Colorado Facts and Trivia

Colorado Facts & Trivia

Pikes Peak, elevation 14,109 feet, is the easternmost fourteener in the United States. The mountain has the largest elevation gain of any mountain in Colorado. The peak rises a staggering 7,800 vertical feet from downtown Manitou Springs in a horizontal distance of 7.25 miles. No other Colorado peak can match that. Over 400,000 people, ascend Pikes Peak each year.

The largest diamond ever found in Colorado was a 28.3-carat gem found in 1996. The diamond was unearthed 43 miles northwest of Fort Collins at the Kelsey Lake Mine. This diamond was also the fifth largest found in the United States. It was sized down into a 5.9-carat gem that sold for $87,000.

Pikes Peak, 1882

Pikes Peak, 1882, courtesy Denver Public Library

More than 300,000 people float Colorado's rivers each year.

Colorado averages 300 days of sunshine annually.

Dead Man's Canyon, 10 miles south of Colorado Springs, is said to be haunted by the phantom of a man with an ax in his forehead. The "ghost" of William Harkins has haunted the area since 1863, when he was murdered by a gang of Mexican religious fanatics. Over the years, dozens of people have reported being chased by the angry phantom near his cabin on Little Fountain Creek.

Colorado contains 75% of the land area of the U.S. with an altitude over 10,000 feet.

The United States federal government owns more than 1/3 of the land in Colorado.

The town of Marble, Colorado supplied the stone for the Lincoln Memorial and hundreds of other monuments and buildings. The largest block of marble ever quarried -- a 100-ton chunk -- came from Marble, and now resides in Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknowns. During its 50-year period beginning in 1873, the marble quarry supplied also for the Colorado Capitol, the U.S. Post Office in Downtown Denver and the Equitable Building in New York City. At peak of production in 1914, the Colorado-Yule Marble Co. imported stonecutters from Italy to work in the two block-long finishing mill, then the worlds largest and now a national historic site.

Diplodocus Dinasaur The first dinosaur fossil discovered in Colorado was the skeleton of a Diplodocus, which was found on the ridge of the Hogback near Morrison in 1877. At the time of its discovery, it was the largest dinosaur skeleton known measuring about 70 feet long, with a hipbone measuring nearly 8 feet long. However, at the time of the discovery there was no place in Denver to erect and house the skeleton, so it was shipped to a museum in New York.

A flat stone bearing the inscription "D. Grover and Joseph Fox Lawe, Aug. 8, 1847" was discovered near Clifford many years ago. It served to revive the story of $100,000 in gold supposed to have been hidden by bandits on the plains south of Clifford during the California gold rush. As the story goes, eight bandits stole the money in Sacramento, California in 1849 and secreted the gold in a gulch several miles east of Clifford. The burial spot was supposedly marked by three stones, each bearing the date 1847.

Colfax Avenue in Denver is the longest continuous street in America (40 miles).

During the Pikes Peak Gold Rush, Denver bankers Clark, Gruber and Co., John Parksons and Co. and J.J. Conway and Co. issued their own gold coins in $2.50, $5, $10 and $20 denominations. They were exchanged for loose gold. Clark, Gruber and Co. also used paper money, inscribed with "Pikes Peak Gold."

The Pike's Peak Cog Railway is the highest railroad in the United States, at 14,110 feet.

Sugar beets were considered Colorado's most important crop for much of the 1900's. Great Western Sugar, Holly and National led the industry, transforming the South Platte and Arkansas River valleys into beet kingdoms. During the Roaring '20s, sugar beets beat out wheat as the states No. 1 crop.

The highest railroad tunnel in the U.S. is the now-abandoned Alpine Tunnel (11,546 feet) near St. Elmo, Colorado. It sits 11,500 above sea level and is 1,700 feet long. Seventeen thousand yards of granite and dirt were used in the construction as well as 400,000 feet of California redwood. The cost was $300,000.

The Latin phrase ~Nil Sine Numine~ is Colorado's official motto, but throughout the state's history people have disagreed on its exact meaning. It is commonly translated "Nothing without Providence." Others say it means "Nothing without God." In the early days, the pragmatic translated it as "Nothing without a new mine." The translation most likely favored by the committee that adopted it in the first place is believed to be "Nothing without the Deity."

The highest mountain pass road in the U. S. crosses Mosquito Pass (13,188 feet) between Leadville and Fairplay.

White River National Forest became the first U.S. forest preserve in 1891.

The greatest 24-hour snowfall ever measured in North America fell on Silver Lake -- 76 inches on April 14-15, 1921.

In Cripple Creek, Colorado there is a Brothel Museum that offers admission for half-price to children ages 10-13 and free for children under ten. Children?? Go figure.

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mosquitopass-1869-pikespeaklibrary.jpg (262x203 -- 12123 bytes)

Mine along Mosquito pass in 1869, courtesy

Pikes Peak Library

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