Adams County, Colorado
| Adams County, Colorado | |
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Adams County Government Center in Brighton
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 Location in the U.S. state of Colorado |
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 Colorado's location in the U.S. |
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| Founded | April 15, 1901 |
| Named for | Alva Adams |
| Seat | Brighton |
| Largest city | Thornton |
| Area | |
| • Total | 1,184 sq mi (3,067 km2) |
| • Land | 1,168 sq mi (3,025 km2) |
| • Water | 16 sq mi (41 km2), 1.4% |
| Population (est.) | |
| • (2015) | 491,337 |
| • Density | 378/sq mi (146/km²) |
| Congressional districts | 4th, 6th, 7th |
| Time zone | Mountain: UTC-7/-6 |
| Website | www |
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Footnotes:
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Adams County is the fifth-most populous of the 64 counties of the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2010 census, the population was 441,603. The county seat is Brighton. The county is named for Alva Adams, Governor of the State of Colorado.
Adams County is part of the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan 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.
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