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is a Home Rule Municipality in Arapahoe County, in the U.S. state of Colorado and 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 40,340 at the 2000 census.
Littleton became widely known in 1999 when the Columbine High School massacre occurred at nearby Columbine High School, which some in the news media erroneously reported as being located in the city. The school is actually in unincorporated Jefferson County, yet in a ZIP code associated primarily with Littleton (see
below). The school is one of the schools of 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.
Littleton is the home town of famed Hispanic business men, brothers, Sam J. Chavez, Jr. and Lloyd G. Chavez, Sr.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 13.9 square miles (36.1 km²), of which, 13.5 square miles (35.0 km²) of it is land and 0.4 square miles (1.1 km²) of it (2.95%) is water.
Littleton is a suburb south of Denver, on the west side of I-25. Since July 2000, it has been served by the Regional Transportation District's light rail system.