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Article: Rocky Mountains
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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ROCKY MOUNTAINS
ROCKY MOUNTAINS,
a vast system extending over three thousand miles from northern Mexico to Northwest Alaska, forms the western continental divide. The system varies from 70 to 400 miles wide and from 5,000 to 14,433 feet high. Mount Elbert in Colorado is its highest peak. The mountains uplifted about 63 million years ago during the Laramide Orogeny. During the last Ice Age, eleven thousand years ago, glaciers carved peaks and valleys.
Spanish explorers in Mexico were the first Europeans to see the Rockies, and Francisco V
á
squez de Coronado was the first European to see the U.S. Rockies in 1540. Then came the French, hunting furs and new trade routes via the Great ...