It didn't work in the Springs. Within a month, the police department had the Klan under surveillance, so that its membership list could not stay secret. Many police chiefs became Klan members, but Colorado Springs Police Chief Hugh Harper was one of the few Colorado peace officers to fight the Klan from the moment it arrived. He saw it as a "temptation to the hot-heads and the firebrands. I believe that there is a good prospect that the new Ku Klux Klan may take men into its roster who act first and think afterward. That can only mean a calamity in any community, sooner or later."

Once in control, KKK-controlled legislators introduced numerous proposals, including firing all Catholics and Jews on the University of Colorado faculty, and outlawing the use of sacramental wine (which was still allowed under Prohibiton). Mostly they wanted to abolish many boards and commissions, replacing them with new ones with different names, so they could pack them with Klansmen.

The KKK was formed as a social club by a group of Confederate Army veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1865 or 1866.