Colorado Trivia & Tidbits - Page 8

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

Each winter in Breckenridge (pop. 2,408), sculptors transform 20-ton, 12-foot-tall blocks of snow into art during the Budweiser International Snow Sculpture Championships. Four-person teams from countries such as Canada, China, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Russia and the United States have 65 hours to create their designs using only hand tools. The championships are now in their 16th year.

first appeared: 1/29/2006

When Samuel (Sam’l) P. Arnold decided to re-create Bent’s Fort in Morrison (pop. 430), he used hand-hewn beams and 80,000 adobe bricks to copy the fur-trading post that existed in the 1830s—and then he re-created the fort’s cuisine. For more than 40 years, The Fort restaurant has served up dishes from the early West, including gunpowder whiskey and buffalo.

first appeared: 1/15/2006

Morrison officially came into being in 1874, about the same time as the Denver and South Park Railway was establishing a rail link to the area. The community takes its name from George Morrison, a stonemason who moved to the area in the early 1870s, establishing a gypsum mill and quarries. In 1873, Morrison built his home, Cliff House, a stone building that’s still standing today.

first appeared: 1/15/2006

MISS COLORADO 2006—Jessica Jane Urban’s passion to help homeless children developed at an early age when her family took in foster children. She later founded her own organization, Aiding the Forgotten Victim, and wants to become an adoption attorney and political lobbyist for the cause. The Colorado Springs native donates a portion of the profits from the successful coffee business she operates with her mother toward building a children’s home in the African nation of Malawi. Urban, who sings and plays the harp, also is a certified scuba diver, personal trainer and award-winning equestrian competitor.

first appeared: 1/8/2006

During major lunar standstill seasons, which occur on 18.6-year cycles, the rising moon periodically can be seen for 5 to 15 minutes between the two spires at Chimney Rock Archaeological Area near Pagosa Springs (pop. 1,607). The dramatic sight, believed to have influenced construction of a prehistoric stone structure at the site, can be viewed on specific dates this year and in 2007.

first appeared: 1/1/2006

Located near Paonia (pop. 1,497) at an elevation of 6,400 feet above sea level, Terror Creek Winery is one of the world’s highest-altitude commercial vineyards. That’s fitting, given vintner Joan Mathewson’s degree from a wine school in Switzerland. She and her husband, John, established the winery in the early 1990s and produce wines such as Pinot Noir, Riesling and Chardonnay.

first appeared: 12/18/2005

Settler Samuel Wade is credited with giving the town of Paonia its name, from the Latin version of his favorite flower, the peony. Wade brought peony roots with him when he traveled to the area in 1881 with fellow settler Enos Hotchkiss, who gave his name to the nearby town of Hotchkiss (pop. 968). Some of Wade’s original peony plants still bloom today.

first appeared: 12/18/2005

In October 1891, U.S. President Benjamin Harrison set aside the White River Timber Plateau as the state’s first national forest. Today, the White River National Forest stretches over 2.3 million acres in nine counties—Eagle, Garfield, Gunnison, Mesa, Moffat, Pitkin, Rio Blanco, Routt and Summit—and includes more than 750,000 acres of wilderness and 10 peaks that top 14,000 feet.

first appeared: 12/4/2005

Charles Darrow discovered caves on Iron Mountain, in Glenwood Springs (pop. 7,736), in the 1880s, naming them "Fairy Caves" because of the dancing reflection of lantern light in water droplets on their walls. The caves were closed in 1917 and then reopened as Glenwood Caverns in 1999, after Steve and Jeanne Beckley bought the property. Today, Glenwood Caverns is a theme park where visitors can tour the caves, hike along scenic trails and thrill to amusement rides.

first appeared: 11/20/2005

To avoid felling trees for a construction road, builders of the Iron Mountain Tramway, which transports visitors to Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park, used helicopters to transport the gondola system’s towers to sites on Iron Mountain. The 4,300-foot-long system opened in 2003 and features 18 towers, which measure up to 80 feet tall and weigh up to 4,500 pounds each.

first appeared: 11/20/2005

In June, Denver Botanic Gardens became home to a seedling from "Methuselah," a 4,700-year-old bristlecone pine in California that’s believed to be the world’s oldest living tree. The seedling was grown by the Champion Tree Project International and given to the Garden Club of Denver, which in turn donated it to the gardens.

first appeared: 11/6/2005

Situated a mile above sea level, Denver Botanic Gardens specializes in species from high-elevation areas around the world. About 32,000 plants fill 23 acres at the main location in Denver. The organization also manages a 750-acre plant and wildlife refuge in Littleton (pop. 40,456), a high-altitude trail on Mount Goliath and a five-acre formal garden in downtown Denver.

first appeared: 11/6/2005

The Colorado Trail stretches nearly 500 miles between Denver and Durango (pop. 13,922), passing through eight mountain ranges, seven national forests, six wilderness areas and five river systems, at an elevation often above 10,000 feet. Volunteers from the Colorado Trail Foundation and the U.S. Forest Service maintain the trail for hikers, non-motorized bikers and equestrians.

first appeared: 10/23/2005

The Rocky Mountain Meadery opened in Palisade (pop. 2,579) in 1995. The company produces four varieties of mead—wine made by fermenting honey with water and yeast—which it calls King Arthur, Lancelot, Guinevere and Camelot.

first appeared: 10/9/2005

The first peach, pear, apple and grape orchards were planted in the Palisade area by 1894, taking advantage of the mild climate, warm spring winds and a 182-day growing season.

first appeared: 10/9/2005

When track and field athlete Glenn Morris, from Simla (pop. 663), won a gold medal in the decathlon at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, the 10-event competition was his third—and final—decathlon. He received the Sullivan Memorial Trophy as the nation’s top amateur athlete that year and went on to serve in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

first appeared: 9/25/2005

An 1835 fur-training post founded by Louis Vasquez and Andrew Sublette, Fort Vasquez, in Platteville (pop. 2,370), was reconstructed during a 1930s Works Progress Administration project and is now a museum.

first appeared: 9/25/2005

South Park City re-creates a 19th-century Colorado mining town and features more than 60,000 artifacts and 34 buildings, from a saloon and livery stable to a drugstore and schoolhouse. Seven of the buildings are on their original sites; the rest were moved to the outdoor museum in Fairplay (pop. 610) from nearby camps and ghost towns beginning in 1957.

first appeared: 9/18/2005

The Dyer Memorial Chapel in South Park City dates back to the days of Father John Lewis Dyer, a Methodist minister who served the area from 1863 to 1877. Dyer was known as the "Snowshoe Itinerant," because he traveled on snowshoes and skis as he carried both mail and the Gospel along the mountainous routes between mining camps.

first appeared: 9/18/2005

Raised in Eagle (pop. 3,032), jockey Pat Day started his career as a rodeo cowboy. Convinced that his 4-feet, 11-inch stature would serve him well as a jockey, he switched to horseracing in 1973. He won the Eclipse Award for outstanding jockey in 1984, 1986, 1987 and 1991, and was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 1991.

first appeared: 9/11/2005

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