Wow! Deja vu all over again...
This from Today's Pueblo Chieftain. Seems Kansas WANTS Colorado.
Tom McAvoy is The Chieftain's research director and a member of the editorial board
"Kansas claimed a good portion of water from Colorado in the Arkansas River Compact case. Now, some Kansans want it all - virtually all of the Colorado landscape west to the summit of the Rocky Mountains.
On Monday, we received a news release from the Kansas Committee for Reclaiming What is Rightfully Ours (RETAKE), an ad hoc group with the stated goal of restoring that part of Colorado once claimed by Kansas.
The whimsical release arrived on Colorado Day, in time for our 129th anniversary of statehood, which was granted Aug. 1, 1876. It was four months late for an April Fools' Day joke.
A little history: Kansas became a state on Jan. 29, 1861, at which time the federal government took the western third of the former Kansas Territory to add to the new Colorado Territory.
"Our researchers have strong reason to believe that the handover in 1861 was an illegal act that will not stand up under close court scrutiny," said RETAKE chairwoman Deb Goodrich, who also is publisher of the committee's sponsor, the Kansas Journal of Military History.
We suspect her of perpetrating a Colorado Day spoof. Let's play along.
Kansas did sue Colorado over Arkansas River flows at the state line in 1985. Kansas sought $322 million at first but ended up getting less than $35 million. Undaunted, RETAKE wants more - all the cities and towns fed by the Arkansas River, as well as Denver and the rest of the prosperous northern Front Range outside our basin.
The target date for retaking Colorado is Jan. 29, 2011, the 150th anniversary of Kansas statehood.
"There will also be some name changes," Goodrich quipped. "Colorado Springs, Colorado, after 2011 will be known as Kansas Springs, Kansas."
There may be something in this for Coloradans. As part of Kansas, Colorado Springs - er, Kansas Springs - could demand water flows awarded to Kansas in the Arkansas River Compact case.
So could everyone else, even Aurora, which takes Arkansas River water even though the growing Denver suburb isn't even in the same basin.
One troubling thought: Would we have to drop the pronunciation Arkansaw and adopt the Arkansaz preferred by those stubborn Kansans?
A more pertinent question: Who really has claim to Colorado?
Although most of eastern Colorado was in the Kansas Territory from 1854-61, it actually came to the United States by way of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Land south of the Arkansas River and east of the Continental Divide was in the New Mexico Territory for a while and before that was claimed by the short-lived Republic of Texas and the country of Mexico.
At one point, the Nebraska Territory claimed northeastern Colorado and the Utah Territory, all of the region west of the Rockies.
Actually, indigenous American-Indians' occupancy of the entire North American continent predates any European notions of political boundaries and sovereignty in the New World.
We are what we are today. Colorado is larger than Kansas in many ways. We have 4.6 million people spread over 103,718 square miles; Kansas has 2.7 million people and 82,282 square miles. We could go on.
"Bloody Kansas" was coined for the pre-Civil War violence that erupted between free state and slave state forces there. The Free Soilers prevailed and some went on to settle what became Colorado. We're lucky how things turned out."
This from Today's Pueblo Chieftain. Seems Kansas WANTS Colorado.
Tom McAvoy is The Chieftain's research director and a member of the editorial board
"Kansas claimed a good portion of water from Colorado in the Arkansas River Compact case. Now, some Kansans want it all - virtually all of the Colorado landscape west to the summit of the Rocky Mountains.
On Monday, we received a news release from the Kansas Committee for Reclaiming What is Rightfully Ours (RETAKE), an ad hoc group with the stated goal of restoring that part of Colorado once claimed by Kansas.
The whimsical release arrived on Colorado Day, in time for our 129th anniversary of statehood, which was granted Aug. 1, 1876. It was four months late for an April Fools' Day joke.
A little history: Kansas became a state on Jan. 29, 1861, at which time the federal government took the western third of the former Kansas Territory to add to the new Colorado Territory.
"Our researchers have strong reason to believe that the handover in 1861 was an illegal act that will not stand up under close court scrutiny," said RETAKE chairwoman Deb Goodrich, who also is publisher of the committee's sponsor, the Kansas Journal of Military History.
We suspect her of perpetrating a Colorado Day spoof. Let's play along.
Kansas did sue Colorado over Arkansas River flows at the state line in 1985. Kansas sought $322 million at first but ended up getting less than $35 million. Undaunted, RETAKE wants more - all the cities and towns fed by the Arkansas River, as well as Denver and the rest of the prosperous northern Front Range outside our basin.
The target date for retaking Colorado is Jan. 29, 2011, the 150th anniversary of Kansas statehood.
"There will also be some name changes," Goodrich quipped. "Colorado Springs, Colorado, after 2011 will be known as Kansas Springs, Kansas."
There may be something in this for Coloradans. As part of Kansas, Colorado Springs - er, Kansas Springs - could demand water flows awarded to Kansas in the Arkansas River Compact case.
So could everyone else, even Aurora, which takes Arkansas River water even though the growing Denver suburb isn't even in the same basin.
One troubling thought: Would we have to drop the pronunciation Arkansaw and adopt the Arkansaz preferred by those stubborn Kansans?
A more pertinent question: Who really has claim to Colorado?
Although most of eastern Colorado was in the Kansas Territory from 1854-61, it actually came to the United States by way of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Land south of the Arkansas River and east of the Continental Divide was in the New Mexico Territory for a while and before that was claimed by the short-lived Republic of Texas and the country of Mexico.
At one point, the Nebraska Territory claimed northeastern Colorado and the Utah Territory, all of the region west of the Rockies.
Actually, indigenous American-Indians' occupancy of the entire North American continent predates any European notions of political boundaries and sovereignty in the New World.
We are what we are today. Colorado is larger than Kansas in many ways. We have 4.6 million people spread over 103,718 square miles; Kansas has 2.7 million people and 82,282 square miles. We could go on.
"Bloody Kansas" was coined for the pre-Civil War violence that erupted between free state and slave state forces there. The Free Soilers prevailed and some went on to settle what became Colorado. We're lucky how things turned out."
