Colorado has the:
WORLD’S
- Largest Rodeo, the Western Stock show every year in Denver
- Largest Mineral Hot Springs Pool in Glenwood Springs, CO
- Largest flat-top mountain in Grand Mesa
- First Rodeo was held on July 4th, 1869 in Deer Trail
- First Stegosaurus was found in Grand Junction
- Pinto Bean Capitol – Dove Creek
- Melon Capitol – Rocky Ford
- Deepest hot spring in Pagosa Springs
- Highest Alligator Colony – The San Luis Alligator Farm is the highest-altitude alligator colony in the world.
- Highest Auto Tunnel – The Dwight Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel between Clear Creek & Summit counties is the highest auto tunnel in the world. Bored at an elevation of 11,000 feet under the Continental Divide it is 8,960 feet long and the average daily traffic exceeds 26,000 vehicles
NATION’S
- Highest suspension bridge over the Royal Gorge near Canon City, 956 feet above the Arkansas River.
- ONLY mountain zoo in Colorado Springs
- Richest archeological preserve in Mesa Verde National Park – amazing cliff dwellings and more than 4,000 ancient site
- Highest sand dunes at Great Sand Dunes National Park
- Highest paved road in North America (climbs up to 14,258’ above sea level) - the road to Mt. Evans off I-70 from Idaho Springs
- Highest mountain peaks over 10,000 ft high and 54 towering above 14,000 ft.
- Largest city park system
- ONLY location where four states meet – Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado & Utah
- Highest railway – The Pike’s Peak Cog Railway
- Colorado has more microbreweries per capita than any other state
- Largest concentration of turn-of-the-century buildings in one state
- Highest chairlife – Brechenridge Ski Resort
- Hightest wine bar - Telluride Ski Resort
- Largest outdoor ice-sking rink – Keystone Resort
- Longest continuous street – Colfax Avenue in Denver
- Highest incorporated city – Leadville
- Oldest wooden merry-go-round – The Kit Carson County Carousel in Burlington dates back to 1905
OTHER FUN FACTS
- Hovenweep National Monument with six prehistoric, Puebloan-era villages spread over a twenty-mile expanse of mesa tops and canyons
- #2 Best Dinosaur Museum in the USA at The Dinosaur Resource Center in Woodland, CO
- World-famous Red Rocks Amphitheatre ( it took 300 million years to create)
- Dinosaur Fossils Found – Allosaurus, Amphicoelias, Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Camarasaurus, Camptosaurus, Cathetosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Cionodon, Denversaurus, Diplodocus, Dryosaurus, Dystylosaurus, Edmontosaurus, Epanterias, Haplocanthosaurus, Marshosaurus, Nanosaurus, Ornithomimus, Othnielia, Polyonax, Stegosaurus, Supersaurus, Torvosaurus, Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus rex, Ultrasauros
- “Beulah red” is the name of the red marble that gives the Colorado State Capitol its distinctive splendor. Cutting, polishing, and installing the marble in the Capitol took six years, from 1894 to 1900. All of the “Beulah red” marble in the world went into the Capitol. It cannot be replaced, at any price.
- The United States Air Force Academy is located in Colorado Springs.
- Colorado means “colored red” and is known as the “Centennial State.”
- The United States federal government owns more than 1/3 of the land in Colorado.
- Colorado contains 75% of the land area of the U.S. with an altitude over 10,000 feet.
- Colorado has 222 state wildlife areas
- The 13th step of the state capital building in Denver is exactly 1 mile high above sea level
- Katherine Lee Bates wrote “America the Beautiful” after being inspired by the view from Pikes Peak..
- There are 52 Fourteeners (peaks over 14,000 ft.) in Colorado.
- Mesa Verde features an elaborate four-story city carved in the cliffs by the Ancestral Pueblo people between 600 and 1300 A.D. The mystery surrounding this ancient cultural landmark is the sudden disappearance of the thousands of inhabitants who created the more than 4,000 identified structures.
- The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad has been in continuous operation since 1881 and has appeared in more than a dozen movies including How the West Was Won (1963) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969).
- There are nearly 20 rivers whose headwaters begin in Colorado, with the Continental Divide directing each river’s course..
- Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument near Cripple Creek is a lesson in history set in the one-time shadow of the Guffey Volcano. The volcano erupted millions of years ago, creating fossils and leaving the valley filled with petrified trees.
