This document represents the latest Class I (history) to be written for the western slope of Colorado. Our three districts in this region of Colorado now have histories specifically for them. Such works provide a valuable and needed synthesis of history and literature for these areas and also gives our managers data that are used on a daily basis for land-use decisionmaking. Multiple land use is a Bureau mission that is being met. Oil and gas, coal, oil, shale and other energy minerals, not to mention rights-of-ways, grazing programs, recreation projects and land-use planning, are all supported by histories such as this.