ABSTRACT
Colorado's manufacturing industry dates from before statehood. As soon as the fifty-niners began to bring ore from the earth, the need to mill and smelt it to recover its metal content led to local manufacture of machinery and materials needed for mining and ore processing. From such a need grew many of the state's pioneer manufacturing concerns. In Colorado, several economic sectors provide greater employment, in terms of numbers and personal income, than manufacturing does. In order of employment numbers, these sectors are wholesale and retail trade, government, and services, including tourism. Whereas a durable goods manufacturer, such as the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, could dominate the state's employment figures in 1906, the picture had changed radically by 1982. The geographic distribution of manufacturing plants in Colorado bears a striking resemblance to the population distribution pattern.
