In January of 1861，Congress voted statehood for Kansas．A bill to create Colorado Territory was passed almost immediately thereafter（其后，从那时以后）．President Lincoln appointed William Gilpin as the state’s first territorial governor．The population of Colorado in 1861was 21，000．The first legislature，sitting in Denver，selected Colorado City（west of present day Colorado Springs）as the capitol．The second legislature met there only a few days，in 1862，and adjourned（延期，换另一个地方）to Denver．The assembly met in Denver and Golden up to 1867when Denver was named the permanent seat of the territory．In the years following the establishment of the territory，numerous attempts were made to gain statehood for Colorado．However，it was not until 1876—fifteen years after becoming a territory—that Colorado was admitted as the thirty－eighth state in the union．Colorado was called the “Centennial State”in honor of the one－hundredth year of the Declaration of Independence．
Only after World War II did rapid urban growth take place，with Denver as the largest point of growth．In the 1970s，Colorado enjoyed another boom，when the national energy crisis inflated（膨胀）demand for the state’s coal and oil industries．And when oild prices fell once more in the early 1980s，Colorado resumed its economic bust（破产）．In the late 1980s and all through the 1990s，however，the state grew rapidly．
Governor州长
Bill Owens被《国家评论》杂志称为“美国最佳州长”。他在1999年1月成为科罗拉多州第40届州长。他在2002年的选举中再次以科罗拉多州历史上最多数票当选为州长，而且因为他的革新领导能力赢得了广泛的支持。他一上台就大刀阔斧地减轻税收负担，赢得本州人们的高度赞赏。他的低税政策和政府开支的控制等措施报道在《华尔街日报》的“领导社论”上，作为其他州学习的榜样。
Called “the best governor in America”by National Review magazine，Bill Owens was sworn in as Colorado’s 40th Governor in January 1999．He was re－elected in 2002with the greatest majority in Colorado history，earning a broad mandate for his innovative（创新的，革新（主义）的）leadership．
Gov．Owens pushed through the largest tax relief package in state history，amounting to 1billion in cuts in rates of sales，personal－income，and capital－gains taxes，and an elimination of the marriage penalty（处罚，罚款）．As a result，he has won high marks for his fiscal leadership，earning the highest grade among the nation’s governors from the Cato Institute．His policies of low taxes and restrained government spending were cited as an example for other states in a lead editorial in The Wall Street Journal．
Touted as one of the major emerging leaders in American politics by The Economist magazine，Owens was also identified as one of the country’s top ten rising political stars by syndicated（成为企业组合的）columnist（专栏作家）Robert Novak．He is the Chairman of the Western Governors’Association and the immediate past－Chairman of the Republican Governors’Association and the Natural Resources Committee of the National Governors’Association．Owens is a member of the Board of Governors of Young America’s Foundation，which owns and runs the Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara，California．
Keeping his promise to institute sweeping school reform in Colorado，Gov．Owens created an education accountability（有责任，有义务）system—including detailed，online school report cards —that U．S．Education Secretary Rod Paige has called “the envy of the nation”．His accountability system has been praised as among the best in the nation by Education Week magazine and the Heritage Foundation．He combined this model education accountability plan with six consecutive（连续的，联贯的）years of full state funding for K－12public education．Under Owens’leadership，in 2004Colorado became the first state in the nation to send students to college with vouchers（保证人，证明者）．The College Opportunity Fund replaced block subsidies to colleges or universities with individual stipends（薪金，定期生活津贴）for students to use at the school of their choice．
Gov．Owens kept his commitment to transform Colorado’s transportation system，which had been neglected for nearly a quarter century．Through TRANS（Transportation Revenue Anticipation Notes），an innovative financing program，he accelerated（加速，促进）1．7billion in transportation projects statewide that would have taken up to half a century to complete—projects that will now be done in a decade without an increase in taxes．
Known as one of Colorado’s most effective policy makers，Bill Owens served in the State House and Senate and as Colorado Treasurer．He authored landmark legislation creating charter schools，toughening prison sentences，modernizing child abuse statutes，and reforming the tort system．He is a leading advocate（提倡者，鼓吹者）of the Colorado Taxpayers’Bill of Rights（TABOR），which caps government spending and requires that excess funds be returned to state taxpayers．
Gov．Owens，who holds a Master’s degree in public administration from the Lyndon B．Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas，worked for 20years in the private sector with the consulting（顾问资格的，咨询的）staff of Deloitte and Touche，with the Gates Corporation，and as director of a trade association．The Governor is an expert on Soviet affairs and writes and lectures often on Russia．
State Bird州鸟
百灵鸟是在1931年4月29日被作为科罗拉多州州鸟的。百灵鸟是种候鸟，它们每年4月成群结队到达这儿居住在平原地带和高达海拔8000英尺，9月又会飞向南方。雄鸟黑色，羽翼边缘为雪白色。冬天雄鸟的羽毛就会变成灰褐色，就像雌鸟。而下颚仍然保持黑色，黑色腹部边缘羽毛仍是白色。雄鸟会长到6至7英寸，雌鸟要小一点。求爱时，雄鸟会用一种特殊的飞行，而且它用颤声唱出交配之歌。
The Lark Bunting，Calamospiza melanocoryus Stejneger，was adopted as the official state bird on April 29，1931．
The Lark Bunting is a migrant bird．Flocks arrive in April and inhabit the plains regions and areas up to 8，000feet in elevation．They fly south again in September．The male bird is black with snowy white wing patches and edgings（缘饰，边缘），tail coverts and outer tail feathers．In winter the male bird changes to a gray brown like the female bird，however the chin remains black and the black belly feathers retain white edgings．The female bird is gray brown above and white below with dusky streaks．The male bird is six to seven inches while the female is slightly smaller．The male bird performs a spectacular courtship（求爱，求爱时期）flight，during which he warbles（鸟鸣，用柔和的颤声唱）and trills（用抖动的声音说，用卷舌发音）a distinctive mating song．