- "Beulah red" is the name of the red marble that gives
the Colorado State Capitol its distinctive splendor.
Cutting, polishing, and installing the marble in the Capitol
took six years, from 1894 to 1900. All of the "Beulah red"
marble in the world went into the Capitol. It cannot be
replaced, at any price.
- Colorado is the only state in history, to turn down the
Olympics. In 1976 the Winter Olympics were planned to be
held in Denver. 62% of all state Voters choose at almost the
last minute not to host the Olympics, because of the cost,
pollution and population boom it would have on the State Of
Colorado, and the City of Denver.
- The United States Air Force Academy is located in
Colorado Springs.
- The world's largest flat-top mountain is in Grand Mesa.
- In Fruita, the town folk celebrate 'Mike the Headless
Chicken Day'. Seems that a farmer named L.A. Olsen cut off
Mike's head on September 10, 1945 in anticipation of a
chicken dinner - and Mike lived for another 4 years without
a head.
- The LoDo region of Denver stands for Lower Downtown.
- Denver, lays claim to the invention of the cheeseburger.
The trademark for the name Cheeseburger was awarded in 1935
to Louis Ballast.
- The highest paved road in North America is the Road to
Mt. Evans off of I-70 from Idaho Springs. The Road climbs up
to 14,258 Ft. above sea level.
- Colorado means “colored red” and is known as the
“Centennial State.”
- The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad continues
to provide year round train service operating a historical
train with rolling stock indigenous to the line. The line
was constructed primarily to haul mine ores, both gold and
silver, from the San Juan Mountains.
- The United States federal government owns more than 1/3
of the land in Colorado.
- Colorado contains 75% of the land area of the U.S. with
an altitude over 10,000 feet.
- Colorado has 222 state wildlife areas.
- Colfax Avenue in Denver is the longest continuous street
in America.
- The 13th step of the state capital building in Denver is
exactly 1 mile high above sea level.
- The Dwight Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel between Clear
Creek & Summit counties is the highest auto tunnel in the
world. Bored at an elevation of 11,000 feet under the
Continental Divide it is 8,960 feet long and the average
daily traffic exceeds 26,000 vehicles.
- Leadville is the highest incorporated city in the United
States at 10,430 feet elevation. Because there was lots of
"silver" named towns at the time, the founding fathers
suggested Leadville.
- Katherine Lee Bates wrote “America the Beautiful” after
being inspired by the view from Pikes Peak.
- Hundreds of thousands of valentines are re-mailed each
year from Loveland.
- Fountain, has the distinction of being the United
States' millennium city because it best symbolizes the
overall composition of America. Fountain is the most
accurate representation of the American "melting pot."
Fountain was chosen after a Queens College sociologist
crunched Census Bureau statistics in an effort to find the
one city in the country that best represented the population
make-up of the United States.
- Pueblo is the only city in America with four living
recipients of the Medal of Honor.
- The tallest building in Colorado is the Republic Plaza
at 57 stories high, in Denver.
- Every year Denver host the worlds largest Rodeo, the
Western Stock show.
- Denver has the largest city park system in the nation
with 205 parks in City limits and 20,000 Acres of parks in
the nearby mountains.
- Dove Creek is the "Pinto Bean" capital of the world.
- The tallest sand dune in America is in Great Sand Dunes
National Monument outside of Alamosa. This bizarre
46,000-acre landscape of 700-foot sand peaks was the
creation of ocean waters and wind more than one million
years ago.
- The World's First Rodeo was held on July 4th, 1869 in
Deer Trail.
- Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike explored the
southwest portion of the Louisiana Territory in 1806 and
though he never climbed the peak that bears his name, he did
publish a report that attracted a lot of interest to the
area.
- The slogan of "Pikes Peak or Bust," painted across many
of the prairie schooners, was born at a time as fortune
hunters headed west. Although only a handful of those who
flocked to the region ever found gold.
- At 14,110 feet above sea level over 400,000 people
ascend Pikes Peak each year.
- The aptly named town of Twin Lakes lays adjacent two
natural lakes at the foot of Colorado's highest Fourteener,
Mt. Elbert.
- The Colorado Rockies are part of the North American
Cordillera, which stretches 3,000 miles from Alaska, through
western Canada and the United States, into northern Mexico.
The centerpieces of this dramatic uplift are the peaks over
14,000 feet, or "Fourteeners", as they are affectionately
referred to by climbers. There are 52 Fourteeners in
Colorado.
- Rocky Ford has been dubbed the "melon capital of the
world."
- The Yampa River below the northwest town of Craig holds
northern pike in the 20-pound range, while the Roaring Fork
and Frying Pan rivers are prime spots for trout fishing.
- Colorado has the highest mean altitude of all the
states.
- Mesa Verde features an elaborate four-story city carved
in the cliffs by the Ancestral Pueblo people between 600 and
1300 A.D. The mystery surrounding this ancient cultural
landmark is the sudden disappearance of the thousands of
inhabitants who created the more than 4,000 identified
structures.
- Colorado has more microbreweries per capita than any
other state.
- The Kit Carson County Carousel in Burlington dates back
to 1905, making it the oldest wooden merry-go-round in the
United States. It is the only wooden carousel in America
still with its original paint.
- The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad has been
in continuous operation since 1881 and has appeared in more
than a dozen movies including How the West Was Won (1963)
and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969).
- The highest suspension bridge in the world is over the
Royal Gorge near Canon City. The Royal Gorge Bridge spans
the Arkansas River at a height of 1,053 feet.
- The world's largest natural hot springs pool located in
Glenwood Springs. The two-block long pool is across the
street from the historic Hotel Colorado, a favorite stop of
former president Teddy Roosevelt.
- Built in 1867 by Seth Lake, the Astor House in Golden
was the first stone hotel built west of the Mississippi
River.
- Colorado's southwest corner borders Arizona, New Mexico
and Utah the only place in America where the corners of four
states meet.
- There are nearly 20 rivers whose headwaters begin in
Colorado, with the Continental Divide directing each river's
course.
- The Colorado Rockies play at the 50,000 seat Coors
Field, located in downtown Denver.
- In 1859, John Gregory discovered "The Gregory Lode" in a
gulch near Central City. Within two weeks, the gold rush was
on and within two months the population grew to 10,000
people in search of their fortune. It came to be known as
"The Richest Square Mile on Earth".
- Colorado's first and oldest military post, Fort Garland
was established in 1858 and commanded by the legendary
frontiersman Kit Carson.
- Abundant nesting and migrating birds and other native
animals provide a "world-class" watchable wildlife
experience. Bald eagles and other raptors, sandhill cranes,
shore birds and water birds can be seen seasonally at San
Luis Lakes near Alamosa.
- Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument near Cripple
Creek is a lesson in history set in the one-time shadow of
the Guffey Volcano. The volcano erupted millions of years
ago, creating fossils and leaving the valley filled with
petrified trees.
- John Henry "Doc" Holliday's brief and tumultuous
existence led him to Glenwood Springs where he succumbed to
tuberculosis and died at the Hotel Glenwood on November 8,
1887.
Thanks to: Colorado
Travel & Tourism Authority
|
|