Every Lake
Colorado
A true rectangle of meridians and parallels, holding more 14,000-foot peaks than any other state.
Colorado in relief
The land itself, cut in six steps of birch from the lowlands to the high ground — the cities starred, the summit and rise on the title block. No counties, no roads: just the shape of Colorado.
About Colorado
Colorado is a true rectangle, bounded by two meridians and two parallels with no natural feature involved, and the contrast inside those lines is the whole appeal. The eastern two-fifths are High Plains, flat and dry, running to the Front Range where the mountains stand up all at once. Behind them the Rockies fill the middle in range after range, holding more summits above 14,000 feet than any other state and the Continental Divide running through them; then the land falls away west to the plateau and canyon country around Grand Junction. Sixty-four counties, square on the plains, ragged in the peaks.
Colorado entered on August 1, 1876, four weeks after the country's hundredth birthday, which is why it is the Centennial State — the 38th. Denver began in 1858 as a gold camp where Cherry Creek meets the South Platte and became capital in 1867. The board hangs on its high roads: Trail Ridge Road over 12,000 feet in Rocky Mountain National Park, the Million Dollar Highway on US-550, and I-70 tunneling under the Divide at Eisenhower.
- Six layers of birch — the land in elevation steps
- The summit and total rise on the title block
- The major cities, starred and named
- Title block with the admission date and capital
- A double rule engraved around the edge
- Every county line and the state border
- The interstates with their shields — 9 on this board
- The major cities, starred and named
- Title block with the admission date and capital
- A mile ruler engraved around the frame
