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• tradition disappeared around AD 1500, possibly due to the <br />onset of drought, or the influx of Apache groups. <br />Historic Period <br />Three tribes of Indians occupied northwestern Colorado; <br />the Ute, Arapaho, and Shoshoni, though the Ute and Arapaho <br />were frequently in conflict over Arapaho utilization of <br />traditionally Ute land. The Uinta Ute were the primary <br />occupants of northwest Colorado. Subsistence was based on <br />a nomadic hunting and gathering economy, summering in mountain <br />parks, and wintering in the Yampa or White river valleys <br />(Athearn 1977). A site of probable Ute affiliation was ex- <br />cavated by the Colorado Highway Department just outside of <br />Steamboat Springs. <br />The first known European entrance into northwestern <br />Colorado was the Dominguez-Escalante expedition in 1776: <br />• This expedition moved up the Douglas Creek drainage to the <br />White River Valley and west to Utah, never approaching the <br />study area. <br />Little European presence was felt until after 1780, <br />with the advent of fur trapping in northwestern Colorado. <br />William Ashley organized a major expedition in 1822 and <br />the fur trade boomed for 20 years. Several explorers, <br />including John Fremont and John Wesley Powell, passed through <br />the area just before and after the collapse of the fur trade <br />in 1843. They had little good to say about the worth of <br />the area (Athearn 1977). <br />Gold was discovered at Hahn's Peak by 1861, and by <br />1870 this was a booming town, though most other areas were <br />not settled until after I88I when the Utes were moved to <br />Utah. Then cattle ranching expanded and towns began to <br />spring up. By 1900 most towns in northwestern Colorado, <br />such as Steamboat Springs, Craig, and Meeker were settled. <br />• After 1900, cattle, sheep, oil, and tourism became <br />the economic basis of exploitation of northwestern Colorado, <br />13 <br />