Colorado Trivia & Tidbits - Page 3

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

Chris Davenport of Snowmass (pop. 1,822) is the first person to climb and ski all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks in one year. He started on Jan. 22, 2006, and finished on Jan. 19, 2007.

first appeared: 8/24/2008

—For the second consecutive year, Forbes magazine has ranked Boulder as the smartest city in the nation. The rankings were based on the percentage of adults 25 and older with at least a bachelor’s degree. In Boulder, home of the University of Colorado, 93 percent of residents graduated from high school, 53 percent of adults have at least a bachelor’s degree and 4 percent have a doctorate degree.

first appeared: 8/10/2008

Hundreds of “Moon Trees” grow across the United States, thanks to the efforts of NASA astronaut Stuart Roosa, born in 1933 in Durango (pop. 13,922). Roosa carried tree seeds into space when he flew to the moon with astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell in 1971. The seeds later were planted throughout the nation.

first appeared: 8/10/2008

—Diane Van Deren of Sedalia (pop. 211) pulled a sled across 300 miles of frozen Canadian wilderness to win the 2008 Yukon Arctic Ultra race in February. Van Deren, who underwent surgery for epilepsy several years ago, was the first woman from the United States to compete in the grueling event.

first appeared: 7/27/2008

A big blue bear peering into the Colorado Convention Center has become one of the most recognized public sculptures in Denver. The stylized fiberglass bear, titled I See What You Mean, is about 40 feet tall and was installed next to the convention center entrance in 2005.

first appeared: 7/27/2008

—Education pioneer Rachel B. Noel of Denver was the state’s first African-American woman to be elected to public office. She won her citywide campaign to serve on the Denver Public Schools board in 1965 and spearheaded a drive to desegregate the schools. She died in February at age 90.

first appeared: 7/13/2008

Blue Mesa Reservoir in the Curecanti National Recreation Area, west of Gunnison (pop. 5,409), is the state’s largest lake, with 96 miles of shoreline. It is one of three lakes formed by the damming of the Gunnison River during the 1960s and ’70s.

first appeared: 7/13/2008

—Since December, a streak-backed oriole, nicknamed Pedro, has made regular morning visits to Connie Kogler’s back yard in Loveland (pop. 50,608). Since the initial sighting, hundreds of people have flocked to Kogler’s home to see the bird, which is native to Mexico and previously was never spotted in Colorado.

first appeared: 6/29/2008

Dominic Espinoza, who calls himself “Cano,” takes aluminum recycling to new heights as he continues to build on his castle-like structure in Antonito (pop. 873). Known as Cano’s Castle, the aluminum-can-sheathed castle has become a tourist attraction.

first appeared: 6/29/2008

—Theodore Maiman, who graduated with a degree in engineering physics from the University of Colorado in Boulder, is known for creating the first working laser in 1960. Maiman was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1984. He died in May 2007. The Colorado hairstreak butterfly was designated the official state insect in 1996, mainly through lobbying by fourth-grade pupils from Wheeling Elementary School in Aurora.

first appeared: 6/15/2008

—Tom’s Baby is the name given to the largest gold nugget found in the state. The 13.5-pound nugget was discovered in 1887 near Breckenridge (pop. 2,408), and was named after one of the men, Tom Groves, who brought the nugget into town wrapped in a blanket.

first appeared: 6/1/2008

—Completed in 1889 during Aspen’s (pop. 5,914) silver mining boom, the Wheeler Opera House still resounds with the sound of music. Concerts, lectures, plays, musicals and film showings are held in the ornate building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Damaged by fire twice, the opera house was reopened in 1984 after a major renovation.

first appeared: 5/18/2008

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden (pop. 17,159) is the nation’s primary facility for finding new ways to power homes, businesses and cars. A visitors’ center provides interactive exhibits about solar, wind, biomass and other sources of renewable energy.

first appeared: 5/18/2008

—In 1986, Boulder County pioneered a program that allows residents over 60 to work for the county part time so they can pay their property taxes. The tax “work-off” program has been copied by other local governments. At the SAME Café in Denver, customers pay what they think their meal is worth, or not at all. Brad and Libby Birky started the pay-what-you-can restaurant in 2006 with no prices on the menu and no cash register—just a donation box. Those down on their luck can eat for free, while those more fortunate are encouraged to make up the difference. SAME stands for So All May Eat.

first appeared: 5/4/2008

—Starting in the mid-1960s, author Louis L’Amour spent summers in Durango (pop. 13,922), where he stayed at the historic Strater Hotel. L’Amour, who wrote 113 books, always requested Room 222 directly above the Diamond Belle Saloon because the honky-tonk music helped set the mood for his Western novels. He is the only American-born author to receive both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal in honor of his life’s literary works.

first appeared: 3/9/2008

The Strater Hotel was built in 1887 by Henry Strater, a 20-year-old pharmacist. Strater didn’t have the money or the experience to build a hotel and he was too young to enter into contracts, but he managed to get loans from his family and fibbed about his age to realize his ambition for a grand hotel.

first appeared: 3/9/2008

Lane Frost, the champion bull rider on whose life the 1994 movie 8 Seconds is based, was born in 1963 in La Junta (pop. 7,568). Frost became the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association World Champion Bull Rider in 1987. He died in 1989 at the Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days Rodeo after getting struck by a bull. Frost was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs in 1990.

first appeared: 3/9/2008

—Lake City (pop. 375) began as a silver mining camp in 1874 and boasts more than 75 late 19th-century buildings in its downtown. Lake City is the only incorporated town in Hinsdale County (pop. 790), one of the least populated counties in the state. With 558 residents, San Juan County is Colorado’s least-populated county.

first appeared: 2/24/2008

––A small memorial and cemetery are all that remain of Camp Amache in Granada (pop. 640). The World War II Japanese internment camp, one of 10 in the nation and the only one in Colorado, housed about 7,500 Japanese-Americans who were forced to move out of their homes in 1942. In 2006, Congress established a $38 million program to restore the 10 internment camps, including Camp Amache, also called the Granada Relocation Center.

first appeared: 2/10/2008

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, has designated its Supercenters in Aurora and McKinney, Texas (pop. 54,369), as “experimental stores.” Both were built in 2005 using energy-conservation technologies, such as solar- and wind-generated power, radiant floor heating, and recovered cooking and motor oil for a portion of the heating fuel.

first appeared: 2/10/2008

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