Colorado Trivia & Tidbits - Page 17

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

Residents of Pagosa Springs (pop. 1,591) use some of the hot water coming out of the springs (with a temperature of at least 150 degrees) to heat some buildings in town.

first appeared: 11/17/2002

Looking for something to ring your chimes? Try the International Bell Museum in Evergreen (pop. 9,216). The museum displays more than 6,000 bells, some dating back to 1000 B.C., and claims to have the largest private bell collection in the world.

first appeared: 11/17/2002

A different sort of train got people to the top of Pike’s Peak beginning in 1891. Faced with slopes with grades of up to 25 percent, founders of the railway turned to a “cog” railroad system, also known as a rack railway. Large gears, or cogs, beneath the train mesh with special tracks, or racks, to pull cars up steep grades that trains with normal wheels could not climb. The Manitou & Pikes Peak Railway still carries passengers to the top of the 14,110-foot mountain.

first appeared: 11/10/2002

The Beecher Island Battleground south of Wray (pop. 2,187) is a site on the Arickaree Fork of the Republican River where Cheyenne warriors and U.S. Cavalry scouts fought for nine days in 1868, until cavalry reinforcements arrived.

first appeared: 11/3/2002

Robert J. Seiwald of Fort Morgan (pop. 11,034) was inducted into the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame in 1995 for helping synthesize a compound now widely used for rapid, accurate diagnosis of infectious diseases.

first appeared: 11/3/2002

Many famous Old West personalities called Denver’s historic Larimer Square home. Among them were gunfighter Bat Masterson and William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, the scout and Pony Express rider who started the famous Wild West show. Today, shops, clubs, and restaurants occupy the restored turn-of-the-century Victorian buildings on the square.

first appeared: 10/27/2002

The capital of Colorado was named for the governor of another state. When prospectors put up buildings near Cherry Creek and the South Platte River in 1858, they named the settlement Denver after James Denver, governor of the Kansas Territory—which included Denver at the time.

first appeared: 10/20/2002

Some of the world’s best-known figure skaters trained in Colorado Springs, where a museum honors their achievements. The World Figure Skating Hall of Fame and Museum features exhibits on skaters such as Sonja Henie and Peggy Fleming, as well as displays of ice skating art.

first appeared: 10/20/2002

Something’s always shaking at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden (pop. 17,159). The school is home to the U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center, which monitors seismic activity from around the world.

first appeared: 10/13/2002

Central City (pop. 515) was nicknamed the “richest square mile on earth” because in the eight years after its founding in 1859, about $9 million in gold was found around the town.

first appeared: 10/6/2002

The state’s largest natural lake is the aptly named Grand Lake near the town of Grand Lake (pop. 447). The waterway, carved out of the landscape by a glacier, stretches 12 miles and is about 400 feet deep.

first appeared: 9/29/2002

A full-blown town made up entirely of one-sixth scale buildings is near Morrison (pop. 430). Tiny Town has its own railroad and more than 100 buildings—including homes, stores, churches, and a newspaper. George Turner began building the models of turn-of-the-century buildings in 1915 for his daughter. The 9-acre site can be toured aboard a small train pulled by a coal-fired steam locomotive. It is open weekends in September and October.

first appeared: 9/22/2002

Since 1994, volunteers in Ouray (pop. 813) have been spraying water over the edge of the Uncompahgre Gorge in winter to create walls of ice that attract ice climbers to Ouray Ice Park.

first appeared: 9/15/2002

Two living history farms at the Littleton Historical Museum offer visitors a glimpse at life in the Rockies. Staff members dressed in period clothing work the farms—founded in the 1860s and the 1890s—and answer the questions of visitors.

first appeared: 9/15/2002

More than half of Colorado’s 4.3 million residents live in the six counties that make up the Denver metropolitan region.

first appeared: 9/8/2002

Grand Junction puts art out on the street. Under the city’s Art on the Corner program created in 1984, sculptors lend their works to the town for up to one year, with the works displayed in Grand Junction’s downtown shopping park.

first appeared: 9/8/2002

The Denver Performing Arts Complex is one of the largest facilities of its kind in the nation. It covers four city blocks and can seat more than 10,000 people in its nine performance venues—second in seating capacity only to New York’s Lincoln Center.

first appeared: 9/1/2002

The UFO Watchtower in Hooper (pop. 123), built by Judy Messoline and Stan Becker on Messoline’s ranch, is a 10-foot-high platform atop a geodesic dome. The platform for sky watching holds up to 50 people and provides a good view of the San Luis Valley.

first appeared: 9/1/2002

The Mount Massive Golf Course in Leadville (pop. 2,821) has something no other course has—major altitude. The 9-hole course is 9,680 feet above sea level—making it the highest course in the United States.

first appeared: 8/25/2002

Silverton (pop. 531), at an elevation of 9,300 feet, has a growing season of only about two weeks. That limits the local vegetable gardeners largely to two crops—rhubarb and horseradish.

first appeared: 8/25/2002

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