Colorado Trivia & Tidbits - Page 16

Looking for Colorado trivia? Try our list Colorado little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

Author Mary Coyle Chase, born in Denver in 1907, is best known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Harvey, which features a 6-foot-tall white rabbit.

first appeared: 3/2/2003

Georgetown (pop. 1,088) originally was called “George’s Town” by two brothers who founded the community in 1864 after one of them, George Griffith, struck gold in the area. George and David Griffith later moved their families there from Kentucky.

first appeared: 2/23/2003

The Devil’s Head Lookout Tower is the last operational fire tower of 11 on the front range of the Colorado Rockies, southwest of Denver. The original lookout was a table with a fire-finder bolted to a rock at a point with a 360-degree view of the Pike National Forest. A glass-enclosed lookout was built in 1919, then reconstructed in 1951 with the help of 100 men and 72 mules. In 1991, the lookout was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

first appeared: 2/23/2003

The grueling 200-mile Montezuma’s Revenge Mountain Bike Race, run over a 24-hour period out of Montezuma (pop. 42), is so tough it has never been completed. The race crosses the Continental Divide 10 times and reaches elevations of more than 14,000 feet. Participants—who must sometimes carry their bikes—travel over old mining roads and up steep mountainsides. The record for miles completed in the 24 hours is 166.

first appeared: 2/16/2003

A memorial for a burro in Fairplay (pop. 610) honors Prunes, who delivered supplies to miners in the area for more than 60 years before his death in 1930.

first appeared: 2/9/2003

The nation’s first juvenile court was created in Denver by Judge Ben B. Linsday in 1907.

first appeared: 2/9/2003

Pueblo’s Arkansas River levee, once covered in graffiti, today is covered with 4.5 miles of murals painted since 1980 by volunteer artists using discarded or donated paint—making it the world’s largest mural, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

first appeared: 2/2/2003

Hard-core skiers can hit the slopes even during the dog days of summer thanks to an ancient ice field near Idaho Springs (pop. 1,889). Skiers and snowboarders often can be seen in the summer months at St. Mary’s Glacier, enjoying the snow and ice that stays there year-round.

first appeared: 1/26/2003

Residents of Dinosaur (pop. 319) took advantage of the nearby Dinosaur National Monument in 1965 by changing their town’s name from Artesia to Dinosaur. Streets were re-named, too, so visitors can now walk down Brontosaurus Boulevard, Tyrannosaurus Trail, and Plateosaurus Place.

first appeared: 1/19/2003

The late Byron White, who served on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1962 to 1993, attended the University of Colorado where he earned the nickname “Whizzer” for his skill at running the football and weaving past opponents.

first appeared: 1/12/2003

The state issued license plates for the first time in 1913. Prior to that, cities issued numbers and residents made their own plates. From 1913 to 1915, Colorado plates were porcelainized.

first appeared: 1/12/2003

The first remains of a stegosaurus were found near Morrison (pop. 430) in 1877 by a college professor, Arthur Lakes. The dinosaur, which weighed up to 10 tons and roamed parts of what would become Colorado, was made the state’s fossil in 1982.

first appeared: 1/5/2003

Colorado observes Susan B. Anthony Day as a holiday on her birthday, Feb. 15, honoring this famous advocate of women’s right to vote.

first appeared: 12/29/2002

The state song, Where the Columbines Grow, was adopted in 1915 and refers to one of the most elegant and graceful perennial flowers found in an early summer garden. They are easy to grow, bloom in almost every color, and make an excellent cut flower. The name is from the Latin columba, or dove, because the blossoms resemble a bird in flight.

first appeared: 12/22/2002

The Morrison Natural History Museum in Morrison (pop. 430) is housed in a former log ranch house. Many fossil exhibits come from digs at nearby Dinosaur Ridge, and the museum also features a display of live reptiles and amphibians inhabiting the area today.

first appeared: 12/22/2002

The Arkansas River helped form the Royal Gorge near Canon City (pop. 15,431), and the river still carves the gorge about one foot deeper every 2,500 years. A bridge crosses the gorge more than 1,000 feet above the bottom.

first appeared: 12/15/2002

Alamosa (pop. 7,960) gets its name from the trees that protected early settlers from the elements. The word is Spanish for “cottonwood grove.”

first appeared: 12/8/2002

The Bachelor-Syracuse Mine Tour takes visitors more than 3,300 feet inside Gold Hill, where they can learn how gold and silver were removed from the mine, which opened in 1884 in Ouray (pop. 813). Visitors can try their hand at panning for gold at the site.

first appeared: 12/8/2002

Ivy Baldwin, a tightrope walker and daredevil, made 86 trips across a tightrope suspended 582 feet above the ground of Eldorado Canyon. His last walk was in 1948 at the age of 82. He lived to be 87.

first appeared: 12/1/2002

Denver has maintained its own bison herd since 1914. Today, about 26 adult bison and a number of calves roam 500 acres at Genesee Park.

first appeared: 11/24/2002

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