Jefferson Territory

The Provisional Government of the Territory of Jefferson was an extralegal and unrecognized United States territory that existed in the Pike's Peak mining region from October 24, 1859, until it yielded to the new Territory of Colorado on June 6, 1861.^[1] The Jefferson Territory, named for Founding Father and third United States president Thomas Jefferson, included land officially part of the Kansas Territory, the Nebraska Territory, the New Mexico Territory, the Utah Territory, and the Washington Territory, but the region was remote from the governments of those five territories.

The government of the Jefferson Territory, while democratically elected, was never legally recognized by the United States government, although it managed the territory with relatively free rein for 19 months. Many of the laws enacted by the General Assembly of the Territory of Jefferson were reenacted and given official sanction by the new Colorado General Assembly in 1861.

^ Frederic L. Paxson (1906). Francis Ramaley (ed.). "The Territory of Jefferson: A Spontaneous Commonwealth". The University of Colorado Studies: General Series A. 3. Boulder, Colorado: University of Colorado: 15–18. Retrieved November 12, 2023.

[Jefferson_Territory-1] Frederic L. Paxson (1906). Francis Ramaley (ed.). "The Territory of Jefferson: A Spontaneous Commonwealth". The University of Colorado Studies: General Series A. 3. Boulder, Colorado: University of Colorado: 15–18. Retrieved November 12, 2023.

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