Colorado Trivia & Tidbits - Page 19

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

Mount Silverheels near Alma (pop. 179) is named for a dance hall girl said to have cared for smallpox victims during the gold rush of the late 1800s. Legend has it that the girl, nicknamed “Silver Heels,” developed smallpox, too. But when residents visited her home to help, she had gone and was never seen again.

first appeared: 4/28/2002

The Satirical World Art Museum in Estes Park (pop. 5,413) showcases 150 works by Jose Peres, whose caustic portrayals of American political figures earned him the title of the “Will Rogers of American art.”

first appeared: 4/28/2002

Bridal Veil Falls, just two miles east of Telluride (pop. 2,221), is the longest free-falling waterfall in Colorado (365 feet).

first appeared: 4/21/2002

Nucla (pop. 734) was founded in the late 1800s as a cooperative town. Businesses were cooperatively owned, and labor was evenly divided among residents—right down to the construction of an irrigation ditch. The practice eventually ended, but Nucla still exists.

first appeared: 4/21/2002

A gold rush boomtown just 13 miles west of Denver was the first capital of Colorado. Golden (pop. 17,159) served as the capital for the Colorado Territory from 1862 until 1867, when Denver became the permanent seat of government.

first appeared: 4/14/2002

The oldest restaurant in Denver has been catering to cowboys, outlaws, and American Indian chiefs since the city’s Wild West days. Henry H. “Shorty Scout” Zietz, a scout who served with William “Buffalo Bill” Cody, founded the Buckhorn Exchange in 1893. President Theodore Roosevelt is among those who have eaten at the restaurant.

first appeared: 4/7/2002

Lamar (pop. 8,869) was founded in the 1880s and named for Lucius Quintus Lamar, secretary of the interior under President Grover Cleveland.

first appeared: 3/31/2002

The Denver Zoo boasts the country’s largest indoor Komodo dragon exhibit. The dragons, the world’s largest lizards, live on four southeastern Indonesian islands and can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh 250 pounds. The 5,500-square-foot exhibit contains waterfalls, darkened caves, and jungle ruins.

first appeared: 3/24/2002

Colfax Avenue in Denver is America’s longest continuous street, stretching 30 miles through the Mile High City.

first appeared: 3/17/2002

Traces of the highest rail line ever laid in North America can still be seen near Moffat (pop. 114). The line, laid for the Denver, Northwestern and Pacific Railroad in the early 1900s, crossed the Continental Divide at 11,660 feet above sea level. It was replaced in 1928 with the six-mile Moffat Tunnel.

first appeared: 3/17/2002

Some 200 ounces of Colorado gold top the state Capitol in Denver. The 42-foot dome, originally copper, was leafed with 24-karat gold in 1908.

first appeared: 3/10/2002

Earl Douglass discovered the fossils that give Dinosaur National Monument its name. Douglass, a paleontologist who worked for the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh, Pa., discovered the fossils in 1900 in Utah. The monument straddles the border of Utah and Colorado.

first appeared: 3/3/2002

Colorado’s nickname is The Centennial State because it was admitted to the union Aug. 1, 1876—100 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

first appeared: 2/24/2002

The Alpine Tunnel through the Continental Divide is one of the true engineering marvels created in the race to provide rail service to all parts of the country. The tunnel near Pitkin was built in 1881 by the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad to serve Gunnison (pop. 5,409). A crew of 400 men took 18 months to dig 1,800 feet through granite to create the tunnel.

first appeared: 2/17/2002

More than 1,300 dinosaur prints, fossilized in sandstone, can be seen in the area along the Purgatoire River in the Picket Wire Canyonlands near La Junta (pop. 7,568).

first appeared: 2/17/2002

A Colorado hotel modeled after an Italian castle earned the nickname White House of the West because so many U.S. presidents stayed there. The 1893 Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs (pop. 7,736) has hosted six presidents, beginning with Theodore Roosevelt’s 1905 visit on a hunting trip.

first appeared: 2/10/2002

Copper Creek Golf Course, built 9,650 feet above sea level on the slopes of the Copper Mountain Ski area near Leadville (pop. 2,821), is the country’s highest championship golf course.

first appeared: 2/3/2002

Land rises 600 feet in the two miles between Georgetown (pop. 1,088) and Silver Plume (pop. 203), so the Georgetown Loop Railroad follows a 4.5-mile spiral in which a trestle actually doubles back over tracks below at Devil’s Gate High Bridge. The 1877 railroad has been restored and is open to the public for rides.

first appeared: 1/27/2002

Every year, drivers speed up Pike’s Peak near Colorado Springs in the second-oldest racing event in the nation. The Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb takes competitors about 12.5 miles along a road that climbs more than 4,700 feet (ending at 14,110 feet above sea level) and contains 156 curves. The race was started in 1916 as a way to promote the Pike’s Peak Highway.

first appeared: 1/20/2002

A Denver museum displays more than 100 years of history related to the everyday heroes who battle fires. The Denver Firefighters Museum, housed in the city’s first fire station, features hand- and horse-drawn firefighting equipment from the 1860s, early mechanized fire trucks, and artifacts such as antique fire helmets.

first appeared: 1/13/2002

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