Colorado Day by Day by Derek Everett

Author:Derek Everett [Everett, Derek]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781646420063
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Published: 2020-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

AUGUST 8, 1936

Annexing the Forgotten Empire

In the summer of 1936, a Breckenridge newspaper printed a “Special Flag-Raising Issue of the Summit County Journal” and stated “Tomorrow, August 8, We Become Part of the U.S.A.” A grand ceremony, both patriotic and bizarre, took place on the grounds of the county courthouse that day when politicians claimed roughly 2,000 square miles in the heart of the country that, until then, supposedly did not belong to the United States.

With the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States bought from France the claim to all land draining into the Mississippi River from the west, including Colorado east of the Continental Divide and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. In 1819, federal officials worked out the Adams-Onís Treaty to establish a border with the Spanish empire. The line in Colorado followed the Arkansas River to its source near Leadville, then extended due north. Some sources argued, incorrectly, that these deals left a gap between the geometric line north of the Arkansas and west of the divide, embracing most of Grand and Summit Counties and a sliver of Eagle County.

When the Woman’s Club of Breckenridge realized the supposed oversight, they lobbied for formal annexation to resolve the matter. Scholars pointed out that the Utes had surrendered the region to American officials in 1868, but club members retorted that the Utes were not a real nation, so the ceremony remained essential. Among the thousands of attendees were Governor Edwin C. Johnson, Congressman Edward T. Taylor, Adjutant General Neil W. Kimball, members of the Colorado National Guard and American Legion, a US Navy recruiting officer, and the state registrar of federal land, who “regards the affair as an unnecessary formality, but she plans to attend to be on the safe side.” Kimball raised an American flag while guns fired a salute, and the country was whole at last. In addition to a dozen towns and some of the state’s most popular winter resorts, the region had produced millions of dollars in gold, silver, and other resources over the years—wealth the Spanish or French would have loved to claim as their own.

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