Entertaining Facts About Colorado

Image by katyveldhorst from Pixabay

Today is another traveling day as we're leaving Colorado for home.

I've logged more hours in a car than I care to think about, but Texas is far into the distance.

We had a great visit with my brother and his wife at their home in the wilderness—over 8,500 feet elevation.

I'm glad to be heading home though. The mountains are a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live where I have to wear a jacket in the summer. *G*

I learned a lot about Colorado, the Centennial State, so I'm sharing them with you! Aren't you lucky?

* The world's largest flat-top mountain is in Grand Mesa.

* Mike the Headless Chicken Day is celebrated in Fruita because L. A. Olsen, a local farmer, cut off Mike's head on September 10, 1945, for a chicken dinner, but Mike didn't die. Indeed, he lived for another 4 years without a head. (Zombie chicken anyone?)

All kinds of facts are useful to writers

* Louis Ballast of Denver is said to have invented the cheeseburger and received a trademark for the name Cheeseburger in 1935.

* The highest paved road in North America is the road to Mt. Evans which exits off I-70 from Idaho Springs and then climbs to an altitude of 14,258 feet above sea level.

* Colorado means "colored red." The red marble called Beulah Red was used in building the Colorado State Capitol. Cutting, polishing, and installing the marble in the Capitol building took 6 years, from 1894 to 1900. Coincidentally, all of the Beulah Red marble in the world went into the building. (Is that true?)

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

* Colfax Avenue in Denver is the longest continuous street in America.

* Inspired by the view from Pike's Peak, Katherine Lee Bates wrote "America the Beautiful."

* Pueblo is the only city in America with four living recipients of the Medal of Honor.

* The 13th step of the state capital building in Denver is exactly 1 mile high above sea level.

* The tallest sand dune in America is in Great Sand Dunes National Monument near Alamosa. The weird 46,000 acres have 700-foot sand peaks created more than a million years ago by ocean water and wind.

* The highest suspension bridge in the world is over the Royal Gorge near Canon City. The Royal Gorge Bridge spans the Arkansas River at a height of 1,053 feet.

* Fort Garland, Colorado's first and oldest military post, was established in 1858 and commanded by the legendary frontiersman Kit Carson.

* On November 8, 1887, John Henry Holliday, better known as Doc Holliday, died from tuberculosis at the Hotel Glenwood in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

Takeaway Truth

Travel is educational, isn't it?