Colorado is a state in the western United States. The Rocky Mountains, or Rockies, form the most prominent physical feature of the state. To the west of the Rockies lie the high plateaus of the Colorado Plateau, and also to the east are the Great Plains. High, rugged mountains and also plateaus occupy fully two-thirds of the state, and establish Colorado a state of striking beauty. All of Colorado is more than 1000 m (3300 ft) above sea level. The state, having an average elevation of about 2070 m (about 6800 ft), is the highest of all the states. The mountains and plateaus are rich in gold, silver, along with other minerals and are generally the source of most of the state's water. The mountains have played a major role in the development of Colorado, recently by luring a steady flow of tourists, but they have also been a barrier to travel, communication, and also settlement. Apart from small cities and towns in the sheltered river valleys and mountain basins, nearly all of western Colorado is sparsely populated.
As opposed, eastern Colorado has flat, treeless plains that extend from the Rockies to the Nebraska and Kansas state lines. Cultivated where there is enough moisture or even irrigation, they consist of croplands and grasslands. Around the plains just east of the Rockies is Denver, which is the state capital, the center of the state's largest metropolitan area, and also a major city of the Western United States.
The state's name, Colorado, is actually a Spanish word meaning "reddish colored." It was the name earlier Spanish explorers gave to the Colorado River, which originates in the state. When Colorado became a territory within 1861, William Gilpin, the first territorial governor, formally requested that it be called by the old Spanish name. Colorado was admitted to statehood on August 1, 1876, around the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and now its official nickname is the Centennial State.
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