e-ReferenceDesk's College and 50 State Learning Resource Guide

Find Online Colleges

Find Campus Colleges

Colorado State...

Colorado

Choose a County

Adams, Alamosa, Arapahoe, Archuleta, Baca, Bent, Boulder, Broomfield City and, Chaffee, Cheyenne, Clear Creek, Conejos, Costilla, Crowley, Custer, Delta, Denver, Dolores, Douglas, Eagle, El Paso, Elbert, Fremont, Garfield, Gilpin, Grand, Gunnison, Hinsdale, Huerfano, Jackson, Jefferson, Kiowa, Kit Carson, La Plata, Lake, Larimer, Las Animas, Lincoln, Logan, Mesa, Mineral, Moffat, Montezuma, Montrose, Morgan, Otero, Ouray, Park, Phillips, Pitkin, Prowers, Pueblo, Rio Blanco, Rio Grande, Routt, Saguache, San Juan, San Miguel, Sedgwick, Summit, Teller, Washington, Weld, Yuma

Colorado Counties

Click Image to Enlarge

Colorado Counties

Colorado currently has sixty-four counties. The Counties of Colorado are important components of government since the state has no secondary civil subdivisions such as townships. Two counties, the City and County of Denver and the City and County of Broomfield, have consolidated city and county governments.. No organized Counties of the District of Louisiana, the Territory of Missouri, or the Territory of Nebraska existed within the present boundaries of the State of Colorado.

Adams County, Colorado

Adams County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Brighton
Year Organized: 1901
Square Miles: 1,192

Court House:

450 South 4th Avenue
County Administration Building
Brighton, CO 80601-3123

Etymology - Origin of County Name

County is named in honor of Alva Adams, the 5th, 10th, and 14th Governor of the State of Colorado

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Adams County is the fifth most populous of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. Adams County is named for Alva Adams, a former Governor of Colorado. The county seat is Brighton. Adams County is part of the Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Denver-Aurora-Boulder Combined Statistical Area.

On May 30, 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act created the Territory of Nebraska and Territory of Kansas, divided by the Parallel 40° North (168th Avenue in present-day Adams County). The future Adams County, Colorado, occupied a strip of northern Arapahoe County, Kansas Territory, immediately south of the Nebraska Territory.

In 1859, John D. "Colonel Jack" Henderson built a ranch, trading post, and hotel on Henderson Island in the South Platte River in Arapahoe County, Kansas Territory. Jack Henderson was the former editor and proprietor of the Leavenworth (Kansas Territory) Journal and an outspoken pro-slavery politician who had been accused of vote fraud in eastern Kansas. Henderson sold meat and provisions to gold seekers on their way up the South Platte River Trail to the gold fields during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush. Henderson Island was the first permanent settlement in the South Platte River Valley between Fort Saint Vrain in the Nebraska Territory and the Cherry Creek Diggings in the Kansas Territory. Jack Henderson eventually returned to eastern Kansas and (ironically) fought for the Union in the American Civil War. Henderson Island is today the site of the Adams County Regional Park and Fairgrounds.

The eastern portion of the Kansas Territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Kansas on January 29, 1861, and on February 28, 1861, the remaining western portion of the territory was made part of the new Colorado Territory. The Colorado Territory created Arapahoe County, on November 1, 1861, and Colorado was admitted to the Union on August 1, 1876.

In 1901, the Colorado General Assembly voted to split Arapahoe County into three parts: a new Adams County, a new consolidated City and County of Denver, and the remainder of the Arapahoe County to be renamed South Arapahoe County. A ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court, subsequent legislation, and a referendum delayed the creation of Adams County until November 15, 1902. Governor James Bradley Orman designated Brighton as the temporary Adams County Seat. Adams County originally stretched 160 miles (258 kilometers) from present-day Sheridan Boulevard to the Kansas state border. On May 12, 1903, the eastern 88 miles (142 kilometers) of Adams County was transferred to the new Washington County and the new Yuma County, reducing the length of Adams County to the present 72 miles (116 kilometers). On November 8, 1904, Adams County voters chose Brighton as the permanent county seat.

A 1989 vote transferred 53 square miles (137 square kilometers) of Adams County to the City and County of Denver for the proposed Denver International Airport, leaving the densely populated western portion of the county as two oddly-shaped peninsulas. Adams County lost the tip of its northwest corner when the consolidated City and County of Broomfield was created on November 15, 2001.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,198 square miles (3,102 km²), of which, 1,192 square miles (3,087 km²) of it is land and 6 square miles (15 km²) of it (0.48%) is water.

Adams County surrounds (and surrendered the land for) most of Denver International Airport which is in the City and County of Denver, Colorado.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Weld County
Northeast: Morgan County
East: Washington County
South: Arapahoe County
Southwest: Jefferson County; Denver city & county
Northwest: Boulder County

Cities and Towns:

- Aurora	city	Incorporated Area
- Bennett	town	Incorporated Area
- Brighton (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Broomfield	city	Incorporated Area
- Commerce City	city	Incorporated Area
- Denver	city	Incorporated Area
- Federal Heights	city	Incorporated Area
- Lochbuie	town	Incorporated Area
- Northglenn	city	Incorporated Area
- Thornton	city	Incorporated Area
- Westminster	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."