The Colorado Magazine

Late in the afternoon on July 14, 1820, 22-year-old naturalist Edwin James and two companions surveyed the world from their perch atop the summit of the “Highest Peak” marked on their map. James scribbled in his journal, which remains unpublished, that “the last part of the ascent was less difficult than I expected to find it . . . .” To the west, he could see two valleys that he correctly surmised held the headwaters of the Arkansas and South Platte rivers. The lesser mountains below him were white with snow from a summer storm. Overhead, amazing him, vast clouds of locusts rode the wind. The men saw no sign of the humans who’d preceded them, only the tracks and bones of bighorn sheep.

The trio stayed but half an hour on the summit as daylight waned, the mountain cast a massive shadow, and the temperature dropped. James had another reason to descend. Below, Major Stephen Long waited impatiently. Long had given James only three days to explore the mountain and return to the expedition’s camp on Fountain Creek. Upon James’s return, the major would head south to the Arkansas and turn east for home.

In March of 2020, History Colorado and the University Press of Colorado published a new kind of book about Colorado’s past: Colorado Day by Day. In it, author Derek R. Everett, who teaches history at both Metropolitan State University of Denver and Colorado State University, looks at a key piece of Colorado’s past for every day of the year—366 days in all.

When temperatures soared in cramped, noisy cities, Colorado’s higher elevations promised chilly nights and mild days spent fishing, camping, and hiking under shady pine trees. Unlike their white counterparts, however, African Americans could not head just anywhere in the mountains. Not far outside of Denver, Lincoln Hills, a vacation community developed for Black people, represented both an escape from the city and an escape from segregation.

One cold blue August morning, I opened the door of my tiny cabin at the Continental Divide Research Learning Center’s McGraw Ranch in Rocky Mountain National Park. I listened to the burbling of Cow Creek and gazed to the mountains, drenched in gold from the rising sun. The value of McGraw Ranch, however, is more than scenic. Its enduring physical presence tells histories that interweave the environment, race, and leisure in Colorado.

So many people have joined in the statewide commemorations of the centennial of the 19th Amendment in the past 20 months. Innumerable individuals and groups across Colorado have added to our collective knowledge of the various stories of the struggle for suffrage and we have been lucky to help collect this knowledge.

One question we are often asked is what resources can someone use to learn more about the fight for the 19th Amendment. We have compiled this list to get you started.

As a result of the innovative and forward thinking by former Lieutenant Governor Donna Lynne, on January 3, 2019, former Governor John W. Hickenlooper issued an Executive Order creating the Colorado Women’s Vote Centennial Commission. Along with support from staff at History Colorado and grassroots groups across the state, the Commission embarked on  a mission to engage residents of all 64 Colorado counties on the history of women’s suffrage, commemorate the centennial of women’s suffrage, and to elevate the struggle for women’s suffrage as a learning opportunity. For many people involved in this mission, including myself, it evolved from examining the past to getting a glimpse into the future.

In the fall of 2018, I started working on plans to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. As we mark this occasion on August 26, what I thought would feel like an ending to this work feels like just the beginning.

For the last year, History Colorado, along with the Governor’s Women’s Vote Centennial Commission and great collaborators across the state, has organized discussions and events to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment and deepen our understanding of voting rights and women’s history.

History is full of moments that are unspeakable and impossible to articulate. Art, in its many forms, enables us to get at these moments where words, facts, and intellectualizing cannot reach.