Compiled by Fay Golson and Mike Rosso
The Tallest Building in Colorado
The Republic Plaza, constructed in 1984 and located at 302 17th Street in Denver, is the tallest building in Colorado. Building materials include concrete and Sardinian granite. It stands 714 feet tall and stacks 56 stories. Considering that the 1931 Empire State Building in New York is 1,454 feet tall with 130 stories, the Republic Plaza loses some of its swag.
Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger
Denver lays claim to the invention of the cheeseburger. The trademark for the name “Cheeseburger” was awarded in 1935 to Louis Ballast.
Big Sand
The tallest sand dune in America is in the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in the San Luis Valley. The 46,000-acre landscape of 700-foot sand peaks is the creation of ocean waters and wind more than one million years ago.
“Wisdom is better than silver or gold” – Bob Marley
The Colorado State Capitol, constructed from 1886 to 1903, was originally covered in copper. Ten years later, the gold rush inspired a more noble cap and gold was the lofty replacement. The dome was re-gilded three times after its first layering and prior to the most recent $17 million rehabilitation. The 65 ounces of gold used for the current gilding came from the Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Co. in Teller County, the same mine that supplied the original covering. The 24-karat gold, worth more than $116,175, was shipped to Florence, Italy and milled into gold leaf. FYI, the 13th step of the building is exactly one mile above sea level.
The Oldest Town in Colorado
The Town of San Luis is the county seat and the most populous town (629 according to the 2010 census) of Costilla County, Colorado. Formerly known as San Luis de la Culebra, the village remained part of the Territory of New Mexico until the establishment of the Territory of Colorado in 1861.
Kit’s Place
Colorado’s first and oldest military post, Fort Garland, in the San Luis Valley, was established in 1858 and commanded by the legendary frontiersman Kit Carson.
‘Round and ‘Round
The oldest wooden merry-go-round in the United States, dating back to 1905, is the Kit Carson County Carousel in Burlington. It features 46 hand-carved animals and is the only wooden carousel in America still with its original paint on both the scenery panels and on the animals. It was first manufactured for Elitch Gardens, an amusement park in Denver.
Woody Allen Strikes Golden
The amazing Charles Deaton Sculpture House in the Golden vicinity looks as if an alien ship from a parallel universe landed dangerously close to a precipice. Completed in 1966, the post war Expressionist design has received both national and international press recognition and was known at the time as the “House of the Future.” The house was used for a setting in Woody Allen’s Sleeper.
275 Million Elephants
The Climax mine was and remains unique. In 1966, the underground mine produced 43,500 tons of ore in one day. After the open pit was in operation in 1976, a combined tonnage of 51,133 tons of ore was produced in a single day. Over a 76-year period, 479,000,000 tons of ore, at an average grade of .33% MoS2, containing 1.9 billion pounds of elemental molybdenum, were produced. This is where the elephants come in … the average African male elephants weights 7 to 8 tons. 275,000,000 elephants would counterbalance the scale with 1.9 billion pounds of moly.
Oldest Standing Habitat in Colorado
Sometime during the late 1190s, the Anasazis began living in cliff dwellings built into sheer cliffs. Rooms carved into sandstone, extended adobe walls and wooden roofs define the cliff dwellings. Mesa Verde is the site of the Cliff Palace, the largest cliff dwelling in the United States. In the 1200s, approximately 100 people occupied 150 rooms in the Cliff Palace.
Very Important Facts
The Colorado state motto is “Nil sine Numine” (Nothing without Providence), but is not the translation that was intended by the originators of the resolution that adopted the seal. Their interpretative translation was “Nothing without the Deity.” The state flower is the Rocky Mountain columbine; the Colorado blue spruce is the state tree; the state bird is the lark bunting; the state animal is the Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep; its gemstone is the aquamarine; the state songs are “Where the Columbines Grow” and “Rocky Mountain High”; the state fossil is the stegosaurus; and, last but not least, Colorado has two state colors: blue and white.
High Mountain Tunnels and Roads
The Dwight Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel between Clear Creek and 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. The Mount Evans Scenic Byway is the highest paved road in North America. The road, which winds between Mt. Evans and Idaho Springs, reaches 14,258 feet above sea level. The highest mountain pass road in the U.S. crosses Mosquito Pass (13,188 feet) between Leadville and Fairplay.
Urban Smarts
Denver is the most educated city in the U.S., boasting the greatest percentage of high school and college graduates of any major metropolitan area in the U.S.; 92.1 percent of the population in the metro area have high school diplomas and 35 percent have at least a bachelor’s degree, according to the U.S. Census. The national average is 81.7 percent with high school diplomas and 23 percent with a college degree. Denver is also considered the “thinnest” city in America, with less than 20 percent of Colorado adults being overweight.
Uncle Sam the Landlord
The United States federal government owns more than one-third of the land in Colorado.
Coors Field, Capacity 50,445 Fans
The first official game played at Coors Field was on April 26, 1995 (Colorado 11, New York Mets 9). At 5:38 p.m., Bill Swift pitched the first pitch to Brett Butler. A ball hit travels 9 percent farther at 5,280 feet than at sea level, and a home run hit 400 feet at sea level at Yankee Stadium would travel about 440 feet at Coors Field.
Hot Stuff
At two blocks long, a natural hot springs pool in Glenwood Springs is the world’s largest. Located in across the street from the historic Hotel Colorado, it was a favorite stop of former president Teddy Roosevelt.
Triple the Fun
In 1905, Colorado had three governors in one day. Stay tuned for the March 2015 issue to read all about it.
Staunton State Park
Colorado’s newest state park opened to the public on May 18, 2013. The park is located approximately 40 miles southwest of downtown Denver, north of U.S. Hwy. 285 and about six miles west of Conifer. The park sits divided between Park and Jefferson counties in Pine, Colorado.
Stately Rivers
The Arkansas River and the Colorado River flow through Colorado, as do a Florida River, an Idaho Creek, an Illinois River, an Indiana Creek, a Maryland Creek, a Michigan River, a Minnesota Creek, six Missouri Creeks, a Montana Creek, two New York Creeks, two Ohio Creeks, two Pennsylvania Creeks, two Tennessee Creeks, seven Texas Creeks and a Virginia Creek. Also, there are 72 streams in the state of Colorado named Willow Creek.
Colorado’s Only Remaining Vehicular Suspension Bridge
The Minnequa plant of Colorado Fuel and Iron in Pueblo assembled the steel wires, castings and rolled components for the Royal Gorge Bridge. It is Colorado’s only bridge constructed mainly for recreational use. Completed in 1929 with an 800-foot span at a height of 1,053 feet, it is considered the tallest suspension bridge west of the Mississippi River.
Susan B. Anthony in Court
The 1877 Hinsdale County Courthouse in Lake City is the oldest courthouse in the state that continues to function as a courthouse. The importance of women’s suffrage was pounded home there to area miners that same year by Susan B. Anthony. Alferd Packer, the notorious Colorado cannibal, was convicted there in 1883.
Park it Here
Denver has the largest city park system in the U.S., with 205 parks within city limits and 20,000 acres of parks in the nearby mountains.
Two-Story, One-Holer
Crested Butte has the proud distinction of having the only two-story outhouse in Colorado. As the story goes, the snow gets so high in that town that a path could not always be shoveled from the house to the facilities. This was solved by offsetting the holes and covering a walkway from the upper floor of the residence. If you go, don’t ask where to find it, as the locals like to keep this special landmark a secret.
Caffeine vs. Cannibas
At last count, there were 337 Starbucks coffeeshops in Colorado and at least 334 marijuana dispensaries.
Hanging Flume
Constructed between 1889 and 1891 with 1.8 million feet of lumber, the Hanging Flume in Montrose County remains the only surviving flume of its kind in the United States. Hanging along a canyon wall 150 feet above the Dolores River, the flume carried eight million gallons of water per day to placer gold. hangingflume.org
The Record Book
The hottest temperature on record for Colorado was 118 degrees in Bennett on July 11, 1888. Maybell holds the honors for the coldest spot on record: minus 61 degrees on Feb. 1, 1985. The largest 24-hour accumulation of snowfall nationally was at Silver Lake, Colorado. 75.8 inches of the white stuff fell from April 14 -15, 1921.
Sweet Home Colorado
Colorado has a total population of 5,029,196, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. In 1910, the number was 799,024. In 1810, the Anglo-American population was zero. Colorado has almost as many dead (ghost) towns (about 500) as living ones (650).
Land Grabs
The U.S. obtained eastern Colorado as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803; the central portion in 1845 with the admission of Texas as a state; and the western part in 1848 as a result of the Mexican War.
Dive, Dive!
Colorado has more certified scuba divers per capita than anywhere else in the U.S., according to the Colorado Ocean Coalition.
This … is NPR
Colorado has 23 National Public Radio member stations, from Alamosa to Vail. The state also has 59 LP-FM (low-power) radio stations, which operate with an effective radiated power of 100 watts or less. Among them are KSIK in Greeley, KWMV in Westcliffe and KHEN in Salida. An early experimenter of radio waves, Nikola Tesla, lived in Colorado Springs from May 1899 to January 1900. During one experiment held there, Tesla inadvertently faulted a power station generator, causing a power outage. He also produced artificial lightning, the thunder of which was heard 15 miles away in Cripple Creek.
Unusual Colorado Festivals
First there is Mike the Headless Chicken Days in Fruita. This festival celebrates Mike, a chicken who had his head chopped off but remained living for 18 months without a head, since his brain stem was still intact. The festival features the Chicken Games, a Chicken Recipe Contest, Run Like a Headless Chicken, a Chicken Dance and more.
Frozen Dead Guy Days is an annual celebration held in the town of Nederland to loosely celebrate the 1994 discovery of the cryonic-state corpse of Bredo Morstoel. Bredo was born in Norway and never lived in the U.S., but his body was shipped to California in 1989, and then to Nederland in 1993 where he was packed in a storage shed – literally on ice – and still remains to this day.
Guffey used to host an annual Fourth of July Chicken Fly, featuring a main event in which live chickens were ejected from a mailbox atop a 10-foot-high platform and prizes were awarded for best distance. The event ended in 2011 but has since been replaced with a Turkey Testicle Festival.
Furry Mayors
Speaking of Guffey, the town has a history of electing pets for mayors, a position that does not actually exist there. The current mayor of Guffey is a 17-plus-year-old cat named Monster, who was elected in 1998. Preceding the feline was a golden retriever named Shanda, who served from 1993 to 1998, sadly dying in office.
According to local folklore, the two main political parties in Guffey are the “Democats” and the “Repuplicans,” and only schoolchildren are allowed to vote in the mayoral election.
