Littleton is a Home Rule Municipality in Arapahoe County and Jefferson County in the U.S. state of Colorado. Littleton is a suburb of the Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Statistical Area. Littleton is the county seat of Arapahoe County and the 17th most populous city in the State of Colorado. The population was 40,342 at the 2000 census.
The City of Littleton's history dates back to the 1859 "Pikes Peak" gold rush, which brought not only gold seekers, but merchants and farmers to the community. Richard Sullivan Little was an engineer from New Hampshire that made his way out west to work on irrigation systems. Little quickly fell in love with the area that is present day Littleton and brought his wife Angeline out from the East in 1862. The Littles, along with many neighbors built the Rough and Ready Flour Mill in 1867, which provided a solid economic base in the community. By 1890, the community had grown to 245 people and the residents voted to incorporate the Town of Littleton.
Littleton became widely known in 1999 when the Columbine High School massacre occurred at nearby Columbine High School, which the news media erroneously reported as being located in the city. The school is actually located in Columbine, an unincorporated community in Jefferson County, yet in a ZIP code associated primarily with Littleton. The school is included in the Jefferson County school system, and not one of the Littleton Public Schools.
The Colorado Center for the Blind, a skills training program for blind teenagers and adults operated by the National Federation of the Blind, is located in Littleton. The Denver Theological Seminary is also in Littleton.
Intelligent Vehicle Safety Technologies' "Desert Tortoise," a competitor in the DARPA Grand Challenge, is based in Littleton.
The city is also the site of the grave of Alferd Packer, an American prospector. He is one of three people imprisoned in the United States for cannibalism.