Colorado Trivia & Tidbits

Glendale (pop. 4,547) is home to the nation's only municipal rugby stadium. Opened in 2007, Infinity Park has hosted national club championships, collegiate all-star games and international matches, including the Churchill Cup with teams from Canada, England, Ireland and Argentina. In addition to the stadium, the town boasts a Rugby Hall of Fame, furthering its hopes to become the "Rugby Capital of the United States."

The great outdoors helped put Louisville (pop. 18,937) on top of Money magazine's 2009 list of "100 Best Places to Live" for towns with populations between 14,000 and 50,000. A robust local economy with a low unemployment rate, a highly rated school system and nearby ski resorts are among Louisville's other attributes cited by the magazine.

Wildlife biologists found 10 lynx kittens in five dens last spring, the first time newborn lynx have been found in the state since 2006. Three dens were in the San Juan Mountains and two farther north in Gunnison (pop. 13,956) and Eagle (pop. 41,659) counties. The wild cat was native to Colorado before being eradicated by trapping, poisoning and loss of habitat in the 1970s. In the late 1990s, more than 200 lynx from Alaska and Canada were reintroduced to the state.

Guests can drink imported English ales in an authentic 19th-century English pub in the Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs. The pub was disassembled, shipped from Great Britain and reassembled in 1961 at the hotel. It features wood paneling, a pressed metal ceiling and etched-glass windows. In addition to drinking ales, guests can dine on Devonshire cheddar cheese soup and shepherd's pie.

David Wroblewski, author of the 2008 novel The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, lives in Westminster. In the 10 years it took to write the novel, Wroblewski worked in Boulder (pop. 94,673) as a software developer.

He's not Van Gogh, but Mshindi at the Denver Zoo may be the world's only rhinoceros who paints with a brush. Trainer Christine Bobko taught the rhino to hold a paintbrush in his mouth as part of an enrichment exercise to keep him challenged and occupied. Many of Mshindi's paintings are sold to benefit rhino preserves in Africa.

The Little Man Ice Cream Shop in Denver is housed in a 28-foot-tall replica of a vintage milk can. The whimsical building is the brainchild of Paul Tamburello, who calls it "roadside vernacular-type architecture."

Some instruments in the Hubble Space Telescope were made by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder (pop. 94,673), including the Wide Field Camera 3, which is expected to help Hubble better view the universe, and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, to help scientists understand how galaxies, stars and planets evolved.

Nestlé Purina PetCare last year installed 467 solar panels covering about 21,000 square feet on top of its pet food plant in Denver. The 100-kilowatt system is the largest privately owned solar-power panel system in Colorado.

Incorporated in 1992, South Fork (pop. 604) is one of the state's newest towns and is located at the junction of the Rio Grande and its south fork. The historic Silver Thread National Scenic Byway, which follows the Rio Grande to its headwaters in the San Juan Mountains, begins in the center of town.

Denver is the most desirable city in America to call home, according to a 2008 survey by the Pew Research Center. Of 2,260 adults asked to choose from among 30 of the largest U.S. cities, 43 percent chose the Mile High City. At the Fort Collins Bike Library, residents, students and visitors can borrow a bike for free. The bike-lending service started in April 2008.

—A parrot named Willie, owned by Megan Howard of Denver, is credited with saving a toddler from choking. The hero bird shouted, "Mama, baby," and alerted babysitter Howard, who performed the Heimlich maneuver on the child. The parrot was presented the Denver Red Cross chapter's Animal Lifesaver Award in March. When Carbondale's (pop. 5,196) newspaper folded last Christmas, volunteers decided that no news was bad news. They started a nonprofit newspaper, The Sopris Sun, staffed mostly by volunteers. The free weekly is named after a snow-capped peak towering over the Roaring Fork Valley.

—The Smiley Building, a former junior high school in Durango (pop. 13,922), has been turned into an energy-efficient, solar-powered center for arts and education. Brothers John and Charles Shaw, and Charles' wife, Lisa Bodwalk, renovated the 1936 Mission-style structure. Today, the rooms are abuzz with classes in dance, music, martial arts, yoga, ceramics, photography and painting. A 500-foot, five-pointed star shines brightly in December on Sundance Mountain at Palmer Lake (pop. 2,179). The star was built in 1935 by Palmer Lake residents who wanted to brighten the Christmas season during the Depression. Except for the World War II years, the star's 91 bulbs have been turned on every year in December and on other national holidays. Among the volunteers on the star project was Dizzy, a German shepherd who ran up and down the mountain to haul tools, supplies and light bulbs. A bronze statue of Dizzy was installed near Palmer Lake's town hall.

—Harold Ross, who founded The New Yorker in 1925 and was its editor until his death in 1951, was born in Aspen (pop. 5,914). The influential magazine published articles by such famed writers as James Thurber, Dorothy Parker and E.B. White.

A cache of stone tools found buried in a Boulder (pop. 94,673) yard belonged to the Clovis people, a nomadic culture that lived 13,000 years ago. The tools were found in May 2008 when landscapers were digging resident Patrick Mahaffy's yard to create a fish pond.

—The University of Colorado at Boulder (pop. 94,673) will lead a $485 million Mars mission, slated to launch in 2013, to study the planet's past climate and its potential for harboring life. The NASA research contract to the university's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics is the largest research contract ever awarded to the school.

—The lowest temperature recorded in the state was minus 61 degrees at Maybell in Moffat County (pop. 13,184) on Feb. 1, 1985.

—A new species of wildflower was discovered last August by Al Schneider, of Cortez (pop. 7,977), at Lone Mesa State Park, north of Dolores (pop. 857). Schneider, a retired English professor and amateur botanist, was helping Peggy Lyon, an ex-English professor turned botanist, survey the park's plant life when he chanced upon the yellow-flowering species, which the two named Gutierrezia elegans.

—Seeing a need to help impoverished women find jobs, Jossy Eyre founded Denver's Women's Bean Project in 1989 with $500 worth of beans. Today, the nonprofit group hires women to prepare packaged gourmet soups, chili mixes, dips and other foods that are sold to grocery stores and online. Birthdays are easy to remember in the Nash household in Colorado Springs. The father and mother, Tyler Nash, 34, and Erika Cherry, 26, were both born on Dec. 23. Last Dec. 23, their daughter, Faith, was born.

–At Pedal to Properties, a Boulder (pop. 94,673) real–estate agency, clients travel by bicycle to check out properties. Co–owners Matt Kolb and Chris Sweeney say cycling allows prospective homeowners a close–up view of neighborhoods. Plus, they get a workout. The Cussler Museum in Arvada exhibits more than 75 rare and classic cars owned by adventure novelist Clive Cussler, best known for his Dirk Pitt novels such as Sahara and Raise the Titanic. Many of the cars are featured in Cussler's novels.

—Although a "golden spike" ceremony held at Promontory Summit, Utah, in 1869 celebrated the completion of the transcontinental railroad, the East and West coasts were not completely connected by rail until the last iron spike was driven in 1870 in Strasburg (pop. 1,402). Built in 1898, the Chautauqua Auditorium, located in Chautauqua Park in Boulder (pop. 94,673), has been voted one of the top 10 places musicians love to play because of the building's acoustics and intimate feel. A large hall with exposed rafters and vertical board and batten siding, the auditorium is included on the National Register of Historic Places.

—Reusable shopping bags for students, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified campus buildings, an environmental center, a car-sharing program and wind energy usage are among the reasons the University of Colorado at Boulder (pop. 94,673) was named one of the top 15 campuses in the nation in 2008 for sustainability by the Sustainable Endowments Institute.

––In 2007, Ridgway (pop. 713) dedicated a 60-acre park to the late actor Dennis Weaver, best known for his roles on the TV shows Gunsmoke and McCloud. The park’s centerpiece is a bronze eagle with a 21-foot wingspan. Weaver moved to Ridgway in the 1980s and built Earthship, his home made of car tires and other recycled materials.

At the 1907 Greek Revival-style schoolhouse in Dolores (pop. 857), the “three R’s” were replaced with one “R”—for relaxation—when the Lebanon Schoolhouse Bed and Breakfast opened in the 1980s. The schoolhouse served the now-defunct Lebanon community until 1963. The playground still sports the school’s original merry-go-round.

—The Maroon Bells, two peaks in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness Area near Aspen (pop. 5,914), are reputed to be among the most photographed sites in North America. Their reflection in Maroon Lake is framed by the surrounding aspens and fields of wildflowers in the summer.

Silent film actor Lon Chaney, born in 1883 in Colorado Springs to deaf-mute parents, learned early how to communicate with his hands and face, expressing emotions without uttering a word. Known as “the man of a thousand faces,” Chaney appeared in more than 150 films, including classics The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera.