Colorado Trivia & Tidbits - Page 6

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

Fort Collins inventor Neil Skinn developed a self-tuning guitar that uses a computer and small motors to adjust each string, keeping the guitar perfectly in tune. Skinn started TransPerformance Inc. to market his invention. Among his customers is rock icon Jimmy Page of the band Led Zeppelin.

first appeared: 12/17/2006

—The Colorado Chautauqua Association in Boulder maintains the only chautauqua site west of the Mississippi River in continuous use. Chautauqua Park, whose structures date to 1898, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Before radio and television, the chautauqua movement spread culture and education throughout the country via traveling orators, performers and educators.

first appeared: 12/3/2006

The U.S. record for a 24-hour snowfall was set April 14-15, 1921, in Silver Lake. An intense storm dropped 75.8 inches of snow in 24 hours, and 87 inches in a 27.5-hour period.

first appeared: 12/3/2006

—Aron Ralston of Aspen (pop. 5,914) is the first person to solo-climb every one of the state’s fourteeners—peaks more than 14,000 feet—during winter. An avid hiker and mountaineer, Ralston gained notoriety in 2003 when he used a pocketknife to amputate his own arm and free himself from an 800-pound boulder that pinned him for five days in a remote desert canyon. Ralston chronicled his experience in his best-selling book, Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

first appeared: 11/19/2006

When it comes to the sport of stacking cups—called a track meet for your hands—Emily Fox of Highlands Ranch is a superstar. At the 2002 Rocky Mountain Cup Stacking Championship in Denver, Fox needed only 7.43 seconds to stack and unstack 12 plastic cups in the cycle formation, a specific sequence of stacks. Her record remained unbroken after this year’s World Sport Stacking Championships in April. Her dad, Bob Fox, founded Speed Stacks Inc., which sells the heavy plastic cups used in the growing sport.

first appeared: 11/19/2006

—Toffee is hand-dipped in chocolate and rolled in crunchy almonds at Hammond’s Candies in Denver. Candy canes and ribbon candy also are made by hand with recipes used by Carl Hammond when he founded the business in 1920.

first appeared: 11/5/2006

—Residents of Fort Collins are the second-safest drivers in the United States, according to the Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report. Compared with the national average, the city’s drivers are 24 percent less likely to have a collision. The report ranks Sioux Falls, S.D., as the safest driving town.

first appeared: 10/22/2006

The Saguache Crescent in Saguache (pop. 578) is among a handful of newspapers in the United States that continues to use a Linotype to set type. The machine, first used in the 19th century, cranks out letters, line by line, from molten metal. Publisher Dean Coombs, whose family has owned the newspaper since 1917, spends about three days producing the four-page weekly newspaper.

first appeared: 10/22/2006

Breckenridge (pop. 2,408) boasts a Jack Nicklaus-designed municipal golf course. The course features 27 holes, but because of its elevation—the clubhouse sits 9,324 feet above sea level—the playing season is only about four months long.

first appeared: 10/8/2006

—Rob Peckham, of Oak Creek (pop. 849), reeled in the record Snake River cutthroat trout—17 pounds, 2.6 ounces—in 2005 from the Blue River. The fish is not indigenous to Colorado, so the state’s Division of Wildlife maintains a separate category for the native cutthroat species, in which the record haul is a 16-pounder caught in 1964 in Twin Lakes.

first appeared: 10/8/2006

Shuttered for more than a decade, the Victorian-era Elitch’s Theatre in Denver is staging a $14.2 million comeback. Developers in April announced plans to revive the 1890s theater, modeled after Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, which helped launch the careers of Douglas Fairbanks, Sarah Bernhardt, Edward G. Robinson and Grace Kelly. The theater was part of a Denver entertainment complex that included gardens, a zoo and an amusement park.

first appeared: 9/24/2006

Terry Coleman of Denver sang hymns for 40 hours and 17 minutes in July 2005 and sang himself into The Book of Alternative Records as the world-record holder for singing hymns. Coleman’s feat was staged to raise awareness for the homeless.

first appeared: 9/24/2006

In 1899, ceramist Artus Van Briggle moved to Colorado Springs and began producing art pottery with a distinctive matte finish. Today, Van Briggle Pottery continues to produce many of its founder's original designs.

first appeared: 9/10/2006

Hoping to sidetrack tourists traveling along U.S. 287 en route to the Rocky Mountains, Lamar (pop. 8,869) lumber dealer W.G. Brown built a petrified wood gas station in 1932. Tourists still stop to photograph the 175 million-year-old wood, although the building now houses a tire store and a used-car dealership. A similar petrified-wood gas station sidetracks sightseers in Decatur, Texas (pop. 5,201).

first appeared: 9/10/2006

Father of the Juvenile Court System, Judge Benjamin Barr Lindsey believed young offenders could be redeemed and established the juvenile court, independent of criminal court, in 1903 in Denver. The court has been a model for other juvenile courts throughout the United States.

first appeared: 8/27/2006

In May 1978, Gary Thuerk, the "Father of Spam," sent the first unsolicited commercial e-mail to several hundred computer users to advertise a computer demonstration. Thuerk lives in Colorado Springs. Sorry, no e-mail address available.

first appeared: 8/27/2006

At 105, Jack Weil is still going to work and keeping cowboys looking spiffy. Weil founded Rockmount Ranch Wear in 1946 in Denver and made the first Western shirts with snaps, rather than buttons, so they could break away if their shirt got caught during ranch chores, and the first commercially produced bolo ties. Fans of Rockmount clothing have included Ronald Reagan, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and Meg Ryan. The classic cowboy shirts appeared in the movie Brokeback Mountain, and one sold at auction for more than $100,000. Most Rockmount shirts are priced between $50 and $100.

first appeared: 8/13/2006

Business is buzzing at Honeyville Premium Honeys and Jellies, which sells jams, jellies, sauces and, of course, honey in Durango (pop. 13,922). The sweet part is that customers can watch behind glass as bees work in their hives.

first appeared: 8/13/2006

Topping out at 12,840 feet above sea level, the Imperial Express in Breckenridge (pop. 2,408) is the highest chairlift in North America. The high-speed lift carries skiers to mountaintops previously limited to hikers.

first appeared: 7/30/2006

Dillon (pop. 802) has relocated three times since its incorporation in 1883 at the site of a trading post and stage stop. The first time, the town moved closer to the railroad. Then it moved between three rivers—the Blue, the Ten Mile and the Snake. In 1956, the Denver Water Board informed townspeople that they must relocate for a third time to make way for a reservoir. Today, residents enjoy lake and mountain views on the shore of Dillon Reservoir.

first appeared: 7/30/2006

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