Editing Jefferson County, Colorado (section)

==History==
On August 25, 1855, the [[Kansas Legislature|Kansas Territorial Legislature]] created [[Arapahoe County, Kansas Territory|Arapahoe County]] to govern the entire western portion of the [[Territory of Kansas|territory]]. The county was named for the [[Arapaho Nation]] of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] who lived in the region.

In June 1858, [[gold]] was discovered along the [[South Platte River]] in [[Arapahoe County, Kansas Territory|Arapahoe County]] (in present-day [[Englewood, Colorado|Englewood]]) by [[William Greeneberry Russell]] and Sam Bates who had been following up the June 22, 1850, discovery of gold on Ralston Creek in today's Jefferson County by Lewis Ralston, for whom the creek was named. This discovery precipitated the [[Pike's Peak Gold Rush]]. The Doniphan Party upon arriving upon Clear Creek discovered markers left over from earlier mining in 1834 by the Estes Party, placed their own alongside and on November 29, 1858, founded the future county's first town of Arapahoe City upon the land southeast of today's West 44th Avenue and McIntyre Street (with West 44th running through the town).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jeffco.us/DocumentCenter/View/9478/Historically-Jeffco-2011-PDF |title=Historically Jeffco 2011|publisher=Jefferson County Historical Commission|date=2011|access-date=February 25, 2024}}</ref> On June 16, 1859, its second town, [[Golden, Colorado]], was founded in the valley to the west. Many residents of the mining region felt disconnected from the remote territorial governments of [[Territory of Kansas|Kansas]] and [[Territory of Nebraska|Nebraska]], so they voted to form their own [[Territory of Jefferson]] on October 24, 1859. The following month on November 28, 1859, the Jefferson Territorial Legislature organized 12 counties for the new territory, including [[Jefferson County, Jefferson Territory|Jefferson County]]. Jefferson County was named for the namesake of the Jefferson Territory, [[Thomas Jefferson]], the principal author of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] and the nation's third [[President of the United States|president]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n167 168]}}</ref>  [[Golden, Colorado Territory|Golden City]] was elected on January 2, 1860, as the [[county seat]] of Jefferson County.  [[Robert Williamson Steele]], [[Governor]] of the [[Provisional Government of the Territory of Jefferson]] from 1859 to 1861, built his home in the county at [[Mount Vernon, Colorado|Mount Vernon]] and later at [[Apex, Colorado|Apex]]. Originally Jefferson County's borders extended to the [[40th parallel north]], the [[South Platte River]] (excluding the town of Highland) to the east, and to Bear Creek to the south.

The Jefferson Territory never received federal sanction, but during his last week in office, [[U.S. President|President]] [[James Buchanan]] signed an act which organized the [[Territory of Colorado]] on February 28, 1861.<ref name=ColoradoTerritory>{{cite web|url=http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/territory.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041025191401/http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/territory.pdf |archive-date=October 25, 2004 |url-status=live|title=An Act to provide a temporary Government for the Territory of Colorado|publisher=[[Thirty-sixth United States Congress]]|date=February 28, 1861|access-date=November 26, 2007}}</ref>  That November 1, the new [[Colorado General Assembly]] organized the 17 original counties of Colorado, including Jefferson County. The reorganized Jefferson County extended to most of its current borders and Golden continued as county seat. In 1908, the southern tip of Jefferson County was transferred to [[Park County, Colorado|Park County]], reducing Jefferson County to its present length of {{convert|54|mi|km}}. Several annexations by the [[Denver, Colorado|City & County of Denver]] and the 2001 consolidation of the [[Broomfield, Colorado|City & County of Broomfield]] removed the east and extreme northeastern corner of the county, respectively.