237 Fun Facts About Colorado

What is the highest mountain peak in Colorado?

Mount Elbert is the highest summit in the whole Rocky Mountain chain, yet climbers call it the 'gentle giant': marked trails lead walkers all the way to the top with no ropes needed.

Which of these birds is the official state bird of Colorado?

The Lark Bunting male is black with white wing patches in summer, then turns streaky grey-brown like the female each winter, when the flocks leave Colorado's plains for the south.

Which flower is the official state flower of Colorado?

The Rocky Mountain Columbine, white and lavender, became the state flower on 4 April 1899, and it is illegal to uproot one on public land.

What is the official state animal of Colorado?

The Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep was nearly wiped out in Colorado by the early 1900s through livestock diseases and unregulated hunting, before a century of protection rebuilt the herds.

Colorado's Latin motto, 'Nil Sine Numine', is usually translated as 'Nothing without' what?

Providence is the usual rendering, though the state also accepts 'the Deity'. The motto has sat on a scroll beneath the seal's shield since 1861, and wags of the early mining days said it really meant 'nothing without a new mine'.

Which state meets Colorado, Utah and New Mexico at the Four Corners Monument?

Arizona completes the only point where four US states meet. Later surveys put the marker about 1,800 feet from its intended spot, but the Supreme Court ruled in 1925 that the original markers are the legal border.

What material covers the dome of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver?

Gold leaf was first laid over the dome in 1908 to commemorate the gold rush that drew settlers to Colorado, and the gleaming cap has made the Capitol a Denver landmark ever since.

Colorado's 'Centennial State' nickname marks 100 years between statehood and which earlier event?

The signing of the Declaration of Independence was 100 years past when Colorado joined the Union in 1876. With no time to organize a vote that autumn, its legislature chose the presidential electors itself, the last time any state did so.

The name 'Colorado' comes from a Spanish word meaning what, first applied to a silt-laden river?

'Colored red' is the Spanish colorado, given to the river for its reddish silt. Congress borrowed the river's name for the territory in 1861, sixty years before the river's own upper reach stopped being called the Grand.

Which conifer did Colorado schoolchildren choose in an 1892 Arbor Day vote, decades before it became the state tree?

Blue spruce won the children's vote, but lawmakers made it official only in 1939. Utah shared the tree as its own symbol from 1933 until 2014, when it switched to the quaking aspen.

Which Pro Football Hall of Famer became the University of Colorado's head football coach in December 2022?

Deion Sanders left Jackson State for Boulder and brought his quarterback son Shedeur with him; two years later his two-way star Travis Hunter won the Heisman Trophy.

Which song did Colorado adopt in 2007 as its second official state song?

'Rocky Mountain High' joined the state's 1915 anthem in 2007. Some listeners had taken its title for a drug reference, but John Denver always insisted the high came from the mountains themselves.

On Colorado's state flag, what does the red of the large letter 'C' stand for?

The ruddy earth gives the 'C' its red. The 1911 law left the exact shades and the letter's size vague, so flags varied until lawmakers fixed the colours in 1929 and the 'C' in 1964.

What is the official summer heritage sport of Colorado?

Pack Burro Racing has runners cover mountain courses on foot beside a loaded donkey. Legend traces it to two miners who struck gold together and raced to town to file the claim, their burros too laden to ride.

Colorado Territory was created weeks before which war?

The Civil War began in April 1861, six weeks after the territory was signed into being. Secession had emptied Southern seats in Congress, breaking the slavery deadlock that had stalled new western territories.

What kind of live animal, known as Ralphie, leads the University of Colorado football team onto the field?

A bison called Ralphie sprints ahead of the Buffaloes at home games. Every Ralphie has been female, chosen for her smaller size and calmer temperament, yet she can still top 25 miles per hour.

Which Colorado mining town, more than 10,000 feet up, is the highest incorporated city in the United States?

Leadville's mines boomed so fast that by the end of 1879 it was nearly the size of Denver and Colorado's second city; at the 2020 census just 2,633 people lived there.

Which pale blue gem, dug from high on Mount Antero, is Colorado's official state gemstone?

Aquamarine crystals form in rock pockets near the 14,000-foot top of Mount Antero, where prospectors still work private claims on some of the highest gem ground in the country.

Which dinosaur is the official state fossil of Colorado?

Stegosaurus became the state fossil in 1982 by the governor's executive order, after a fourth-grade class spent two years campaigning for it. The first Stegosaurus bones had been found near Morrison, Colorado, in the 1870s.

What are the two official winter sports of Colorado?

Skiing and snowboarding were named Colorado's winter sports in 2008 after a nine-year-old in a fourth-grade history class proposed the idea and petitions carried it to the legislature.

Which inventor built a laboratory in Colorado Springs in 1899 to make artificial lightning?

Nikola Tesla threw bolts more than a hundred feet long from the mast of his prairie laboratory, and one experiment burned out the local power company's dynamo and blacked out the town.

Which U.S. President signed the proclamation admitting Colorado to the Union?

Ulysses S. Grant signed the statehood proclamation on August 1, 1876, about a decade after his predecessor Andrew Johnson had vetoed a bill to admit Colorado.

What is believed to have pushed the builders of Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings to leave by about 1300?

Severe drought is the leading explanation: wood samples record long dry spells in the 1200s. The people migrated south, and their descendants still live in the Southwest today.

Colorado's last great gold rush began in 1890 when Bob Womack struck rich ore near which town?

Cripple Creek was cattle pasture until Bob Womack, a rancher's son who had prospected it for years without finding investors, hit rich ore in 1890 and set off the rush.

Which colonel led the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre of a Cheyenne and Arapaho village?

John Chivington's troops attacked a camp flying a US flag and a white flag, killing mostly women, children and the elderly. A congressional inquiry condemned him, but he had left the army and was never tried.

What is Denver's official elevation, as marked on the steps of the Colorado State Capitol?

5,280 feet is exactly one mile, hence the Mile High City. Later surveys found that the step first engraved as the mile-high mark sits at the wrong height, so other steps now carry markers of their own.

The historical cliff dwellings found in Mesa Verde National Park were built by which ancient culture?

Puebloans, the Ancestral Pueblo people, had lived on the mesa for centuries before they built the cliff dwellings, mostly between 1180 and 1300, and they used them for only about a century before moving away.

Which of Colorado's professional sports teams competes in the NFL?

The Denver Broncos began in 1960 in second-hand mustard and brown uniforms with vertically striped socks; two years later the team switched to orange and blue and burned the socks at a public ceremony.

What is the official state fish of Colorado?

The Greenback Cutthroat Trout took the title in 1994 from the rainbow trout, long treated as the state fish but never adopted. Mine pollution and stocked rivals had pushed the native greenback close to extinction.

Which open-air concert venue near Morrison, Colorado, is famous for its natural acoustics?

Red Rocks Amphitheatre was shaped between two towering sandstone slabs by Civilian Conservation Corps crews, who worked from 1936 until its dedication in June 1941.

Which Colorado canyon, more than 2,000 feet deep, narrows to just 40 feet across at the river?

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison takes its name from its gloom: so little sunlight reaches the floor that the sheer walls look black. The river falls far more steeply here than the Colorado does through the Grand Canyon.

Which scenic route crosses the Continental Divide inside Rocky Mountain National Park?

Trail Ridge Road climbs to 12,183 feet and runs eleven miles above treeline, so snow closes its high section from about October to May each year.

Which military academy has its campus just north of Colorado Springs?

The Air Force Academy was created in 1954 before it had a campus, so its first cadets were sworn in and trained at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver while the permanent site was built.

Which Colorado narrow-gauge railroad crosses a high trestle on its climb to Silver Plume?

The Georgetown Loop Railroad needs about 4.5 miles of track to join two towns only two miles apart. Abandoned and scrapped in the late 1930s, it was rebuilt for tourists in the 1980s.

Which slanting rock formations tower over the city of Boulder, Colorado?

The Flatirons are slabs of rock roughly 290 million years old, laid down flat and then tilted steeply on end by the same uplift that raised the Rocky Mountains.

What did prospector Alferd Packer confess to after surviving a snowbound 1874 trek through Colorado's San Juan Mountains?

Eating his companions made Packer a grim Colorado legend: he escaped jail and lived under a false name for years before his trial, and in 1968 University of Colorado students named their cafeteria grill after him.

Which Cold War command bunker was tunnelled deep inside a mountain near Colorado Springs in the 1960s?

The Cheyenne Mountain Complex was dug between 1961 and 1966 and built to ride out a nuclear blast. Once the main war room for North America's air defence, it now stands by as an alternate command center.

Which downtown Denver block, laid out in 1858, became Denver's first historic district?

Larimer Square had become Denver's skid row and was slated for demolition under 1960s urban renewal until preservationist Dana Crawford fought to save the block and turned its Victorian buildings into shops and restaurants.

Which Colorado national park protects North America's tallest formations of their kind, more than 700 feet high?

Great Sand Dunes grew so tall because winds from the valley and storm winds off the mountains blow in opposing directions, piling the sand upward instead of carrying it away.

Which southern Colorado town, founded in 1851, is the state's oldest continuously inhabited settlement?

San Luis was settled in April 1851 by Hispano families from Taos, New Mexico, and the community irrigation ditch they dug still holds Colorado's oldest continuous water right.

What is the official state reptile of Colorado?

The Western Painted Turtle got the title in 2008 after fourth-graders noticed Colorado had no state reptile, researched the candidates and lobbied the legislature for it.

What is Colorado's official state amphibian?

Tiger Salamander: the western species got the title in 2012 after a campaign by pupils from several schools. It spends most of the year hidden in other animals' burrows and comes out only at night.

Which Colorado town, born of John Gregory's 1859 gold strike, was nicknamed the 'Richest Square Mile on Earth'?

Central City grew up around Gregory's diggings and for a time rivalled Denver in importance. When the mines faded it lived on its opera house and, since the 1990s, on casino gambling.

Which former Colorado mining town has hosted a Labor Day weekend film festival since 1974?

Telluride's film festival began in 1974, just two years after the old mining town got its first chairlift; it has skipped only 2020, during the pandemic.

Which dance became Colorado's official state folk dance in 1992?

Square dancing is the official dance of about thirty states: from the 1970s square dancers lobbied one legislature after another in a campaign to have it named the national dance.

Colorado's southeastern corner borders the panhandle of which state?

Oklahoma's panhandle runs along Colorado's southeastern edge. The strip was once called No Man's Land: Texas gave it up in 1850, and for forty years it belonged to no state or territory.

Which president signed the act creating the Colorado Territory in February 1861?

James Buchanan signed the act organizing Colorado Territory on February 28, 1861, one of his last acts in office; Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated just four days later.

Which interstate highway strings together Colorado's Front Range cities from Fort Collins through Denver to Pueblo?

Interstate 25 carries an odd number because it runs north to south; it follows the foot of the Rockies through the urban corridor where the great majority of Coloradans live.

What happened to Zebulon Pike and his men in the San Luis Valley in February 1807?

Arrested by Spanish cavalry at his stockade, Pike was marched to Santa Fe and on to Chihuahua before being sent home. The notes he took along the way on New Spain's defences and towns filled the account he published in 1810.

Which famous frontier scout died at Fort Lyon, Colorado, in May 1868?

Kit Carson died of a ruptured aneurysm a month after his wife Josefa died following the birth of their daughter; the two lie side by side in Taos, New Mexico.

Which territorial governor founded the University of Denver in 1864?

John Evans had already helped found Northwestern University, and Evanston, Illinois, bears his name. He was forced to resign as governor in 1865 in the fallout from the Sand Creek Massacre.

Colorado volunteers helped stop a Confederate invasion in 1862 at which New Mexico battle, the 'Gettysburg of the West'?

Glorieta Pass turned when a Colorado detachment slipped behind the Confederate lines and destroyed their supply train, forcing the invaders to give up New Mexico and retreat to Texas.

Denver's citizens built their own line north in 1870 to reach which transcontinental railroad that had bypassed Denver?

Union Pacific ran its main line through Cheyenne, so Denver's leaders raised the money for a Denver Pacific link. The first train arrived on June 24, 1870, and the connection was credited with making Denver the region's dominant city.

Colorado became the second state to give women the vote in 1893, following which state's lead?

Wyoming entered the Union with women's suffrage in 1890, but Colorado's men were the first to grant it by popular vote. A year later three women won seats in the Colorado House, among the first elected to any state legislature.

Which Denver daily, founded in 1859, printed its final edition in 2009?

The Rocky Mountain News was first printed by William Byers in April 1859, before Colorado was even a territory. Its owner closed it in February 2009, less than two months short of its 150th birthday.

Which city hosted the 1976 Winter Olympics after Colorado voters refused to fund the Games awarded to Denver?

Innsbruck stepped in after Denver, which had won the bid in 1970, lost its public funding in a November 1972 ballot driven by worries over cost and the environment.

Which secret society held sway over Colorado politics in the mid-1920s?

The Ku Klux Klan counted Governor Clarence Morley and Denver's mayor among its members. Its grip broke after 1925, when a tax-evasion case against Grand Dragon John Galen Locke set off a string of scandals.

Colorado became the first western state to host a major political convention when which party met in Denver in 1908?

The Democratic convention of 1908 nominated William Jennings Bryan in Denver's new Auditorium. The party did not bring a convention back to the city for exactly a century, when it nominated Barack Obama there in 2008.

What happened at the Rocky Flats Plant on September 11, 1957?

A plutonium fire broke out in a glovebox in Building 71 on September 11, 1957, burning for hours and sending plutonium through the stack filters toward Denver's suburbs.

In 1967 Colorado became the first US state to loosen its laws on what?

Abortion became legal in limited cases under a 1967 bill drafted by legislator Richard Lamm and signed by Governor John Love, six years before Roe v. Wade; Lamm later served three terms as governor himself.

Which Denver organization founded by Rodolfo 'Corky' Gonzales hosted the 1969 Chicano Youth Liberation Conference?

The Crusade for Justice, the civil rights group Gonzales founded in Denver in the mid-1960s, drew young activists from across the country to a conference that produced El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán, a founding text of the Chicano Movement.

What type of ship is the newest USS Colorado?

A submarine: the Virginia-class boat commissioned in 2018 is the fourth Navy ship named Colorado. Its periscope-style masts are steered with an Xbox controller, which the Navy chose because young sailors already knew how to use one.

What kind of organism is the Emperor, the species Colorado adopted as a state symbol in 2025?

A mushroom: Agaricus julius, the Emperor, is a large almond-scented species of the Rocky Mountains that science formally named only in 2016, nine years before it became the state mushroom.

Which two states share with Colorado the distinction of borders made only of straight lines?

Wyoming and Utah, like Colorado, are bounded only by straight survey lines, with no river, ridge or coast anywhere; Congress drew Colorado Territory that way in 1861 as a box of latitude and longitude.

How many named peaks over 14,000 feet does Colorado have, the most of any state?

58 named summits in Colorado top 14,000 feet, but only 53 stand far enough above their neighbours to count as separate peaks, which is why lists of the 'fourteeners' never quite agree.

Colorado is the only state lying entirely above what elevation?

1,000 metres is just below Colorado's lowest ground, where a prairie river leaves the state at about 3,300 feet; that low point is higher than the highest point in 18 other states.

Which Colorado city, founded as a utopian farming colony, is named for the New York editor who urged Americans to 'Go West'?

Greeley began as the Union Colony, set up by Nathan Meeker, the farming reporter on Horace Greeley's New York Tribune. Its settlers banned alcohol, and the city stayed dry until a vote in 1969.

Which high basin holds the headwaters of the river that flows through Denver?

South Park is a high grassland basin whose streams gather into the South Platte, the river that runs on through Denver. The animated series South Park is set in a fictional town there.

Which major river flows through Colorado's San Luis Valley on its way south into New Mexico?

The Rio Grande rises in the San Juan Mountains to the west, crosses the valley and heads for the Gulf of Mexico; under a 1938 compact Colorado must share its water with New Mexico and Texas.

Which Amtrak train crosses the Rockies between Denver and Grand Junction?

Amtrak's California Zephyr has crossed the Colorado Rockies only since 1983. Until then the Rio Grande railroad stayed out of Amtrak and ran its own Rio Grande Zephyr over the mountain route.

What warm downslope gusts can push Front Range temperatures to 70°F in winter?

Chinooks warm as they sink down the eastern slope of the Rockies. The Blackfoot people called such winds 'snow eaters' for the speed at which they strip snow from the ground.

In 1861 Congress first considered which name, later given to another state, for the new Colorado Territory?

Idaho was dropped when Congress came to suspect the word was an invention with no Native American meaning, but the mining camp of Idaho Springs, Colorado, had already taken the name.

At the 2020 census Denver was the fifth most populous US state capital, behind which first-placed city?

Phoenix topped the list with about 1.6 million people. Denver, fifth with 715,522, has been Colorado's permanent capital since an 1881 statewide vote in which it beat runner-up Pueblo.

Colorado Springs is the seat of which Colorado county?

El Paso County takes its name from the Spanish for 'the pass': Ute Pass, the old route from the plains around the north side of Pikes Peak into the mountains.

Brand-new Colorado's three electoral votes helped which candidate win the 1876 presidential election by a single vote?

Rutherford B. Hayes won 185 to 184 after a disputed count. Colorado, a state for only three months, held no popular vote for president: its legislature simply appointed the three electors.

On which river does Fort Collins sit?

Cache La Poudre is French for 'hide the powder': in the best-known story, trappers caught by a snowstorm in the early 1800s buried their gunpowder on its banks. The army post that became Fort Collins followed in 1864.

Which sitcom about an alien, first aired in 1978, was set in Boulder, Colorado?

Mork & Mindy used the house at 1619 Pine Street in Boulder for outside shots of Mindy's home, and Robin Williams won the alien's part after sitting on his head at the audition.

At the confluence of which two waterways does Pueblo, Colorado, sit?

The Arkansas River and Fountain Creek meet at Pueblo. In June 1921 both burst their banks after cloudbursts upstream, and the flood left the downtown business district under water and in ruins.

Which small town near Grand Junction calls itself the 'Peach Capital of Colorado'?

Palisade started out as a mining location, but its long, sunny growing season turned it to fruit orchards, and since the 1970s vineyards and wineries have joined the peaches.

Aspen, Colorado, sits along which river?

The Roaring Fork rises on the Continental Divide, drops through Aspen and joins the Colorado at Glenwood Springs; some of its headwater is diverted east through the Divide.

Which writer ran for sheriff of Aspen's Pitkin County on the 'Freak Power' ticket in 1970?

Hunter S. Thompson promised to tear up Aspen's streets, turf them over and rename the town 'Fat City' to scare off developers. He carried Aspen itself but lost the county with 44 percent of the vote.

Which resort, opened in 1962 and known for its Back Bowls, is Colorado's largest ski mountain?

Vail was the idea of Pete Seibert and rancher Earl Eaton, who climbed the mountain together in 1957. The resort came first: the town of Vail was incorporated only in 1966, four years after the lifts opened.

Which Colorado town respelled its name to disown a Confederate namesake?

Breckenridge had spelled itself Breckinridge to honour Vice President John C. Breckinridge and win a post office; when he became a Confederate general in 1861, the Unionist camp swapped the 'i' for an 'e'.

Which four-year school calls Durango, Colorado, home?

Fort Lewis College began as an army post that became an Indian boarding school, and under the terms of its 1911 handover to the state it still waives tuition for Native American students.

Estes Park lies along which river?

Estes Park sits on the Big Thompson River, which leaves the mountains through Big Thompson Canyon, scene of the 1976 flash flood that killed more than 140 people; the town hosts the park headquarters.

Which tributary joins the Colorado River at Grand Junction?

The Gunnison River meets the Colorado at Grand Junction; the city took its name from that 'grand junction' because the Colorado above the confluence was called the Grand River until 1921.

Steamboat Ski Resort sits on which mountain?

Mount Werner was Storm Mountain until it was renamed for Buddy Werner, the Olympic skier from Steamboat Springs who was killed by an avalanche in Switzerland in 1964.

Which two fourteeners stand west of Leadville across the Arkansas River valley?

Mount Elbert and Mount Massive stand side by side above Leadville. Elbert honours Samuel Elbert, a territorial governor of the 1870s; Massive is named for its bulk, five summits along a ridge three miles long.

Which Colorado Springs park of red sandstone spires has been free to enter since 1909?

Garden of the Gods was given to Colorado Springs in 1909 by the children of railroad president Charles Elliott Perkins, honouring his wish that it remain 'forever free to the world'.

Rocky Mountain National Park lies between Estes Park and which town at its western gate?

Grand Lake guards the park's western entrance. Snow closes the high road that links it to Estes Park from about October to May, so for more than half the year the direct route between the two gateway towns is shut.

Which animal was restocked from Yellowstone before Rocky Mountain National Park was created?

Elk had been shot for the Denver meat market until almost none were left. The 49 animals brought from Yellowstone in 1913 and 1914 rebuilt the herd, which, with its predators wiped out, eventually outgrew its range.

Which president established Mesa Verde National Park in 1906?

Theodore Roosevelt created the park in June 1906, the same month he signed the Antiquities Act. It was set up to 'preserve the works of man', the first national park made for ruins instead of scenery.

What were ranchers Richard Wetherill and Charlie Mason looking for when they came upon Cliff Palace in December 1888?

Stray cattle took the two men onto the mesa on 18 December 1888. After sighting the ruin across a canyon, the Wetherill family spent the next few years digging artifacts out of the cliff dwellings and selling them as collections.

Which president designated Great Sand Dunes a national monument in 1932?

Herbert Hoover's 1932 proclamation answered a campaign led by local chapters of the P.E.O. Sisterhood, alarmed that gold miners and cement makers had begun to dig into the dunes.

Before becoming a national park in 1999, Black Canyon of the Gunnison was what?

A national monument since 1933, Black Canyon of the Gunnison gained park status in 1999; Civilian Conservation Corps crews built roads and trails along its rim in the 1930s.

Pikes Peak holds what distinction among US fourteeners?

Easternmost of the US fourteeners, Pikes Peak defeated its namesake: Zebulon Pike tried to climb it in the winter of 1806 and turned back, and the first recorded ascent came in 1820.

Which poet taught a summer course in Colorado in 1893 and was inspired atop Pikes Peak?

Katharine Lee Bates, a Wellesley professor teaching at Colorado College in summer 1893, rode to the summit of Pikes Peak and drafted 'America the Beautiful', first published in 1895.

Which explorer's 1820 expedition gave its name to the northernmost fourteener in the Rockies?

Stephen Harriman Long is said to have first sighted the peak on his 1820 army expedition; nobody is recorded climbing it until John Wesley Powell's survey party reached the top in 1868.

Which Denver airport shut down in February 1995 on the night its far larger replacement opened?

Stapleton International closed as Denver International opened in 1995; its runways were redeveloped into a neighbourhood, where the old control tower still stands.

The Royal Gorge Bridge held which world record from 1929 until 2001?

Highest bridge in the world for 72 years, it was built in a matter of months in 1929 purely to give sightseers a view of the gorge, and kept the record until a Chinese bridge passed it.

The much-photographed Maroon Bells rise above Maroon Lake near which Colorado ski town?

Aspen is the gateway, and so many visitors come that in summer the road is closed to most cars and people ride a bus; the peaks' loose, crumbling rock earned them a deadly reputation among climbers.

Hanging Lake sits in which gorge?

Glenwood Canyon holds the lake on a travertine ledge so fragile that swimming is banned and, since 2019, hikers need a paid permit for the steep 1.2-mile trail.

Dinosaur National Monument sits at the confluence of which two rivers?

Green and Yampa meet at Echo Park, deep inside the monument; a 1950s plan to dam the spot set off a national fight that conservationists won, and the dam was never built.

Florissant Fossil Beds preserves giant petrified stumps of which trees, buried by volcanic mudflows 34 million years ago?

Redwoods up to 14 feet across grew beside an ancient lake here until volcanic mudflows buried their bases; fine ash settling in the lake also preserved insects and leaves in thin shale.

Bent's Old Fort, built in 1833, traded chiefly with Cheyenne and Arapaho hunters for what?

Buffalo robes were the fort's main trade: the beaver business was fading by the 1830s, so the Bents built on bison hides instead, and for 16 years theirs was the only major permanent stop on the Santa Fe Trail.

Who attacked and burned the striking miners' tent colony at Ludlow in April 1914?

National Guardsmen and company guards attacked and burned Ludlow's tent colony on April 20, 1914; women and children were among the dead, and days of open warfare ended only when President Wilson sent in federal troops.

Which industrialist's family controlled the Colorado coal company at the centre of the 1913–14 miners' strike?

John D. Rockefeller Jr., the firm's main stockholder, testified to Congress about the strike shortly before its worst bloodshed and became the chief target of public fury afterwards.

What killed the Colorado Silver Boom in 1893?

Federal silver buying ended when Congress repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1893; with its biggest customer gone, the metal's price collapsed and the boom died with it.

Denver was founded in 1858 at the western edge of which territory?

Kansas Territory then stretched west to the Rockies; Denver's founder jumped a rival party's claim to the site and named his new town for the territory's governor, James Denver.

Which Cheyenne chief flew a US flag and a white flag at Sand Creek?

Black Kettle survived the 1864 attack and kept pressing for peace, only to be killed four years later when Custer's 7th Cavalry struck his village on the Washita River.

What extralegal government ruled the Pike's Peak region before Congress created Colorado Territory?

Jefferson Territory elected its own governor and legislature in October 1859 and ran the mining camps for over a year, though Congress never recognised it; it gave way once Colorado Territory was organised.

Which Denver socialite urged the crew of Lifeboat No. 6 to turn back for survivors?

Molly Brown survived the Titanic in 1912 and, aboard the rescue ship, formed a Survivors' Committee to raise money for destitute passengers; friends called her Maggie, and 'Molly' caught on only after her death.

Which triangular Denver hotel has welcomed guests since 1892 and wraps its rooms around an eight-storey atrium?

The Brown Palace was financed by and named for developer Henry C. Brown; its triangular plan gave every guest room a window, and it was the tallest building in Denver when it opened.

Where did Baby Doe Tabor spend her last three decades in poverty?

A shack at the Matchless Mine was her home until March 1935, when neighbours found her frozen on its floor after a snowstorm; the tale that Horace's dying wish was for her to hold on to the mine may be legend.

What nickname did Horace Tabor earn from his Leadville fortune?

The Silver King made millions from the Little Pittsburg and other mines, lost nearly all of it when the silver market collapsed in 1893, and ended his days as Denver's postmaster.

Where was Buffalo Bill buried in June 1917?

Buffalo Bill Cody was buried on Lookout Mountain above Golden on June 3, 1917; his widow Louisa said he chose the site, though Cody, Wyoming, long claimed he wanted to rest there.

Which Colorado boxer was nicknamed the Manassa Mauler?

Jack Dempsey, born in Manassa in 1895, learned his trade as 'Kid Blackie', walking into mining-town saloons and offering to fight anyone for a dollar; he held the heavyweight title from 1919 to 1926.

Which Colorado-raised Supreme Court justice once led the NFL in rushing?

Byron White led the NFL in rushing as a 1938 rookie, left for Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship, then took time out of Yale Law School for two more seasons; John F. Kennedy named him to the Court in 1962.

Which mayor of the state capital later served as US Secretary of Transportation and of Energy?

Federico Peña, mayor from 1983 to 1991, led the push to build the city's new airport, and the highway to it is named Peña Boulevard; he then ran Transportation and Energy in Bill Clinton's cabinet.

What was John Hickenlooper's profession before politics and brewing?

John Hickenlooper worked as a petroleum geologist for Buckhorn Petroleum until he was laid off in 1986, then opened the Wynkoop Brewing Company in 1988; he became Denver's mayor, governor, and in 2021 a US senator.

Which internet entrepreneur became the first openly gay man elected a US governor in 2018?

Jared Polis made his fortune from the greeting-card site bluemountain.com and the online florist ProFlowers, then spent ten years in Congress for Colorado's 2nd district before winning the governorship.

Which star named a 1974 album after Colorado's Caribou Ranch studio?

Elton John cut Caribou in a converted barn on the mountain ranch; the studio also drew Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire until a fire shut it down in 1985.

Which burrito chain began in 1993 in a former Denver ice cream shop?

Chipotle was meant as a cash cow: Steve Ells opened it with a loan from his father, planning to use the profits to start a fine-dining restaurant, but the burritos sold so well that he opened more Chipotles instead.

A single row of purple seats in Coors Field's upper deck marks what?

One mile above sea level is exactly where the upper deck's 20th row sits, so that row alone is purple among the green; thin air at that height is also why the Rockies gave the park one of baseball's biggest outfields.

Runway 16R/34L at Denver International Airport holds which record among North America's public-use runways?

Longest, at 16,000 feet, about three miles: thin mile-high air gives wings less lift, so the extra length lets fully loaded jumbo jets take off even on hot summer days.

What is Blue Mustang, the giant horse statue at Denver's airport, notorious for?

It killed its sculptor: a section of the 32-foot horse fell on Luis Jiménez in his studio in 2006, and the piece was finished after his death; its glowing red eyes earned it the nickname Blucifer.

In which Colorado town has Coors brewed its beer since 1873?

Golden has been home to the brewery since Adolph Coors opened it in 1873; it rode out Prohibition by switching to malted milk and porcelain, and the plant is now the largest single-site brewery in the world.

Adolph Coors, who started brewing in Colorado in 1873, had emigrated five years earlier from which country?

Germany was home: born Adolph Kuhrs in Rhenish Prussia, he trained as a brewery apprentice there, reached America in 1868, and opened his brewery in partnership with a Denver candy-store owner.

Since 2002, Coors Field has stored baseballs in what before games?

A humidor keeps the balls at 70 degrees and 50 percent humidity; the idea came from a Rockies engineer who noticed his leather hunting boots had dried and shrunk in Denver's air and wondered if baseballs did the same.

Until 2020, what was Denver's Ball Arena called?

Pepsi Center was the name from its 1999 opening until 2020, when can-maker Ball Corporation bought the rights in a deal that also set the arena to swap plastic cups for recyclable aluminium.

Which brothers from a Greeley meatpacking family became majority owners of the Rockies?

The Monforts, Charlie and Dick, grew up in Greeley as sons of meatpacker Kenneth Monfort, whose company was sold to ConAgra in 1987; they bought out Jerry McMorris in 2005 to become the club's primary owners.

Which team swept the Rockies in the 2007 World Series?

The Boston Red Sox ended 'Rocktober' in four straight; Colorado had won 21 of 22 games to get there, including a one-game playoff.

Under what name were the Colorado Avalanche founded in 1972?

The Quebec Nordiques, founded in 1972 in the WHA and in the NHL from 1979, moved to Denver in 1995 and won the Stanley Cup in their very first season as the Avalanche.

Whom did the Avalanche sweep in the 1996 Stanley Cup Final?

The Avalanche swept the Florida Panthers in 1996, Uwe Krupp scoring in triple overtime to end Game 4 1-0; they beat New Jersey in seven games for a second Cup in 2001.

Before becoming the Nuggets in 1974, Denver's ABA team played seven seasons under which name?

Rockets came from the owners' Ringsby Rocket Truck Lines; the franchise had been announced as the Larks but never played under that name, and it switched in 1974 because Houston already had the NBA's Rockets.

Whom did the Nuggets beat for their first NBA title in 2023?

The Miami Heat, who had needed the play-in just to reach the playoffs, fell in five games; Finals MVP Nikola Jokić had been only the 41st pick of the 2014 draft.

Which quarterback led Denver to back-to-back Super Bowl wins and retired straight after the second?

John Elway had lost three Super Bowls before winning at last in Super Bowl XXXII; a year later he was named MVP of Super Bowl XXXIII in what proved the final game of his career.

Which company owned the Colorado Rapids when the club was founded in 1995 as an MLS charter member?

Anschutz Corporation belonged to Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz, who helped found MLS itself and backed several of its early clubs; the Rapids later passed to Stan Kroenke's company.

Which Colorado university was founded in 1876, five months before statehood?

University of Colorado was chartered in March 1876, five months before statehood; when classes began the next year its one building, Old Main, held everything, the president's family included.

Which Colorado university, founded in 1874, offers degrees only in STEM fields plus economics?

Colorado School of Mines keeps a rock-hauling tradition: each new student carries a ten-pound rock up Mount Zion to add to the giant hillside 'M' that students first laid out in 1908.

The Air Force Academy's first cadets chose which bird as their mascot?

Falcon it was, picked in 1955 by the Class of 1959 while the academy was still at a temporary site in Denver; no species was named, so cadet falconers have flown several kinds since, gyrfalcons among them.

Where is NORAD headquartered?

Peterson Space Force Base has run NORAD's day-to-day command centre since a 2006 realignment moved operations out of the famous mountain bunker nearby, which now stands by as the alternate site.

Which Army division, nicknamed 'Ivy' after its Roman numeral, is based at Fort Carson?

4th Infantry Division's 'Ivy' is a play on IV; it called Fort Carson home from 1970 to 1995, spent fourteen years at Fort Hood in Texas, and came back in 2009.

Camp Hale, built in 1942, trained troops for which unit?

10th Mountain Division ski troops trained at Camp Hale before fighting in Italy; veterans came home to build America's ski industry, among them Pete Seibert, who founded Vail.

Stephen King's 1974 stay at which Estes Park landmark inspired The Shining?

The Stanley Hotel was about to close for the winter when Stephen King and his wife checked in for a night in 1974 as its only guests; wandering its empty corridors gave him the Overlook Hotel.

Which Glenwood Springs hotel, opened in 1893, served as a sitting president's base for a 1905 bear hunt?

Hotel Colorado hosted the president and his staff for three weeks in 1905 and was dubbed the 'little White House of the West'; in World War II the Navy took it over as a hospital.

Which four boys star in Trey Parker and Matt Stone's Colorado-set animated show?

Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny reached television thanks to a crude 1995 video Christmas card that a Fox executive paid Parker and Stone to make; copies spread so widely that Comedy Central ordered a series.

In November 2012, Colorado and which other state became the first to legalise recreational cannabis at the ballot box?

Washington passed Initiative 502 the same day Colorado approved Amendment 64 with about 55 percent of the vote; Colorado's shops opened first, on New Year's Day 2014, six months ahead of Washington's.

Which tunnel carries Interstate 70 under the Continental Divide?

Eisenhower Tunnel was the world's highest road tunnel when it opened in 1973; planned as a three-year job, it took five, and it spares drivers about nine miles of climbing over Loveland Pass.

The Moffat Tunnel's second bore carries what under the Continental Divide to Denver?

Drinking water from the Western Slope runs through the old pilot bore to Denver's taps; the main bore, 6.2 miles long, gave the city a direct rail route west through the Rockies.

Highway 82 is closed all winter over which pass?

Independence Pass, first called Hunter Pass, shares its name with the mining camp below it, where prospectors are said to have struck ore on July 4, 1879; the road normally reopens just before Memorial Day.

Which stretch of US Route 550 is called the Million Dollar Highway?

Silverton to Ouray is the stretch, a cliff-edge road over Red Mountain Pass with hardly a guardrail; nobody agrees where the name came from, and one story says it cost a million dollars a mile to build.

The Durango and Silverton railroad follows which river's canyon?

The Animas River's canyon carries the line; built in 1881–82 to haul silver and gold ore, it survived on tourists and film crews, who shot scenes for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid along it.

The Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad connects Antonito, Colorado, with which town?

The Cumbres & Toltec runs 64 miles from Antonito over 10,015-foot Cumbres Pass to Chama, New Mexico; the states of Colorado and New Mexico bought the line jointly in 1970.

The Pikes Peak cog railway was financed in 1889 by Zalmon Simmons, whose company became famous for making what?

Mattresses made the Simmons name; after two miserable days riding a mule up the peak, he paid for a railway instead, and its first train reached the summit in June 1891.

Which racing family counts a nine-time and a ten-time overall winner of the Pikes Peak hill climb?

The Unsers ruled the climb for decades: Louis Unser took the last of his nine wins in 1953, and three years later his nephew Bobby, a future Indianapolis 500 winner, began a run of ten overall titles.

For its first four decades, the Denver Mint struck no coins and did what instead?

It assayed gold, melting miners' deposits and testing their purity, for four decades; even in its new building no coin was struck until 1906, because the machinery was first shown off at the St. Louis World's Fair.

Which architect's firm designed Denver's original 16th Street Mall, opened in 1982?

I. M. Pei's firm, working with landscape architects Hanna/Olin, patterned the granite paving on a diamondback rattlesnake's skin; the worn stones were torn up for a full rebuild that began in 2022.

Denver Union Station's first station on the site opened in 1881 and met what fate in 1894?

It burned down in March 1894 when an electrical fire destroyed the central hall; the station was rebuilt, and the central section seen today dates from 1914.

Which December 2021 fire destroyed more than 1,000 homes in Louisville and Superior?

The Marshall Fire began as a grass fire after an exceptionally dry autumn and was driven by gusts of up to 100 mph; heavy snow put it out the next night, after it had become the most destructive fire Colorado had seen.

After a multibillion-dollar cleanup, most of the Rocky Flats weapons plant site reopened in 2018 as what?

A wildlife refuge now covers the plant's old buffer zone, with trails opened in 2018; the fenced core where bomb parts were made stays off limits under federal care.

Colorado's Amache camp held which group during World War II?

Japanese Americans, more than 7,000 at its peak, were confined at Amache near Granada, now a national historic site; the smallest of the ten camps, it was for a time Colorado's tenth-largest city.

Which Colorado tea company, founded in 1969, specialises in herbal teas?

Celestial Seasonings began in 1969 when Mo Siegel and friends gathered herbs in the Rockies and sold them in hand-sewn bags; Sleepytime tea with its bear has been its signature since 1972, and Hain bought the company in 2000.

Which Fort Collins brewery, founded in 1991, is best known for Fat Tire ale?

New Belgium Brewing was founded by Kim Jordan and Jeff Lebesch; the Fat Tire recipe grew out of a bicycle trip one of them made from brewery to brewery across Belgium.

Rocky Mountain oysters are made from what?

Bull testicles, sometimes swapped for sheep or pig, are skinned, floured and deep-fried; the dish grew up in cattle country, where castrating young bulls left plenty to cook, and it is sold at Coors Field.

Denver's National Western Stock Show is held every year in which month?

January it has been since the first show in 1906; the rodeo came later, added in 1931 to mark the show's 25th year.

Frozen Dead Guy Days began in which Colorado mountain town?

Nederland is where Bredo Morstøl's family kept his frozen body in a shed; after his grandson was sent home to Norway, the town outlawed keeping corpses at home but made an exception for 'Grandpa Bredo'.

Which town holds an annual day for Mike the Headless Chicken?

Fruita, near Grand Junction, holds Mike the Headless Chicken Day each spring; the Wyandotte rooster, beheaded by farmer Lloyd Olsen in September 1945, lived another 18 months.

Which Denver-area restaurant is famed for its indoor cliff divers?

Casa Bonita opened in Lakewood in 1974; Trey Parker and Matt Stone, whose cartoon gave it a whole episode in 2003, bought it out of bankruptcy in 2021 and reopened it two years later.

Delph Carpenter's 1922 compact divided which river's water among seven states?

The Colorado River was shared out by the compact Carpenter championed as the state's interstate streams commissioner; signed near Santa Fe in 1922, it cleared the way for the great dams downstream.

For generations Pueblo's main industry was the making of what?

Steel was Pueblo's trade thanks to Colorado Fuel and Iron's mill; the steel slump of the 1980s bankrupted the company in 1990, though the mill itself outlived it under new owners.

Where does the Colorado River end?

Gulf of California is where the river once emptied after 1,450 miles; so much is now drawn off for farms and cities that it has rarely reached the sea since the 1960s.

The Arkansas River rises in Colorado's Sawatch Range and ends its long run east by joining which river?

The Mississippi River takes in the Arkansas after it has crossed Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas; under an 1819 treaty the upper river also marked the border with Spanish and then Mexican territory until the 1840s.

What does the Sangre de Cristo Mountains' name mean?

Blood of Christ is the meaning; the origin is unclear, but the name may recall the red glow that sunrise and sunset throw on the snowy peaks.

Which state has the second-most fourteeners after Colorado?

Alaska has 29 by the usual 300-foot prominence rule, far more than California's 12, though Alaskan climbers often count by a stricter 500-foot rule; its fourteeners include Denali, the continent's highest peak.

The Ute language belongs to the same family as that of which people?

The Aztecs spoke Nahuatl, and the Uto-Aztecan family is named for its two ends: Ute in the north and Aztecan in Mexico; its languages run from the American West to Central America.

Which Colorado skier was first to reach 100 alpine World Cup wins?

Mikaela Shiffrin took her 100th win in a slalom at Sestriere in February 2025, less than three months after a crash at Killington left her with a puncture wound in her abdomen.

Which Rockies first baseman reached the Hall of Fame in 2024?

Todd Helton, who spent all 17 seasons with the Rockies, was briefly Tennessee's starting quarterback in 1994, until a knee injury handed the job to a freshman named Peyton Manning.

Which Colorado high schooler won four gold medals in the pool at the 2012 London Olympics?

Missy Franklin, 17 and still at Regis Jesuit High School, won both backstroke golds and two relays; she turned down prize money and endorsements so that she could go on to swim in college.

Which pink mineral is Colorado's official state mineral?

Rhodochrosite became the state mineral in 2002; the finest crystals, including the record-size Alma King, came from the Sweet Home Mine near Alma, which had opened in 1873 as a silver mine.

What is Colorado's official state rock, adopted in 2004?

Yule Marble, quarried near the town of Marble, clads the Lincoln Memorial and forms the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier; it became the state rock after a Girl Scout troop from Lakewood petitioned the legislature.

Which cactus, named for its deep-red blooms, became Colorado's official state cactus in 2014?

Claret cup won the title after four Girl Scouts from Castle Rock lobbied the legislature; its scarlet, cup-shaped flowers are a favourite of hummingbirds.

What did Colorado designate as its official state pet in 2013?

Shelter pets, meaning dogs and cats adopted from Colorado shelters and rescues, took the title in 2013 to encourage adoption; the governor praised the bill for showing schoolchildren how laws are made.

Which Colorado mountain town bills itself as the 'Switzerland of America'?

Ouray, named for a Ute chief, sits at the narrow head of a valley walled in by steep San Juan peaks, the setting behind its 'Switzerland of America' boast; climbers come each winter for its ice park.

Which O.K. Corral gunfighter spent his final months in Glenwood Springs and is buried there?

Doc Holliday, dying of tuberculosis, came to Glenwood Springs for its hot springs and vapor caves and died there on November 8, 1887, aged 36; a memorial stands in Linwood Cemetery though his exact grave is unknown.

Which mining magnate, who also built the Pikes Peak Highway, bought the Colorado Springs property in 1916 that became The Broadmoor?

Spencer Penrose made his biggest fortune in Utah copper and spent it on Colorado Springs, opening The Broadmoor in 1918; the El Pomar Foundation he and his wife set up in 1937 still funds causes across the state.

Which North Fork Valley town, a hub of organic orchards, celebrates Cherry Days every Fourth of July?

Paonia's name comes from Paeonia, the Latin for peony: founder Samuel Wade, who carried peony roots west in 1881, proposed it, and the post office dropped the extra vowel.

Which Colorado county holds more than a dozen prisons, including America's only federal Supermax?

Fremont County counts ADX Florence among its prisons, most of them run by the state. One of Colorado's 17 original counties, it is named for the explorer John C. Frémont.

Teller County, Colorado, honors the senator whose 1898 amendment barred the US from annexing which island?

Cuba was promised to its own people by the Teller Amendment, passed as Congress moved toward war with Spain. Henry Teller also served as Secretary of the Interior.

Which Colorado county contains the Breckenridge, Keystone and Copper Mountain ski resorts?

Summit County is named for the many mountain tops inside its borders. Its seat, Breckenridge, stands about 9,600 feet up, among the loftiest towns in the country.

Huerfano County, Colorado, is named for a lone volcanic butte whose Spanish name means what in English?

Orphan is the meaning of huérfano, the name early Spanish explorers gave the butte that stands by itself north of Walsenburg. The county was one of the territory's original 17.

Which Colorado county, named for a river that rises within it, contains the Vail and Beaver Creek resorts?

Eagle County was carved out in 1883, nearly eight decades before the Vail ski area opened. Its seat is the small town of Eagle, far quieter than the resorts up the valley.

Which Colorado county, home to Steamboat Springs, is named for the first governor of the State of Colorado?

Routt County honors John Long Routt, who ran the territory before voters made him the first state governor. He later returned for a second spell in the office.

Which Colorado county, seated at Glenwood Springs, is named for a US president who was assassinated?

Garfield County was created in February 1883, less than two years after James A. Garfield was shot. Its largest community is Rifle, not the county seat.

Which Colorado county, seated at Greeley, has long been the state's leading producer of cattle and sugar beets?

Weld County is rich below ground too, sitting on the oil and gas fields of the Denver-Julesburg Basin. It is named for Lewis Ledyard Weld, the territory's first secretary.

Conejos County in southern Colorado takes its name from the Spanish word for which abundant local animals?

Rabbits were so plentiful in the area that they gave the county its name. It began life as Guadalupe County and was renamed within a week.

Which county, with Trinidad as its seat, is the largest of Colorado's 64 counties by area?

Las Animas County covers nearly 4,800 square miles along the New Mexico line. Its name is short for a Spanish river name meaning the River of the Lost Souls in Purgatory.

Which Colorado county on the New Mexico line has the city of Durango as its seat?

La Plata County takes its name from the Spanish for silver, a nod to the many deposits in the area. It was created in 1874 from parts of two older counties.

Which small Colorado county holds the neighboring casino towns of Black Hawk and Central City?

Gilpin County is named for William Gilpin, the first governor of Colorado Territory. Casinos opened in its two old mining towns in 1991 after a statewide vote.

Which county fills Colorado's southwestern corner, at the Four Corners, with Cortez as its seat?

Montezuma County was named for the Aztec emperor Moctezuma II because ancient ruins nearby were once thought to be Aztec. Its seat follows the theme, honoring the conquistador Hernán Cortés.

Which Colorado county, with only one incorporated town, has the highest mean elevation of any US county?

San Juan County averages 11,240 feet above sea level, yet none of the state's fourteeners stands inside it. Its 2020 census count was just 705 people.

Which remote Colorado county, seated at Lake City, put the cannibal prospector Alferd Packer on trial?

Hinsdale County took the case because the five bodies were found a couple of miles from Lake City, on its side of the county line. It ranks among the most remote counties in the nation.

Which eastern Colorado county, seated at Eads, contains the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site?

Kiowa County holds the ground where a Native American camp was attacked in November 1864. The site joined the National Park System in 2007.

Which Colorado county has Salida as its seat and also contains the town of Buena Vista?

Chaffee County is named for Jerome Chaffee, one of the state's first two US senators. Its skyline includes the Collegiate Peaks, several of them named for famous universities.

Which county in Colorado's southeastern corner borders Kansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico?

Baca County was one of the areas hit hardest by the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. It is named for Felipe Baca, a pioneer and territorial legislator.

Which county on Colorado's Nebraska border has Julesburg, once a Pony Express stop, as its seat?

Sedgwick County takes its name from Fort Sedgwick, an Army post named for the Union general John Sedgwick. Julesburg itself honors Jules Beni, who ran the original trading post.

Montrose County, Colorado, is thought to take its name from an 1819 novel by which Scottish author?

Walter Scott published A Legend of Montrose in 1819, and the town that gave the county its name probably borrowed the title. The county was split off from a larger neighbor in 1883.

Which 1977 film follows two truckers bootlegging 400 cases of Coors beer from Texarkana to Atlanta?

Smokey and the Bandit turned on a real quirk: in 1977 Coors was not for sale east of Texas, so hauling the Colorado beer to Georgia counted as bootlegging.

Which Belgian-style wheat ale, usually served with an orange slice, was created inside Coors Field?

Blue Moon was first sold as Bellyslide Belgian White, a nod to its birthplace at the ballpark's Sandlot Brewery. Brewer Keith Villa devised the recipe in 1995.

With which Canadian brewer did Colorado's Coors merge in 2005 to form a global beer giant?

Molson, founded in Montreal in 1786, is one of the oldest breweries in North America. The two family firms announced their merger in 2004 and completed it the next February.

Which amber ale made Colorado's New Belgium Brewing famous after a co-founder toured Belgian breweries?

Fat Tire recalls the bicycle its creator rode from brewery to brewery on that trip. In 2023 the brewery reworked the recipe into a lighter, crisper ale.

During Prohibition, Coors kept its Colorado brewery going by selling malted milk to which candy company?

Mars bought much of the malted milk to make its sweets. The family's porcelain, cement and real estate businesses did the rest of the work of keeping Coors afloat.

Which clear, lightly carbonated malt drink did Colorado's Coors launch in 1993 and sell in America until 2008?

Zima rode the 1990s craze for clear drinks that also produced Tab Clear. After American production ended, it kept selling in Japan for more than another decade.

Which downtown Denver brewpub did the future Colorado governor John Hickenlooper co-found in 1988?

Wynkoop Brewing Company made its co-founder a local celebrity years before he ran for office. The brewpub became known for crowning a Beerdrinker of the Year.

Which brewery, begun as a brewpub in Lyons, Colorado, turned heads in 2002 by putting its craft beer in cans?

Oskar Blues started out brewing in its restaurant basement and became one of the first craft brewers to can its own beer. Dale's Pale Ale heads its lineup.

Which Longmont, Colorado, brewery, famous for its Milk Stout, is named for the English meaning of Chief Niwot's name?

Left Hand was a second choice: the founders first called the brewery Indian Peaks, then found the name already taken. Its Milk Stout Nitro, bottled in 2011, became its most popular beer.

Which nuclear engineer turned homebrewing author founded Colorado's Great American Beer Festival?

Charlie Papazian also wrote The Complete Joy of Home Brewing and led the Brewers Association for decades. He created National Pie Day too, setting it on his own birthday.

Which Disneyland land did designer Harper Goff base partly on photos of his boyhood home, Fort Collins, Colorado?

Main Street, USA drew on Fort Collins after Goff showed Walt Disney photos of the town he grew up in. Disney's own boyhood home of Marceline, Missouri, was the other model.

Loveland, Colorado, known for re-mailing valentines each February, is actually named for a man with which job?

Railroad president William A. H. Loveland ran the Colorado Central, and the town was founded beside its new line in 1877. The valentine program came seventy years later.

Greeley, Colorado, began as a utopian farming colony and banned the sale of what until a 1969 vote?

Alcohol sales were approved by just 477 votes, ending a century of temperance. The colony had the backing of the New York Tribune's editor, who gave the city his name.

Pueblo, Colorado, calls itself the Home of Heroes because four of its sons received which decoration?

Medal of Honor recipients from Pueblo number four, a remarkable tally for a city its size. Its other nickname, Steel City, comes from its steel industry.

Breckenridge, Colorado, restored its old spelling in 1861 after the former vice president it honored did what?

John C. Breckinridge joined the Confederate army as a brigadier general, and the loyal Union town dropped his spelling thirty days later. It had borrowed his name only to win a post office.

Which southwestern Colorado town takes its name from waters that include the world's deepest geothermal hot spring?

Pagosa Springs takes its name from a Ute phrase for its sulfur-rich waters. It is the only incorporated town in the whole of Archuleta County.

Which former coal-mining town did the Colorado legislature designate the state's Wildflower Capital in 1990?

Crested Butte shrank so much after its coal mines closed that the local high school shut. Skiing and mountain biking later brought the town back.

Which Denver suburb contains Gold Strike Park, where Lewis Ralston panned Colorado's first documented gold in 1850?

Arvada marks the creek where Ralston found about five dollars' worth of gold. His companions were unimpressed and pushed on to California the next morning.

Which town in Colorado's Arkansas Valley is noted statewide for its cantaloupes and watermelons?

Rocky Ford owes its melons to its soil and to wide swings in temperature. The town sits in Otero County, on the plains of the southeast.

Which Colorado mountain town was moved to a hillside before a Denver Water reservoir flooded its original site?

Dillon had already been relocated twice by 1892 to chase the railroad lines. The present town sits about 160 feet higher, on the shore of the reservoir that drowned the old one.

Which nickname have locals given the giant rearing horse statue with glowing red eyes outside Denver's airport?

Blucifer is what locals call the bright blue stallion, whose red eyes are a tribute to the neon sign shop run by the artist's father. The artist's estate dislikes the demonic nickname.

Which nickname stuck to the NFL defense that carried Colorado's team to its first Super Bowl in the 1977 season?

Orange Crush combined the team's orange home jerseys with the name of a popular soft drink. Sportswriter Woody Paige spread the name as the unit allowed just 46 points in a 6-0 start.

Which four-letter nickname do Denverites use for the neighborhood around Union Station and Coors Field?

LoDo is short for Lower Downtown, the patch of riverside ground where the city was founded. It was known for its saloons long before the ballpark arrived.

What nickname was given to the gold seekers who streamed into the future Colorado during its first great rush?

Fifty-Niners took their name from 1859, the rush's busiest year, just as California's gold seekers had a decade earlier. A young Buffalo Bill Cody was among them.

What do Colorado skiers call a sunny, cloudless day that follows a fresh fall of snow?

A bluebird day pairs clear blue skies with fresh snow from the storm just past. The phrase is chiefly skiers' talk, though it can describe the calm after rain as well.

What do diners in Pueblo, Colorado, call a cheeseburger served smothered in red or green chile?

A slopper usually comes on grilled buns under freshly chopped onions. One writer traced the dish to the city's taverns of the early to mid-1970s.

What nickname did fans and media give the Colorado Rockies' run of 21 wins in 22 games in autumn 2007?

Rocktober carried the club through a tie-breaker game and seven straight playoff wins to its first pennant. The hot streak ended in the World Series, in a four-game sweep.

Which slang word do Colorado ski-town locals use for a clueless, inexperienced skier on the slopes?

Gaper is ski slang for a novice; in its older sense the word simply means someone who gapes or stares. A liftie, by contrast, is the worker who runs the chairlift.

Which nickname did a 1960s traffic reporter give Denver's tangled interchange of Interstates 25 and 70?

The Mousetrap got its name from airborne radio reporter Don Martin, who likened the junction to a maze fit to catch a mouse. Its original design never met Interstate standards and was grandfathered in.

How do locals pronounce the first word of Buena Vista, Colorado, a sound its namer chose on purpose?

BYOO-nuh was the choice of Alsina Dearheimer, who named the town and wanted an Americanized sound. Many residents skip the debate and just say BV.