152 



COLORADO. 



* Decrease. 



The population of the chief cities is as follows : 

 Pueblo, 28,128, an increase of 24,911 since 1880; 

 Leadville, 11,159, a decrease of 3,661 ; Denver, 

 106,670, an increase of 71,041. 



Valuations. The assessment of the State 

 for the year 1889, as corrected by the County 

 Boards of Equalization, includes the following 

 items : 10,610,482-63 acres of land, $35,275,526.- 

 94; improvements on lands, $6,178,187.71 ; town 

 and city lots, $57,514,962; improvements on 

 town and city lots, $22,709,223 ; mining proper- 

 ty, $3,585,645 ; capital employed in manufact- 

 ures, $785,997; 184,879 horses, $5,816,259: 11,- 

 043 mules, $509,917; 1,185 asses, $10,428.75; 

 838.414 cattle, $8,340,775.50; 675,330 sheep, 

 $699,931.75; 20,797 swine, $59,730.85; 11,134 

 goats, $10,821.50 ; 2,539 other animals, $38,299. 

 The tot ,-il assessed value is $193,254,127.38. 



County Debts. Five counties in the State 

 are reported without debt ; Morgan County owes 

 between $1,000 and $5,000; Kit Carson and 

 Sedgwick, between $5,000 and $10,000 ; Routt, 

 Yuma, and Kiowa, between $10,000 and $20,000; 



Archuleta, Costilla, Baca, Gunnison, and Park, 

 between $20,000 and $35,000 ; Montezuma, Delta, 

 Grand, Otero, Prowers, and Rio Blanco, between 

 $35,000 -and $50.000; Larimer, Lake, Custer, 

 Clear Creek, Gilpin, and Rio Grande, between 

 $50,000 and $75,000 ; Dolores, Mesa, San Miguel, 

 and Saguache, between $75,000 and $100,000; 

 Conejos, Montrose, Garfield, Eagle, Summit, Jef- 

 ferson, Arapahoe, Fremont, and Bent, between 

 $100,000 and $250,000; Ouray, Chaffee, and 

 Pueblo, between $250,000 and '$500,000. The 

 total county debt is $3,190,258, of which $1,834,- 

 421 is a bonded debt, and $1,355,837 a floating 

 debt. The increase of total debt in the last dec- 

 ade was $697,817. 



Coal. The best-known and most extensively 

 worked coal fields of Colorado are in Boulder 

 and Las Animas Counties, while large veins and 

 strata are found in Fremont, Garfield, Gunni- 

 son, Huerfano, and La Plata. The area of coal- 

 bearing sections in the State is said to exceed 

 26,000,000 acres. The following are the official 

 statistics of coal produced in the past five years : 

 1885, 1,398,796 tons; 1886, 1,436.211 tons; 1887, 

 1,791,735 tons; 1888, 2,185,477 tons; and 1889, 

 2,500,000 tons. The average price paid to miners 

 throughout the State is 71 cents a ton of 2,000 

 pounds for mining and timbering. 



Precious Metals. The product of precious 

 metals in the State for 1889 was valued at $28,- 

 074,888. Of this total, $3,534,790 was the gold 

 dust and bullion product, $19,341,847 the silver- 

 bullion product, and $5,198,251 ores and base 

 bullion. The output of the Leadville district 

 alone was more than $13,000,000. 



Insurance. The total amount of risks writ- 

 ten in the State by fire companies during 1889 

 amounted to $75,992,207.15, an increase over the 

 business of 1888 of $14,393,213.95, or 23-4 per 

 cent. The premiums collected amounted to $1,- 

 324,265.73, an increase of $203,187.86. or 18-21 

 per cent, over the corresponding receipts of 1888. 

 There were 122 companies doing a fire-insurance 

 business in the State during the year, only one 

 being a local company. In the life-insurance 

 business 6,861 policies/aggregating $12,563,38* 

 58, were written in the State as against 2,22S 

 policies, aggregating the sum of $8,974,613, for 

 the previous year. 



Decisions. In response to an inquiry from 

 the Governor, the State Supreme Court, in Sep- 

 tember, delivered an opinion on the question 

 whether the amendment to the State Constitu- 

 tion adopted by the people in November, 1SS8, 

 permitting counties to fund or refund their in- 

 debtedness existing prior to Dec. 31, 18H6, 

 should be construed to forbid the funding or 

 refunding of county debts incurred subsequent 

 to that date. The decision of the court was that 

 such funding or refunding was not forbidden. 



In June the district court of Arapahoe County 

 pronounced the military tax act of the last Gen- 

 eral Assembly to be unconstitutional. This act 

 subjected delinquent poll-tax payers to a pen- 

 alty of $25. 



Suits against State Officers. The indict- 

 ments for conspiracy to defraud the State which 

 were framed by the grand jury of Arapahoe 

 County in July, 1889, against Secretary of State 

 Rice and various contractors for supplies fur- 

 nished to the last General Assembly, were found 



