60 Fun Facts About Boulder

Boulder was founded in late 1858 by prospectors drawn to the area by what?

Thomas Aikins' party camped at the mouth of Boulder Canyon; by 1862 the creek had yielded $100,000 in gold.

At roughly what elevation does Boulder sit at the base of the Rocky Mountain foothills?

That is a shade higher than Denver's famous 5,280, and the city lies about 25 miles northwest of it.

The tilted slabs of sedimentary rock west of Boulder, the city's best-known symbol, are called what?

Settlers thought they looked like old-fashioned clothes irons; five numbered ones line Green Mountain.

Which Arapaho leader, linked to Boulder's first settlement, was later killed at Sand Creek?

Niwot means 'left hand'; the nearby town of Niwot and Left Hand Creek both carry his name.

When the county was created on November 1, 1861, which settlement became its seat?

The city itself was not incorporated until November 1871.

Boulder's 1959 'Blue Line' amendment protected the mountain backdrop by restricting what above 5,750 feet?

No water meant no subdivisions creeping up the foothills.

In 1967 Boulder voters approved a dedicated sales tax to buy what?

It was aimed at containing sprawl, and the greenbelt it bought still rings the city.

Why did Boulder pass a building-height ordinance in 1972?

The rule protects sightlines to the Flatirons, which is why downtown stays low.

In 2007 Boulder became the first US city to levy what kind of tax?

It funds the city's climate action plan through residents' electricity bills.

In 1974 Boulder passed Colorado's first ordinance banning discrimination on what basis?

The same year the city adopted a Historic Preservation Code.

Which late-1970s sitcom starring Robin Williams was set in Boulder?

The Pine Street house used for exteriors is still a stop for fans; the New York Deli on Pearl Street also featured.

Boulder is the gathering point for survivors of a superflu in which 1978 Stephen King novel?

The Shining, by contrast, was inspired by the Stanley Hotel up the road in Estes Park.

Which film festival announced in 2025 that it would move to Boulder from 2027?

The Boulder International Film Festival, founded in 2005, already runs there every March.

Boulder has hosted the Bolder Boulder, a 10-kilometre road race, on which holiday every year since 1979?

It finishes inside Folsom Field with one of the largest Memorial Day gatherings in the country.

Boulder's Dushanbe Teahouse was a gift from a sister city in which country?

It was presented in 1987, completed in Tajikistan in 1990, and reassembled beside Boulder Creek in 1998.

Since 1983, hundreds of Boulderites have marked New Year's Day by doing what at Boulder Reservoir?

In 2010 the reservoir also employed goats to keep the weeds down.

On Groundhog Day, Boulder's mountain-park rangers roll out Flatiron Freddy, a stuffed what?

The event is held at the Chautauqua Ranger Cottage.

Under Boulder law, exterminating which animal requires a permit?

The city's Urban Wildlife Management Plan also long avoided chemical pesticides until West Nile virus arrived.

What was Boulder's population at the 2020 census?

That makes it the 12th-most populous city in Colorado.

The Comedy Central show Broad City ends with which character moving to Boulder for an art fellowship?

Boulder was also the location for much of the 2006 film Catch and Release.

Archaeology shows Native peoples have inhabited the Boulder Valley for roughly how long?

By the 1500s the Ute held the valley; the Arapaho arrived in the early 1800s.

How many blocks long is Boulder's Pearl Street pedestrian mall?

It runs from 11th to 15th Street and was dedicated in August 1977 after 14 months of construction.

Which government building sits in the 1300 block on the north side of the Pearl Street Mall?

It no longer holds courts but remains the seat of county government.

Which Boulder-based tea company was founded in 1969 by Mo Siegel and Wyck Hay gathering wild herbs?

Its headquarters is on Sleepytime Drive, named after its bestselling blend.

The Boulder tea company introduced its bestselling blend in 1972. What is it called?

Red Zinger came out the same year and lent its name to a 1970s Colorado bicycle race the company sponsored.

NCAR, the National Center for Atmospheric Research headquartered in Boulder, was founded in which year?

Its I. M. Pei-designed Mesa Laboratory doubled as a futuristic hospital in Woody Allen's Sleeper.

NCAR's Mesa Laboratory in Boulder was the exterior of the hospital in which Woody Allen film?

Much of the rest of the 1973 film was shot around Denver, including a church turned into a futuristic McDonald's.

Which president dedicated NIST's Boulder laboratories, home of the NIST-F1 atomic clock, in 1954?

NIST itself is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland; Boulder is its western campus.

The University of Colorado was founded in 1876, how long before Colorado became a state?

The doors opened in September 1877 to 15 college students and 50 in the preparatory school.

CU Boulder's live mascot, Ralphie, is what kind of animal?

Female bison have always been used because they are smaller and calmer, though she still hits 25 mph around Folsom Field.

How many of CU's 28 team national championships have the Buffaloes won in skiing?

The rest are seven in cross country and one in football.

What is CU Boulder's Charles Klauder campus style of rough sandstone walls and red-tiled roofs called?

The oldest buildings, Old Main and Macky Auditorium, were Collegiate Gothic before Klauder changed direction in 1919.

In 2024 CU Boulder rejoined which athletic conference, ending its time in the Pac-12?

It had left the Big 12 for the Pac-12 after the 2010 season, when Nebraska left for the Big Ten.

How many astronauts are counted among CU Boulder's alumni, faculty and researchers?

The list also includes 12 Nobel laureates and astronauts Ellison Onizuka and Kalpana Chawla.

Ralphie I was kidnapped in 1970 by students from which rival institution?

The current Ralphie, nicknamed Brandy, is the seventh bison to hold the job since 1967.

How many handlers does it traditionally take to guide Ralphie around Folsom Field?

The full squad of about 15 Ralphie Handlers are student-athletes who earn varsity letters.

In which year did Bill McCartney's Colorado Buffaloes share the football national title?

Georgia Tech shared the title; the season is remembered for the 'Fifth Down' game against Missouri.

Who was Colorado's first Heisman Trophy winner, in 1994?

Travis Hunter became the second exactly 30 years later, playing both cornerback and receiver.

Colorado's football team has played at Folsom Field in Boulder since which year?

Before that it used Gamble Field from 1901 and campus fields going back to 1890.

Deion Sanders became Colorado's head football coach in 2023 after three seasons at which university?

Nine players followed him to Boulder, including his sons Shedeur and Shilo and future Heisman winner Travis Hunter.

Boulder's Colorado Chautauqua, started in 1898, was a summer school for teachers from which state?

It is the only Chautauqua west of the Mississippi in unbroken operation since the movement's 1920s heyday, and a National Historic Landmark since 2006.

Naropa University in Boulder was founded in 1974 by which Tibetan Buddhist teacher?

Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman set up its Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics that first summer.

Naropa's writing program, co-founded by Allen Ginsberg, is named after which Beat writer?

In 1988 Naropa became the first Buddhist-inspired institution to earn US regional accreditation.

What feat did entertainer Ivy Baldwin perform across Eldorado Canyon between 1906 and 1949?

The wire hung 580 feet above the canyon; today Eldorado is one of the world's most accessible rock-climbing areas.

The Boulder Theater on 14th Street opened in 1906 under what name?

Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke there as a vice-presidential candidate in 1920; it became a movie house in 1936.

The 2021 Marshall Fire forced evacuations in Superior and which other Boulder County city?

Winds of 100 miles per hour drove the grass fire into suburban neighbourhoods.

Longs Peak, the highest summit in Rocky Mountain National Park at 14,255 feet, lies in which county?

The park spreads across Boulder, Larimer and Grand counties.

Boulder's tilted rock slabs belong to which geologic unit, also seen at Red Rocks and Garden of the Gods?

Mountain Project lists more than 1,400 climbing routes on them, including the Third Flatiron's 'best 5.4 in the solar system'.

Which animals did Boulder try out for weed control in environmentally sensitive areas in 2005?

They eat diffuse knapweed and Canada thistle; the city has traditionally avoided chemical pesticides.

What headgear do runners in Boulder's Halloween naked run traditionally wear with their shoes?

The run began in 1998; in 2009 police threatened indecent-exposure charges and no naked runners were officially reported.

What is Boulder's main newspaper, founded as a weekly in 1890?

The Colorado Daily started in 1892 as a CU student paper, and the Boulder Weekly is the only locally owned title left.

Which novel did Stephen King write while living in Boulder for most of a year from autumn 1974?

He also later used the city as the survivors' gathering point in a 1978 novel about a superflu.

Roughly how many runners, walkers and wheelchair racers take part in the Bolder Boulder each year?

That makes it one of the world's largest road races, with the biggest non-marathon prize purse in the sport.

Which Boulder street follows the 40th parallel of latitude?

The city sits in a basin beneath Flagstaff Mountain, only a few miles east of the Continental Divide.

Which ice field on the Continental Divide helps supply Boulder's water, alongside Boulder Creek?

Boulder Creek, whose name predates the city, is thought to be where Boulder itself got its name.

In which year was the City of Boulder City formally incorporated?

The legislature had placed the University of Colorado in Boulder a decade earlier, and Old Main's cornerstone was laid in 1875.

Which architect designed NCAR's Mesa Laboratory in Boulder?

The building and several Boulder houses stood in for the future in Woody Allen's Sleeper.

How many red bikes did the B-cycle bike-sharing scheme launch with in Boulder in May 2011?

They were spread across 12 stations in a city ranked among the top US metros for bike commuting.

Which annual one-week event of discussion panels has been held in Boulder since 1948?

Dozens of panels on contemporary issues run each year alongside festivals for Bach, film and summer music.

Who led the party of prospectors that founded Boulder at Boulder Canyon in late 1858?

They camped in an area associated with Arapaho leader Chief Niwot, whose people were later removed under the Treaty of Fort Wise.