Three cities in Colorado — a state whose fortunes have been tied to the boom and bust of oil, gas and other commodities — are among the top 10 leading destinations for the nation's best and brightest as old cow and mining towns morph into technology hubs, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Another Colorado city is plotting a 21st century revival.

Boulder, the small college town located just north of Colorado's capital, is ranked No. 1 nationally in the Bloomberg Brain Concentration Index, which tracks business formation as well as employment and education in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics. respectively.

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Heralding the progress in the Fort Collins metropolitan area, the website of the Northern Colorado Economic Alliance declares the region as "nerdy and proud of it" with major universities producing "a robust workforce of young, highly-educated individuals." An estimated 35 percent of the population holds a bachelors degree or higher, according to the alliance.

The prosperity isn't statewide, though. Grand Junction is ranked No. 16 nationally among the cities with waning white-collar jobs and declining salaries for science, technology and engineering jobs, according to the separate Bloomberg Brain Drain Index. The city is located on Colorado's western slope, a region dependent on oil, gas and agriculture. 

"It's been a much slower economic recovery on the western slope," said Cilia Kohn, director of marketing at the Grand Junction Economic Partnership. "We do quite a bit in the community to bolster the economy." The Rural Jump-Start tax credit program, which offers a tax holiday for technology businesses, was the brainchild of Grand Junction area officials and is projected to bring 600 jobs to the city and neighboring communities, Kohn said.