Anthony Nocella (Herald, March 5) may be an assistant professor of sociology at Fort Lewis College, but this statement proves he has never read the history of Colorado or the United States: “I would also argue that this is not the South,” he said. “Colorado was not part of the South and never has been part of the South. So we also need to know our geography.”
A good part of Colorado was part of Texas with its annexation in 1845. Many Southerners migrated to what would become Colorado in the 1850s. Confederate partisan ranger units operated in Fairplay, Leadville, Denver and Mace’s Hole (present day Beulah) with strong support for the Confederacy in the mining areas and in the Arkansas River Valley, from Cañon City eastward to Lamar, and Cañon City southward to Trinidad.
Colorado became the only non-Southern state to have two former Confederates elected as state governors. Colorado is also the only non-Southern state to host a national convention of the United Confederate Veterans in 1939. A list of former Confederate veterans that served as a congressman, state senators and representatives, judges, mayors, sheriffs, constables and commissioners can be seen here: http://bit.ly/21tYvXG
Colorado is its people, and a good many past and present have Southern roots.
Thomas “Woody” Highsmith
Evans, Ga.
