Denver
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46 free Denver trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
Denver was founded by land speculators who named a gold-rush townsite after a territorial governor who had already quit, and it has been outgrowing its origins ever since. It is the only state capital that is also a consolidated city-county, the only city ever to win an Olympic bid and hand it back, and the place where Chipotle, Quiznos and Smashburger all started. These 46 questions cover the whole story: Montana City and Auraria, the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte, the Denver Pacific railroad that saved the town when the transcontinental line went through Cheyenne, Soapy Smith, the Silver Crash, the Carnation Gold Rush, Stapleton and the airport that replaced it, Rocky Flats, the 1972 vote that sent the Winter Games to Innsbruck, and the 2008 Democratic convention. There is geography (the capitol-step benchmark, the 105th meridian through Union Station, the mousetrap interchange), sport (the Broncos, Rockies, Avalanche, Nuggets and Rapids), culture (Red Rocks, the Clyfford Still Museum, the Great American Beer Festival) and the oldest sister-city link in the country but one. Easy questions stick to nicknames and teams; the hard tier asks about mayors, treaties and the hotelier who angled the downtown grid. Every answer is cited to a page we checked and comes with a one-line explanation. Play it solo or print it for a Colorado night alongside our Broncos and Nuggets quizzes.
30 of 46 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which range rises just west of Denver?
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains' Mount Evans was renamed Mount Blue Sky in 2023 over its namesake governor's role in the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre.
Q 02Which disaster did Denver philanthropist Margaret 'Molly' Brown survive?
The Titanic sinking
The Titanic sinking left her in Lifeboat 6, and aboard the rescue ship she organised a committee to help poorer survivors.
Q 03Where is the benchmark that fixes Denver's official one-mile elevation?
The State Capitol steps
The State Capitol steps hold three mile-high markers, because later surveys placed the mile three steps higher in 1969, then on the 13th step in 2003.
Q 04Denver was founded where the South Platte River meets which waterway?
Cherry Creek
Cherry Creek's gold diggings drew prospectors in 1858, and the rival towns of Auraria and Denver City rose on its opposite banks.
Q 05Which peak named Denver's gold rush?
Pikes Peak
Pikes Peak had no major gold strike until the 1890s, but gold seekers heading west could see it from afar, so its name became their slogan.
Q 06James W. Denver, the city's namesake, was governor of which territory?
Kansas
Kansas Territory's governor got the honour because, reportedly, the town's founders hoped his name would win them the county seat.
Q 07Who staked the Denver City claim with cottonwood logs in November 1858?
William Larimer
William Larimer took over a rival town claim, then boasted, 'I am Denver City.'
Q 08Which Denver neighborhood, famed for its jazz clubs, was called the 'Harlem of the West'?
Five Points
Five Points' music scene faded by the 1960s, as residents moved to newer housing elsewhere and neighborhood businesses declined.
Q 09Which Wild West figure died in Denver in 1917 and was buried on nearby Lookout Mountain?
Buffalo Bill Cody
Buffalo Bill Cody's wife said he chose Lookout Mountain, but people in Cody, Wyoming, the town he helped found, wanted him buried there.
Q 10Which 1861 treaty saw tribal chiefs cede the land of modern Denver?
Fort Wise
Fort Wise's signers were later said not to have understood its terms, and the dispute fed the conflict that led to the Sand Creek Massacre.
Q 11The first transcontinental railroad bypassed Denver for which Wyoming city?
Cheyenne
Cheyenne got the main line, but Denver built its own rail link to it and went on to eclipse Cheyenne as the region's metropolis.
Q 12Which Leadville silver millionaire built Denver's grandest opera house in 1881?
Horace Tabor
Horace Tabor lost most of his fortune when silver prices crashed in 1893, and he went back to the mines as a labourer.
Q 13Which crime boss ran Denver's bunco gangs in the 1880s and 1890s?
Soapy Smith
Soapy Smith got his nickname from a street swindle, selling bars of soap that crowds hoped were wrapped in cash.
Q 21Which nuclear weapons plant near Denver made plutonium pits until 1989?
Rocky Flats
Rocky Flats was demolished in a cleanup finished in 2005, and the site is now surrounded by a national wildlife refuge.
Q 22Which Denver sculpture killed its own artist when a section of it fell on him?
Blue Mustang
Blue Mustang was finally installed at the airport in 2008, and its glowing red eyes earned it the nickname 'Blucifer'.
Q 23Denver lies on the western edge of which region?
The High Plains
The High Plains' farms and ranches gave Denver a steadier living in food processing than the mining booms that built it.
Q 14Which charity's forerunner did a woman, a priest, two ministers and a rabbi start in Denver in 1887?
United Way
United Way's forerunner, the Charity Organization Society, ran a single fundraising campaign for more than 20 local agencies.
Q 15Denver's Daniels & Fisher Tower was modelled on which famous bell tower?
St Mark's Campanile
St Mark's Campanile in Venice had collapsed in 1902 and was being rebuilt when Denver's copy went up.
Q 16Which US Secretary of State's father founded the University of Denver's international studies school?
Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Albright's father, Josef Korbel, also mentored Condoleezza Rice, who studied under him and later became Secretary of State too.
Q 17Which centennial were Denver's 1976 Winter Olympics meant to celebrate?
Colorado's statehood
Colorado's statehood came in 1876, yet in 1972 the state's voters refused to pay for the Games meant to celebrate it.
Q 18Which city took the 1976 Winter Games after Denver withdrew?
Innsbruck
Innsbruck could take over quickly because it had hosted the 1964 Winter Games and already had the venues.
Q 19Who led the movement against hosting the 1976 Olympics and later became governor?
Richard Lamm
Richard Lamm was a young state representative, and the fight against the Games made him known across Colorado.
Q 20Denver's 1908 Democratic National Convention picked which nominee for his third White House run?
William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan later became Woodrow Wilson's Secretary of State, but resigned in 1915 over Wilson's tough notes to Germany.
Q 24Which Jack Kerouac novel's hero, Dean Moriarty, was modelled on Denver-raised Neal Cassady?
On the Road
On the Road's real-life hero, Neal Cassady, later drove Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters bus on its 1964 trip across America.
Q 25What does the neighborhood name LoDo stand for?
Lower Downtown
Lower Downtown lost about a fifth of its buildings to demolition in the 1960s and '70s, before a 1988 historic district protected the rest.
Q 26The former Stapleton neighborhood was renamed what in 2020?
Central Park
Central Park replaced a name honouring Mayor Benjamin Stapleton, a Ku Klux Klan member, after residents voted for the change in 2020.
Q 27What delayed Denver International Airport's opening?
Its baggage system
Its baggage system tossed and mangled bags, and it was finally scrapped in 2005 in favour of human baggage handlers.
Q 28Which airline has its headquarters and primary hub at Denver International Airport?
Frontier
Frontier agreed in 2022 to merge with Spirit, but the deal fell apart when Spirit's shareholders would not back it over a richer JetBlue offer.
Q 29What do locals call the I-25/I-70 interchange?
The mousetrap
The mousetrap was rebuilt after a truck carrying Navy torpedoes overturned there in 1984, forcing nearby evacuations.
Q 30Which east–west artery runs through Denver, Aurora, Lakewood and Golden?
Colfax Avenue
Colfax Avenue was once a desirable address lined with mansions, before drugs and prostitution gave it a gritty reputation.