Arapahoe County is a county located in the United States, with its county seat in Littleton and the largest city being Aurora. The origins of Arapahoe County can be traced back to the Pike's Peak gold rush, which began in July 1858 and lasted until late February 1861, when the Colorado Territory was created. At that time, almost half of the entire area now occupied by Colorado was Arapahoe County, in the Kansas Territory. Governor James Bradley Orman designated Littleton as the temporary seat of South Arapahoe County.
In 1861, when Kansas became a state, Colorado became a territory with Arapahoe County as one of the original 17 counties. The Jefferson Territorial Legislature then organized 12 counties for the new territory, including a smaller Arapahoe County. The discovery of gold along the South Platte River in present-day Englewood in July 1858 was a major event for Arapahoe County. On August 25, 1855, the Kansas Territorial Legislature created a huge Arapahoe County to govern the entire western part of the Kansas Territory.
In 1901, the Colorado General Assembly voted to divide Arapahoe County into three parts: a new consolidated city and county of Denver, a new Adams County, and the rest of Arapahoe County, which would be renamed South Arapahoe County. Arapahoe County is named after its predecessor county, Arapahoe County, in the Kansas Territory, which in turn was named after the Arapaho Native American tribe. On November 8, 1904, Arapahoe County voters chose Littleton over Englewood by 1310 to 829 to be the permanent county seat. Arapahoe County is an important part of Colorado's history and has been since its establishment in 1861. It has played an important role in both state and national history and continues to be an important part of Colorado today.
