Colorado Could Have Gone By Two Other Names

Since 1876, the state of Colorado has encompassed one of the most beautiful parts of the United States. From the Utah border to the west, to the Kansas border to the east, the Wyoming border to the north, and the New Mexico border to the south, Colorado is widely accepted by its residents as one of the best, if not the best, states in the nation.

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However, when the western United States was in its infancy and the states that we all know today were first being established, numerous states that never came to fruition were proposed and rejected, including two that would have encompassed parts of what we, today, know as Colorado.

Colorado Could Have Been the Now-Failed State of Deseret

Just after the Mexican-American war concluded on February 2, 1948, a massive plot of land that would have encompassed parts of present day Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, and New Mexico.

The idea was proposed by the Mormons who had fled to Utah after being persecuted in places like Missouri and Illinois, and if approved, would have been the largest state in the nation by a huge margin.

Despite even drafting a constitution, Deseret was not approved to become a state.

Colorado Could Have Been the Now-Failed State of Jefferson

Another proposed state that would have included parts of Colorado would have gone by a name that was proposed numerous times over the years, and shut down each of those times. That state would have been called Jefferson.

The state of Jefferson was proposed four times, in 1859, 1870, 1915, and 1941. The state of Jefferson that would have encompassed much of Colorado was a square-shaped state, proposed in 1859, and while it was approved initially, the people who proposed the idea couldn’t agree on the constitution and it was abandoned in favor of the Colorado territory, which would later become the state of Colorado.