“Colorado never impressed me as a part of “The West.”...
There ARE places in Colorado what are indeed “part of the west” and having lived there for a number of years back in the 70’s things were still pretty good. Then, there is the “front range” which is more like “drug store cowboy” west, and now worse since California migrated there. I’ll take Wyoming ANY DAY!
We moved to CO (Colo. back then) in the early 50’s. I recall seeing bumper stickers then which said “Don’t Californicate Colorado”. Dad didn’t really explain what it meant, but he agreed.