Summit, Lake, and Conejos. 
 
 lar/m^r 
 
 ]A/elc/ 
 
 A rap^f ho£' 
 
 £/herr 
 
 denr 
 
 la^ An/ mas 
 
 ] 
 
 Map VII — 1876 — Eleventh Territorial Assembly. 
 
 Saguache county was the first to change in the early seventies, receiving 
 in 1872 a new northern line in the latitude of Poncha Pass, and a new 
 
 'Act of March 9, 1877 {General Laws, 1877, p. 211). The first general assembly of the new state of 
 Colorado published no Session Laws, but embodied the statutes of 1877 in a code of General Laws. 
 
 ' The original reserve, west of 107° and south of fifteen miles north of 40°, was based on a treaty March 
 2, 1868. The Utes ceded the San Juan rectangle out of this by a treaty of September, 13, 1873, and the 
 remaining portion, save for the fifteen mile strip of the Southern Ute reserve, by an agreement of March 6, 
 1880. (ROYCE, Indian [Land Cessions, pp. 848, 864, 874, 899, 904, 908; House Executive Document 66 
 Forty-fifth Congress, Second Session.} 
 
COUNTY BOUNDARIES OF COLORADO 205 
 
 western line along the Ute reserve in one hundred and seven degrees.* 
 The next legislature, the tenth in 1874, was able to take advantage of the 
 cession by the Utes of their San Juan lands, and to create three southwest- 
 ern counties at the expense of Conejos and Lake. The large county of 
 La Plata received on the east a meridian six miles west of the mouth of 
 Lost Trail Creek on the Rio Grande, and on the north a parallel ten miles 
 north of the thirty-eighth parallel,^ both of which boundaries were shortly 
 to give way to more reasonable lines along the obvious summits. Conejos 
 was in the same year forced back of the ninth correction line and the first 
 guide meridian east of the New Mexico principal meridian, while the 
 lands thus surrendered were divided by the New Mexico meridian itself 
 into Hinsdale and Rio Grande. The county of Grand was erected 
 by the same tenth assembly out of that part of the huge Summit 
 north of the Ute reserve and the line between townships Nos. i and 2 
 south.3 
 
 The eleventh legislature, 1876, the last of the territorial series, added 
 San Juan to the southwestern group, taking from La Plata for the purpose 
 its lands north of nine miles south of the tenth correction line, and erecting 
 a mountain line for most of San Juan's eastern boundary. '» The impos- 
 sibility of the 1861 Conejos-Lake line was by this time clearly seen in that 
 the La Plata range not only did not cross the western boundary of the 
 territory, but did not even connect with the continental divide at the 
 source of the Rio Grande, which the statute called upon it to do. With 
 this legislature the territorial period ended, twenty-six of the counties of 
 Colorado being in existence. ^ 
 
 ' Act of February g, 1872 (Sess. Laws, 1872, p. 81). The state engineer, under act of April 4, 1887, 
 has determined the summit of Poncha Pass to be "Intersection Peak" as indicated on Sheet VII of F. V. 
 Hayden, Atlas oj Colorado (Washington, 1881). (Colorado Stale Engineer, Fourth Biennial Report, Part I, 
 p. 116.) The court of appeals sustained his ruling in September, 1892 (Gunnison Co. v. Saguache Co. Colo- 
 rado Court of Appeals Reports, Vol. II, p. 412). 
 
 » Act of February 10, 1874 (Sess. Laws, 1874, p. 66). A single act defined the boundaries of the three 
 counties, and in a later section (No. 13) established the tenth correction Une as a new boundary between Cos- 
 tilla and Saguache. 
 
 3 Act of February 2, 1874, (Sess. Laws 1874, p. 71). The moimtain boundary of the new Grand left 
 the Snowy Range where it throws off a spur between the Williams' Fork and Blue Rivers, on the west boundary 
 of Clear Creek, and follows the spur range to the township line mentioned. 
 
 ■♦ Act of January 31, 1876 (Sess. Laws, 1876, p. 58). 
 
 5 The writer is indebted to one of his graduate students, Mr. Frederick Eugene Hagen, for assistance 
 in the preliminary survey of the territorial period. He has, however, based all his conclusions upon a personal 
 examination of the statutes involved. 
 
2o6 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 
 
 The first general assembly of the new state, meeting in 1877, took up 
 the process of subdividing the west so vigorously that three new counties 
 made their appearance in this year, San Juan, which had come into 
 existence only the year before, was cut down until it reached its present 
 location and boundary, while so much of the original territory as lay west 
 
 L ar/mer 
 
 We/of 
 
 A rapahcpe 
 
 E/herf- 
 
 dent 
 
 
 Map VIII. — 1877 — First General Assembly. 
 
 of an irregular mountain line became the new county of Ouray. ^ Lake 
 county was confined to the east of the continental divide or Snowy Range, 
 while its discarded portion received the name of Gunnison." Routt 
 county was cut off from Grand with an eastern boundary that was at a 
 later day to cause litigation with both its mother-county and Larimer.' 
 
 »iAct of January i8, 1877 {General Laws, 1877, p. aoy). 
 
 ' Act of March 9, 1877 {General Laws, 1877, p. ais). 
 
 3 The western boundary of Larimer was determined by the supreme court in Grand Co. v. Larimer Co* 
 (IX Colorado, p. 268). Routt county received a somewhat uncertain boundary in the act of January 29, 1877 
 (General Laws, 1877, p. 209). In one section it was to include that part of Grand lying west of a defined line, 
 while the defined line, starting from the intersection of south line of Grand and the Gore Range, and running 
 north to the Wyoming territorial line, ran, through half its length, through North Park and Larimer county. 
 Thus a technical contention based upon the more definite boundary statement might have included in Routt 
 a part of Larimer. The identity of Gore Range caused litigation between Routt and Grand over a twelve- 
 mile strip. The state engineer, J. S. Green, identified the point of intersection at Yarmany Peak, his ruling 
 
COUNTY BOUNDARIES OF COLORADO 
 
 207 
 
 In 1879 the second state assembly gave to Saguache, already a much- 
 bounded county, a new Hne on its south, and at the same time a ground for 
 future litigation.' To the adjoining county of Lake, between Snowy 
 
 We/d 
 
 Ara;pahcpe 
 
 O^ray 
 
 la P/afa 
 
 E/lpert 
 
 dent 
 
 Co/7ejo^ 
 
 An /mas 
 
 Map IX. — 1879 — Second General Assembly. 
 
 jeing overthrown and the point being placed twelve miles farther west by the district court of Grand upon 
 ippeal of Gra^d. The court of Appeals, in 1894, reversed the decision of the court below, and remanded the 
 ase (IV Colorado Court of Appeals, p. 306). Subsequently the county attorneys of Grand and Routt agreed 
 to nin the line from the southwest comer of township No. i, range 82, west. 
 
 » An adjudication of the common boundaries of Saguache, Hinsdale, and Rio Grande occurred after 
 the beginning of the mining boom at Creede and before the creation of Mineral county in 1893. In order 
 to determine the location of certain of the new camps, appeal was jointly made by the counties to the state 
 engineer, J. B. Maxwell, under the act of 1887. Maxwell sat at Creede in March, 1892, and handed down 
 a decision defming the southern boundary of Saguache as running from the intersection of the tenth correction 
 line north with the first guide meridian east of the New Mexico principal meridian, west to an intersection 
 with a line nmning northwesterly from Del Norte to Cochetopa Pass, and northwesterly to said pass; thence 
 southwesterly along the continental divide to the one hundred and seventh meridian. (.Colorado State 
 Engineer, Sixth Biennial Report, pp. 42-50.) This decision of the state engineer was later contested by 
 Mineral county, and the district court of Chaffee reversed the decision on the groimd that the procedure of the 
 state engineer was illegal, his duty being to survey a line, not merely to adjudicate it. The court also took 
 evidence and established the Rio Grande River, west of the New Mexico meridian, as the southern hne of 
 Saguache, in place of the continental divide. Upon the appeal of Hinsdale, this decision was reversed by the 
 court of appeals at its April term, 1897 (Colorado Court of Appeals Reports, Vol. IX, p. 368). A year later, 
 the court of appeals was itself reversed by the supreme court, upon the appeal of Mineral (Colorado Supreme 
 Court Reports, Vol. XXV, p. 95). In the light of these decisions, the Saguache-Hinsdale line must be inter; 
 
2o8 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 
 
 £oatf 
 
 ar/mer 
 
 ^umm/ 1 
 
 
 Ouray 
 
 Pc^/or^j 
 
 la PJafa 
 
 We/c^ 
 
 A ra p cf h o ^ 
 
 Elherf 
 
 Dent 
 
 Ca/yg'jff^ 
 
 Las An/ma's 
 
 Map X. — 1881— Third General Assembly. 
 
 and Mosquito Ranges, its attention was called by the discovery of great 
 silver lodes near the old town of Oro. At first it divided the county, giv- 
 ing its north end, north of five miles south of the first correction line, the 
 descriptive name of Carbonate/ But before the session ended, Car- 
 
 preted as nrnning in part along the Rio Grande, although the writer has been unable to find any statutory 
 authority for the ruling of the ChaSee county court, and inclines to the opinion that a better interpretation of 
 the statute would have been reached had the court been able to pass the matter back to the state engineer for 
 lawful action, rather than to decide the location of the line itself. 
 
 The Saguache-Rio Grande line is likewise in some doubt. When Rio Grande was erected in 1874 its 
 northern line was the old southern line of Saguache, ptassing through Del Norte and Cochetopa Pass. In an 
 act of February 8, 1879, Rio Grande was increased by all of Saguache lying south of the tenth correction 
 line, from its intersection with the first guide meridian east, west thirty miles, north six miles, and west to the 
 Hinsdale Une (5ew. laws, 1879, p.48). It has been commonly held that this act transferred to Saguache all 
 of Rio Grande lying north of the described line, and in this spirit the best maps are commonly drawn. But 
 the text of the act contains no reference whatever to an increase of Saguache. The maps here presented 
 accept the current assumption that such was the intent of the legislature of 1879, and that the statute was 
 merely defective in phrase. But there is much reason to beUeve that a technical interpretation of the law would 
 restore to Rio Grande its Cochetopa triangle. Such was the opinion of Maxwell in 1892, and the writer accepts 
 his argument as conclusive. The Chaffee coimty court threw out his tuhng because of the manner in which 
 it had been made, not on any avowed ground of an incorrect,interpretation of law (Sixth Biennial Report, p. 47). 
 
 " Act of February 8, 1879 (Sess. Laws, 1879, p. 47). The "Camp of the Carbonates," as Leadville was 
 popularly known, brought Colorado into the public eye in 1878 and 1879. Some of the contemporary bibliog- 
 raphy may be found in F. L. Paxson, "Preliminary Bibliography of Colorado History," in University of Col- 
 orado Studies, Vol. Ill, pp. 19-24 
 
COUNTY BOUNDARIES OF COLORADO 
 
 209 
 
 bonate had been discarded for the old name of Lake, while the southern 
 end received the new name of Chaffee.^ 
 
 Two years after the Leadville boom of 1879, the third assembly 
 divided the county of Ouray, to erect that of Dolores, and cut ofiF the 
 northeastern corner of Gunnison to receive the name of Governor Pitkin." 
 But it was not until the time of the fourth assembly, in 1883, that the final 
 
 Arafpahc?^ 
 
 £/t'£'r-f 
 
 3^r7f 
 
 Lets Animas 
 
 Map XI. — 1883 — Fourth General Assembly. 
 
 removal of the last of the Uncompahgre Utes made it possible to reduce 
 the counties of the west to reasonable dimensions. In this year, 1883, 
 Summit was restricted to its present limits, while out of its western end 
 were erected Eagle and Garfield.^ Gunnison was likewise reduced to its 
 
 ■ Act of February lo, 1879 {Sess. Laws, 1879. p. 48). 
 
 ' Dolores was erected by art of February 19, 1881, and Pitkin by act of February 23 (Sess. Laws, i88x, 
 pp. 92, 89). The jv^int line of Garfield, Pitkin, and Mesa was rim by the state engineer in 1890 (Fifth Bien- 
 nial Report, Part I, p. 14.). 
 
 3 Garfield, February 10; Eagle, February 11; (Sess. Laws, 1883, PP- 130. 127). The Eagle-Summit 
 boundary was defined, in its northern end, as the divide between the Piney and Blue Rivers. A later and better 
 geographical knowledge showed that two divides exist between these rivers, being themselves separated 
 by the Sheephom Creek and valley. The state engineer, John E. Field, surveyed the line in 1897 and accepted 
 the eastern divide as the statutory Une, throwing the Sheephom valley into Eagle county (Ninth Biennial 
 Report, p. 30). The line between Garfield and Eagle had been run by the same official in 1893 (Seventh Bien- 
 nial Report, p. 331). 
 
2IO UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 
 
 present dimensions, Mesa, Delta, and Montrose being created wholly, and 
 Uncompahgre in part, at its expense.^ The meridian of one hundred 
 and seven degrees, thirty minutes, became the western line of the reduced 
 county, while the Delta-Mesa line followed the edge of the Grand Mesa in 
 part. A new county of Uncompahgre was created by this assembly, com- 
 prising all of the valley of the Uncompahgre River and its tributaries south 
 of thirty-eight degrees and twenty minutes, and north of the San Juan 
 county line. Before the session ended the name of San Miguel had been 
 applied to the old county of Ouray, while the name Ouray had been trans- 
 ferred to the new county of Uncompahgre. " 
 
 The history of the western slope since 1883 is quickly told. Archuleta 
 came with the fifth assembly in 1885, to reduce Conejos to its present 
 limits west of the continental divide.^ In 1889 the seventh assembly 
 divided La Plata along the mountain range of the same name, and 
 g^ve the name Montezuma to its western end, in honor, perhaps, of its 
 prehistoric ruins.'* It ran also an irregular line along the lines of the 
 United States survey in creating Rio Blanco in the northern part of 
 Garfield, s The ninth assembly, four years later, separated Rio Grande 
 and Hinsdale counties by the new county of Mineral, four ranges 
 wide and running from the ninth correction line to the continental 
 divide.^ 
 
 During the eighties Colorado developed as an agricultural state more 
 rapidly than before. Irrigation had ceased to be an experiment; while 
 the assertion by the state of its rights to control its waters, together with 
 the supervision of the state engineer over hydraulic conditions, founded 
 
 ' Mesa, February 14; Delta, February ii; Montrose, February 11; Uncompaghre, February 27 (Sess. 
 Laws, 1&83, pp. 133, 124, 136, 139). 
 
 ' Uncompaghre was created by act of February 27, 1883, and had its name changed to Ouray, March a, 
 1883 {Sess. Laws, 1883, p. 139). The dividing line between the new Ouray and San Juan had been defined 
 by act of January 18, 1877 (General Laws, 1877, p. 207). It depends upon the location of a certain Minora' 
 Creek which empties into the Uncompaghre River, and is of great importance because it traverses a rich min- 
 eral district. The line is now (1906) in the hands of the state engineer, whose chief difficulty is to identify 
 Mineral Creek. The northern line of 38° 20', calling for an astronomical location, is also in the hands of the 
 state engineer. 
 
 J Act of April 14, i88s {Sess. Laws, 1885, p. 40). 
 
 ♦ Act of April 16, 1889 {Sess. Laws, 1889, p. 262). 
 
 s Act of March 15, 1889 {Sess. Laws, 1889, p. 325). The act is carelessly worded in its definition of 
 the survey lines, but its intent can be easily seen. 
 
 * Act of March 27, 1893 {Sess. Laws, 1893, p. 94). This act was carelessly phrased. A later act of April 
 24, 189s, was necessary to bring its wording into harmony with its intent {Sess. Laws, 1895, p. 205). 
 
COUNTY BOUNDARIES OF COLORADO 
 
 211 
 
 irrigation rights upon bases more equitable than had been known before/ 
 The resulting expansion in the Platte and Arkansas valleys started anew 
 the county growth on the east slope that had paused after the erection of 
 Custer in 1877. 
 
 J We/af 
 
 Loi^ar? 
 
 y/ajh/n^ton 
 
 Ara p(yi hoe 
 
 la P/afa 
 
 E/hert 
 
 dent 
 
 La^ An/mas 
 
 Map XII.— 1887— Fifth and Sixth Assemblies. 
 
 The county of Weld, one of the original seventeen of 1861, had 
 complete control of the waters of the lower Platte until 1887. An 
 attempt to create a county of Platte out of its eastern end had been made 
 in 1872, but had failed to secure the required approval at the polls. ^ 
 And thus Weld remained unbroken until the sixth assembly of 1887 
 
 » The act of February 19, 1879, inaugurated the policy of control of irrigable streams by the state, by 
 erecting ten irrigation districts with a water commissioner for each. Two years later, March s, 1881, the 
 administration of the system was centralized by the establishment of the office of state engineer to super- 
 vise the work of the local comniissioners. Twelve Biennial Reports have been pubhshed by the state engineer, 
 the last being for 1904. Since the act of April 4, 1887, this official has had the duty of adjudicating and sur- 
 veying disputed boundaries {Sess. Laws, 1879, p. 94; 1881, p. 119; 1887, p. 288). 
 
 » The erection of Platte county was authorized, subject to popular vote, February 9, 1872 {Sess. Laws, 
 1872, p. 80). This statute was repealed February 9, 1874 {Sess. Laws, 1874, P- 82). The courts have decided 
 that such a popular vote is not a constitutional prerequisite to the formation of a new county, although it is 
 necessary in cases of transfer of land from one existing county to another {Frost v. Pfeiffer, XXVI Colorado 
 3 38). There is a general statute of April 4, 1887, for alteration of county tines in certain cases by mutual 
 consent of adjacent counties {Sess. Laws, 1887, p. 71.) 
 
212 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 
 
 Map XIII. — 1889 — Seventh General Assembly. 
 
 erected two counties of Logan and Washington, and began the process 
 of the final subdivision of the east.* 
 
 The seventh assembly, in 1889, created eleven counties on the east- 
 ern border of the state. ^ Logan parted with its eastern end to endow 
 Sedgwick and Phillips; Yuma was erected in the eastern end of Wash- 
 ington ; while Weld gave up, as its last contribution, the area of Morgan. 
 South of Arapahoe, which came through the assembly untouched, 
 perhaps because its eastern end contained no railways to develop the 
 country or to pay taxes for new counties, Elbert and Bent suffered 
 most in the division. From Elbert came Kit Carson and a part of 
 Cheyenne on the Kansas line, with the greater part of Lincoln; while 
 
 ■ Washington, February 9; Logan, February 25, 1887 {Sess. Laws, 1887, pp. 251, 247). 
 
 • A study of this county expansion in connection with the railway development of the eighties shows the 
 intimate relation existing between railway transportation and frontier development. A state commissioner 
 of raih-oads was created in 1885 {Sess. Laws, 1885, p. 307). Two reports were published by this official in 
 1885 and 1892, and finally the office was abolished over the veto of Governor Waite in 1893 (Sess. Laws, 1893, 
 p. 40s; Davis H. Waite, Biennial Message . ... to the Tenth General Assembly IDenver, i89sl> P- 43)- The 
 Eleventh Census. Report on Transportation Business, Part I, pp. 4, 43, states that raibroad mileage in Colorado 
 encreased from 1,385 in 1880 to 4,176 in 1890. 
 
COUNTY BOUNDARIES OF COLORADO 
 
 213 
 
 Bent not only contributed to complete Lincoln and Cheyenne, but parted 
 with three complete counties in Kiowa, Prowers, and Otero. Las 
 Animas lost Baca in this same destruction, giving up the one county 
 of the eastern border with no railway in its endowment.* 
 
 Loci an 
 
 Sedtjrikk 
 
 Phillips 
 
 Yuma 
 
 Kit Carbon 
 
 Cheyer7r?e 
 
 K / o yv a 
 
 Las Animas 
 
 «5^ 
 
 S^aca 
 
 Map XIV.— 1899— Eighth to Twelfth Assemblies. 
 
 There was little left to be done on the eastern slope after the com- 
 prehensive accomplishments of the seventh assembly. Ten years 
 later, in 1899, the twelfth assembly took the next step in response to 
 the demands of the new Cripple Creek camp, creating Teller county 
 at the expense of El Paso and Fremont.' 
 
 ' Morgan, February 19, 1889 (5eM. Laws, 1889, P- 267); Yuma, March 15 (p. 476); Cheyenne, March 
 25 (p. 56); Otero, March 25 (p. 281); PhilHps, March 27 (p. 288); Sedgwick, April 9,(p. 340); Prowers, April 
 II (p. 294); Kiowa, April n (p. 222); Kit Carson, April 11 (p 225); Lincok, April 11 (p. 234); Baca, April 
 16 (p. 26). 
 
 ' Act of March 23, 1899 {,Stss. Laws, 1899. P- 359). The difficulties in administering a county contain- 
 ng, as in the case of El Paso, two large centers of population, Colorado Springs and Cripple Creek, were made 
 clear during the great strike of 1893-94 (B. M. Rastal, "The Cripple Creek Strike of 1893," \nColorado College 
 Studies, Vol. II, pp. 1-48). The case of Frost v. Pfeiffer, dted above, was decided in connection with the 
 creation of this county (XXVI Colorado, 338). The western line of TeUer had been run, on appeal of 
 El Paso and Park, in 1893 (.Colorado State Engineer, Seventh Biennial Report, p. aai. 
 
214 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 
 
 The thirteenth assembly was induced by the needs of the city of 
 Denver to prepare a constitutional amendment providing a special 
 type of government for counties of more than seventy thousand inhabi- 
 tants, and a statute erecting the city and county of Denver as coterminous 
 
 Map XV. — 1901 — Thirteenth Assembly. 
 
 divisions.^ It provided also that upon the acceptance of this amend- 
 ment on November 4, 1902, the remainder of Arapahoe county should 
 become Adams and South Arapahoe.^ Two years later the fourteenth 
 assembly cut away from the cumbersome Adams county, and gave 
 vigor to the notion of the necessity of the railroad to county life 
 by adding portions of the discarded Adams to Washington and 
 Yuma. 3 
 
 ' Act of March 18, 1901 (Sess. Laws, 1901, p. 97; David A. Mills, Legislative Manual, Stale of 
 Colorado, 1903, p. 267). 
 
 ' Acts of April IS, 1901 (,Sess. Laws, 1901, pp. 133, 138). 
 3 Acts of April 10, .1903 (Sess. Laws, 1903, pp. 169, 173), 
 
COUNTY BOUNDARIES OF COLORADO 
 
 215 
 
 The fifteenth assembly, in 1905, made no territorial changes, ignor- 
 ing some demand for a new county in North Park at the expense of 
 Larimer, and devoting itself to the administrative problems arising 
 from the strikes of the preceding year. 
 
 j 1$ O u t t l^Lari 
 
 Lcpqan 
 
 Phillip 
 
 Map XVI. — 1903 — Fourteenth Assembly. 
 
Lithomount 
 
 Pamphlet 
 
 Binder 
 
 Gay lord Bros. 
 
 Makers 
 Syracuse, N. Y. 
 
 PAT. JAN 21, 1308 
 
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