Colorado became a state in 1876, when the United States was celebrating its first one hundred years. That's why Colorado is called The Centennial State. "Colorado" comes from Spanish, meaning "colored red". That name was given to the Colorado River because of the red sandstone soil of the region, and then it was used for the entire territory after the discovery of gold in the Pike's Peak region. First the river, then the territory and after that, it became Colorado, the 38th state to enter the Union. Today's population is over 5 million, and growing. One of Colorado's nicknames is "Colorful Colorado" because of the magnificent scenery of mountains, rivers and plains.
Here is some interesting information about its name, and a look at its population. According to the Wyoming Secretary of State, "The name
Wyoming is a contraction of the Native American word mecheweamiing ("at
the big plains"), and was first used by the Delaware people as
a name for the Wyoming Valley in northeastern Pennsylvania." I read that an Ohio Congressman in 1865 proposed the name ---but later, after coming west to visit the territory, he thought that perhaps he had made a mistake about the name after he saw the dry, wide plains. Not the green valley of Pennsylvania, but Wyoming does have The Great Plains. Wyoming is called The Equality State (we'll learn why later) and The Cowboy State.
But it is last in population, with a population of only 563,626 in 2016....that's less than the population of the city of Denver!
Colorado and Wyoming are easy to see on the map; they are both roughly shaped like rectangles.
So, welcome to Wyoming.
Jane
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--sandstone = http://www.wordreference.com/enfr/sandstone
--soil = http://www.wordreference.com/enfr/soil
--Pike's Peak = 4,300m (14,115 feet) mountain in the center of Colorado, in the Rocky Mountains.
--roughly = we saw this word on Day 1 of the blog
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