History Colorado

You are a manager of a ski resort in the Rocky Mountains today and you need water to make snow for ski jumps. Add up how much water you need in a day.

7. How Much Water Did You Use In the Rocky Mountains?

You are a homestead farmer in the 1930’s and you need water for your family and cows. Add up how much water you need in a day.

5. How Much Water Did You Use During the Dust Bowl?

Homestead farmers needed water for their families and cows. In Baca County, farmers got water from wells and from irrigation projects that used small canals and ditches to move water to fields from reservoirs. 

4. The Dust Bowl in the 1930s

This timeline explores major droughts throughout Colorado's past. 

10. Droughts in Colorado's History

Which place and time used the most water?

8. Who Used The Most Water?

How much water do you think you’ve used today? Add up all the things you did this morning that need water!


9. Your Water Footprint Today

The top 10 largest wildfires in Colorado's history burned in the last 20 years. Explore the hotspot map to find out more about what caused these fires and what needs to change to prevent them. 

11. Wildfires in Colorado's History

In this resource kit, we’ll explore water in Colorado history, and how important water has been to people in the past and today. People need water for all kinds of purposes including drinking, cleaning, growing food, energy, recreation, and making things. Think about all of the ways that you used water today. Where does water in Colorado come from? Explore this map to discover common water sources in our state like snow, rain, and major rivers.

1. Where’s the Water? 

This is a live test page for the Apples to Oranges game for the Water Quest resource kit. 

12. Water Quest - Apples to Oranges

Ancestral Pueblo people thrived for thousands of years in a dry environment by respecting water. In the Mesa Verde region, water filters through the sandstone and emerges from seep springs. Ancestral Pueblo people often settled near these natural seep springs across the plateau and in canyon alcoves. They farmed in places that got the most rain and built check dams and terraces to keep water from running off. As the population grew, they built reservoirs to collect spring snowmelt and summer rain. At the end of the 1200s, a twenty-four year-long drought is one factor that may have led the ancestral Pueblo people to migrate out of the Mesa Verde region. 


2. The Mesa Verde Region in the 1200s

Imagine that you are an Ancestral Pueblo person living over 800 years ago and you need water for your village. Add up how much water you need in a day for yourself, the people, and turkeys that live in your village. 

3. How Much Water Did You Use in Mesa Verde?

Mountain towns like Breckenridge were once camps for Ute people who hunted here. Then miners and ranchers settled in and changed the landscape. Now, a growing ski industry and the flood of people visiting and living in our high country have transformed the mountains again. More people and a changing climate have led to a crucial moment in Colorado history: it’s up to us to determine our future.

6. The Rocky Mountains Today

From Mesa Verde to the Dust Bowl, and to the changing contemporary landscape of the Rocky Mountains, discover the important role water has played in Colorado history — and the environmental challenges people faced in the past and present.

Students explore the relationships three different communities had with this precious resource through STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) and geography activities, and consider implications for water usage in times of drought today. This resource kit is designed for upper elementary and middle school earth science and geography classes and can be adapted for lower elementary and high school students.

Guiding Questions for the Water Quest resource kit:

Where does water in Colorado come from? 

How have people in Colorado used water in the past and today? 

How much water have people used for themselves and different activities over time? 

Visit the Living West Exhibit at History Colorado Center in Denver

https://www.historycolorado.org/exhibit/living-west 

Drought and newcomers threaten Southern Colorado's traditional water systems

Ancestral Pueblo Indians of Southwestern Colorado

New Deal Resources on Colorado’s Eastern Plains

Burning Truth: The Beginning of the End for Colorado’s Forests

Colorado River Water Conservation District

Water Quest

Earth and Space Science

Science

Geography

Social Studies

U.S. History

Explore how Colorado has changed from the 1600s to today. What do you notice about the cultural groups in the region and how they change over time?

Maps of Colorado (1600-Today)

Record anything you may be thinking now, then

 rejoin your group for the last question.

Engagement 3: Take a Stand (Independent & Group)

The clues spell out the name of a Spanish town in Colorado. What does the word mean in English? Tell your teacher when you escape the room!

BONUS: Escape Room!

As you read about the impacts of the Mexican-American War in the slides, thing about if they are positive or negative. Who and what was most impacted?

The Mexican-American War

The town of San Luis is the longest continually-inhabited non-indigenous or non-native settlement in Colorado, meaning people have lived there since the town was first settled in 1851. San Luis was part of the New Mexico territory until Colorado became a territory in 1861. The Hispanics who founded the town of San Luis came from New Mexico and spoke Spanish. They moved into the valley to farm and to raise sheep and other animals. 

Colorado's Oldest Town: San Luis

Read the dilemma, then answer the following question. 

When you're done, it will be time to discuss with your group

Engagement 3: Take a Stand (Independent)

Discuss with your group and record your ideas.

Engagement 3: Take a Stand (Group)

The territory Mexico lost to the United States after the war has a unique culture and history. This region - historians call it "the Borderlands" - has been claimed by multiple American Indian tribes as well as France, Spain, Mexico, and the United States. Explore the timeline to understand why.

Timeline of Events

Think about the timeline and the maps that you just explored.

Go through the slides and complete each step to answer the Guiding Question.


Engagement 1: Color, Symbol, Image

Step In, Step Out, Step Back protocol show above.

Engagement 2: Step In, Step Out, Step Back

As you explore the information on each slide; did the impact of the war last for a short period of time or a long period of time? Who and what were most impacted?

Lasting Impacts

Welcome to the Borderlands of Southern Colorado, an ancient crossroads. They have a violent history of conquest and enslavement, but also traditions of beauty and diversity. A place where Indigenous cultures blend with Spanish, Mexican, and American traditions to create a unique identity unlike any other in the world. This identity lives within the people of the Borderlands, and it goes with them wherever they move. Borderlands people don’t stay still. By choice, by force, or by necessity, they have moved a lot. They are mobile people who have lived beyond boundaries and between languages. They are people who live "sin fronteras" - without borders.

Educator Overvie -  Colorado Borderlands (Grades 6-8).pdf

Directions for Engagement activities found below;

Take a Stand Student Handout for Engagement 3 can be printed for students (optional): 

Colorado Borderlands

Civics and Government

Explore how Colorado has changed from the 1600s to today!

I Didn't Cross the Border, The Border Crossed Me

The first non-indigenous explorers in Colorado were from Mexico and Spain. When expeditions led by Coronado, Ulibarri, and others ventured into the area now called Colorado, they drew maps and gave Spanish names to various landmarks. The name of our state, Colorado means “red.” Later, when Spanish-speakers were granted land tracts in Colorado to encourage migration, they gave Spanish names to the places where they lived.

Spanish Place Names in Colorado

The Mexican-American War, also known as the Mexican War or the Invasion of Mexico, was fought between 1846 and 1848. As a result of losing the war, Mexico lost almost half its territory, and the United States gained much of the land that makes up the American West.

The Mexican-American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The town of San Luis is the longest continually-inhabited non-indigenous or non-native settlement in Colorado, meaning people have lived there since the town was first settled in 1851. San Luis was part of the New Mexico territory until Colorado became a territory in 1861. The Hispanics who founded the town of San Luis came from New Mexico and spoke Spanish. They moved into the valley to farm and to raise sheep and other animals.

San Luis: Colorado’s Oldest Town

Spanish-speaking people have been in Colorado for many centuries. Between the 1540s and 1821, Colorado was the northernmost part of Spain’s colonial empire in North America. In 1828, Spanish speaking settlers from New Mexico began to settle in the San Luis Valley.  In 1851, San Luis became Colorado’s first permanent town in the San Luis Valley. The Hispano and Mexican settlers farmed and raised livestock. Their houses were built out of adobe bricks, a concrete-like mixture made of straw, mud, and water. Hispanos and Mexicans dug Colorado’s first irrigation ditch, constructed Colorado’s oldest church, and founded Colorado’s oldest continually existing towns. Learn about a few notable early Hispano Coloradoans.  

Early Hispano Coloradans

Spanish explorers were some of the first Europeans to visit the place now called Colorado. First arriving in North America in the early 1500s, they came looking for gold and silver, and later, for land to settle. But contact with the Spanish forever changed the lives of the Indigenous people who already lived here. Diseases, along with violent campaigns led by Spanish conquistadors, nearly wiped out some Indigenous communities. Spanish settlers followed the conquistadors, taking over the lands that Native peoples called home. Over hundreds of years, Spanish and Indigenous language, culture, religion and food ways have blended, creating a unique culture that only exists in the U.S. Southwest.

Spanish Explorers

The Colorado Constitution 

The Borderlands are an ancient crossroads. They have a violent history of conquest and enslavement, but also traditions of beauty and diversity. They are a place where Indigenous cultures blend with Spanish, Mexican, and American traditions to create a unique identity unlike any other in the world. 

This identity lives within the people of the Borderlands, and it goes with them wherever they move. And Borderlands people don’t stay still. By choice, by force, or by necessity, they have moved around a lot. They are mobile people who have lived beyond boundaries and between languages.

They are people who live sin fronteras - without borders. Welcome to the Borderlands of Southern Colorado. 


Bittersweet Harvest: The Bracero Program 1942-1964

Colorado Chicano Movement History: Portal 

The Wonderful World of the Chicano Experience

Chicano Murals in Colorado: The First Decade

Su Teatro: Cultural & Performing Arts Center

When a Colorado governor declared martial law and blocked poor New Mexicans at the border

La Gente: Borderlands