Colorado Trivia & Tidbits - Page 18

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

Glenwood Springs (pop. 7,736) hosts the oldest community celebration in Colorado. Strawberry Days, held every June, began in 1897 as a neighborhood picnic of sorts and has been held every year since. The three-day event offers visitors free strawberries and ice cream and is capped by the naming of “Miss Strawberry Days.”

first appeared: 8/18/2002

Denver, located just east of the Rockies, has a mild, arid climate—with just 8 to 15 inches of rain each year. The sun shines on the Mile High City an average of 300 days annually —more than on San Diego or Miami.

first appeared: 8/11/2002

Creede (pop. 377) is named for Nicholas Creede, the prospector who discovered a rich silver vein in the remote area of the Rockies in 1889.

first appeared: 8/11/2002

A nighttime excursion in 1880 made Buena Vista (pop. 2,195) the seat of Chaffee County. Voters had earlier approved moving the county seat from nearby Granite, but officials there were hesitant to release the county’s documents. One night, a group of Buena Vista men borrowed a railroad flatcar and engine, drove them to Granite, and emptied the county courthouse of its documents. In 1928, however, voters selected Salida (pop. 5,504) as the county seat.

first appeared: 8/4/2002

David Moffatt had a special rail car built for himself that rivaled anything on the rails in 1906. The car, named Marcia after the railroad tycoon’s daughter, is 68 feet long and features a heating system, ice boxes, an observatory, and a kitchen. It cost more than $25,000 and is now on display in Craig (pop. 9,189).

first appeared: 7/28/2002

The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, the longest and highest narrow-gauge railroad still in operation in the United States, stretches 64 miles between Colorado and New Mexico. Built in 1880 with a rail width of 3 feet instead of the standard 5 feet, the railroad is 10,015 feet above sea level.

first appeared: 7/21/2002

Clara Brown, a former slave from Virginia, established the first laundry in Colorado to serve miners who flocked to the area after the discovery of gold in 1858. Brown, who was freed by her third owner, worked her way to the territory as a cook on a wagon train. She helped newly freed slaves relocate to Colorado.

first appeared: 7/14/2002

San Luis, Colorado’s oldest permanent town, was founded by Hispanic settlers from New Mexico in 1851. The region is a center of the state’s Hispanic culture.

first appeared: 7/14/2002

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument near Montrose (pop. 12,344) gets its name from the fact that the sun only briefly touches its walls each day. That’s because the chasm is up to 2,000 feet deep in some spots.

first appeared: 7/7/2002

A silver nugget weighing more than a ton was found in the Smuggler II Mine near Aspen (pop. 5,914) in 1894. It is believed to be the largest silver nugget ever mined.

first appeared: 7/7/2002

Julesburg (pop. 1,467) has done some traveling in its day. The name “Julesburg” was given to three different communities in northeastern Colorado before it was finally bestowed on the most recent site of a community established in 1881 on the northeastern border of the state.

first appeared: 6/30/2002

The Colorado Ski Museum and Ski Hall of Fame in Vail (pop. 4,531) chronicles the history of skiing in the state—from special snowshoes used to get around the mountains to skis used by Olympians.

first appeared: 6/30/2002

When John Wayne, Kim Darby, and Glen Campbell rode off to find the bad guys in the 1969 movie True Grit, they were riding in Colorado. Ridgway (pop. 713) provided the backdrop for one of Wayne’s most popular performances.

first appeared: 6/23/2002

Many have read about the town of Greeley without knowing it. Novelist James A. Michener once taught at what is now the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. He was inspired by the town’s history enough to write a book about the evolution of a Colorado town—but Michener called his fictional town Centennial in the novel of the same name.

first appeared: 6/16/2002

Father Jean Baptiste Francolon’s Miramont Castle, completed in 1895 in Manitou Springs (pop. 4,980), features nine different architectural styles, including Gothic, Romanesque, and Tudor. The 14,000 square-foot, 46-room castle has two-foot thick stone walls.

first appeared: 6/9/2002

A natural amphitheater was created near Golden, Colo., (pop. 17,159) when gradual earth movement raised big chunks of red sandstone from a prehistoric ocean floor to 300 feet above the ground. Civilian Conservation Corps workers laid a stage between the sandstone blocks in the 1930s, creating the Red Rocks Amphitheater, which opened for concerts in 1941.

first appeared: 6/2/2002

A high school senior in Fort Morgan (pop. 11,034) with a promising future in football decided instead to pursue a life of music. Glenn Miller was named the “Best Left End in Colorado” when he played for Fort Morgan High School in 1920, before he formed his own dance band—a precursor to the famous Glenn Miller Orchestra.

first appeared: 5/26/2002

A ski lesson for young amputees led to more than 48,000 disabled people enjoying activities such as skiing, horseback riding, and bicycling. The National Sports Center for the Disabled, headquartered in Winter Park (pop. 662), teaches about 3,000 people each year how to take part in outdoor activities despite their disabilities. Ski instructor Hal O’Leary started the program in 1970.

first appeared: 5/19/2002

The U. S. Mint in Denver is the nation’s third-largest gold depository. The mint makes more than 30 million coins a day and holds nearly 44 million ounces of gold worth almost $1.9 billion. The country’s main depository is Fort Knox in Kentucky, followed by the West Point Mint in New York.

first appeared: 5/12/2002

The Pawnee National Grassland is 193,000 acres of shortgrass prairie in northeast Colorado. It was purchased by the federal government and now is an internationally known birding site, especially for raptors.

first appeared: 5/5/2002

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