45 Fun Facts About Colorado: Grand Mesa Mountain Is Unique!

by Petr Novák, ? This article’s information was last verified on this date. If you notice any errors, let us know in the comments. Thank you! :-) Updated 01/08/2024 Colorado, Trivia About the US states

Every year, the Colorado hosts a festival to celebrate a very special resident. Not a person, but a chicken that lived for four years after a farmer decapitated it long ago.

45 Interesting Facts About the State of Colorado

1. Colfax Avenue in Denver is the longest street in America, measuring 53 mi.
2. Pueblo, Colorado is the only city in the USA to have four Medal of Honor recipients living there simultaneously.
3. The tallest building in Colorado is the 57-story Republic Plaza in Denver. Standing at 719 ft tall, it was completed in 1984.
4. At 11,332 ft, Grand Mesa Mountain is the world’s tallest flat-topped mountain.
5. The thirteenth step of the Denver Capitol Building is exactly 1 mi above sea level.
6. Colorado became the 38th state of the United States on August 1, 1876.
7. Every year, hundreds of thousands of valentines are sent from Loveland.
8. More than one-third of Colorado’s land is owned by the U.S. government.
9. Denver annually hosts the largest rodeo show in the world, The Western Stock Show.
10. The Colorado Capitol building is adorned with a unique red-hued marble called Beulah. It took six years from 1894 to 1900 to cut, polish, and install the stone in the Capitol. All the stone of this shade in the world was used solely for the capitol building, meaning it cannot be replaced with the same type if needed, regardless of cost.
11. Dove Creek, Colorado, is known as the pinto bean capital of the world.
12. There are a total of 222 protected areas and wilderness areas in Colorado.
13. Denver boasts the highest number of urban parks of any U.S. city. Denver alone has over 250 parks, and an additional 20,000 acres of parks are located in the surrounding mountains.
14. The name Colorado is derived from the Spanish phrase “colored red,” referring to the abundance of red hues in the state’s natural scenery.
15. Colorado is known as the “Centennial State” because it joined the U.S. precisely 100 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
16. The world’s first rodeo was held in Deer Trail, Colorado, on July 4, 1869.
17. Mike the Headless Chicken Day is celebrated annually in the town of Fruita. This event commemorates the September 10, 1945 incident when farmer Lloyd Olsen decapitated a chicken for his wife to prepare lunch. Astonishingly, the chicken survived without a head for another four years.
18. The Astor House in Golden, built in 1867, was the first stone hotel constructed west of the Mississippi River.
19. Each year, 400,000 people climb Pikes Peak, which stands at 14,111 ft.
20. The Royal Gorge Bridge, spanning the valley of the same name near Canon City, is the world’s highest suspension bridge. The Arkansas River flows 1,053 ft below it.
21. Colorado has the highest average elevation above sea level of any U.S. state.
22. The city of Rocky Ford is considered the watermelon capital of the world due to its high production, with a certain amount of hyperbole.
23. Leadville is the highest city in the U.S., situated 10,430 ft above sea level.
24. If you consider all of the land in the United States above 10,000 ft, 75% of it is in Colorado.
25. The southwestern tip of Colorado is the only place in America where four states — Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah — meet simultaneously.
26. A large U.S. Air Force base is located in the city of Colorado Springs.
27. Colorado has more microbreweries per capita than any other state in the U.S.
28. Over 20 different rivers originate in Colorado. The direction in which the river flows is determined by the Continental Divide of the Americas — a long line from Alaska to Argentina that geographically divides the country into east and west.
29. In 1806, Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike explored the southwestern part of the Louisiana Territory. Even though he never reached the summit of the mountain that now bears his name, his comprehensive report stirred up widespread interest in the region.
30. Denver is credited with inventing the cheeseburger. The trademark for the name was granted in 1935 to local resident Louis Ballast.
31. Colorado is the only U.S. state whose citizens have voted against hosting the Olympics. The Games were to be held in Denver in 1976, but due to concerns over financial cost, environmental impact, and expected population boom, 62% of the state’s residents decided to reject the Games in a last-minute referendum. Consequently, the Games were relocated to Innsbruck, Austria.
32. During the gold rush, many miners would inscribe “Pikes Peak or Bust” on their wagons. It signified a “do or die” attitude: they would either find gold or end up completely broke. The latter was more common.
33. The largest sand dunes in the U.S. can be found in Great Sand Dunes National Park near Alamosa. The 72 mi² formations, rising up to 699 ft high, were formed over a million years ago by a combination of oceanic and wind forces.
34. In 1859, John Gregory discovered a gold deposit near Central City. The site, known as “The Gregory Lode,” triggered a gold rush within two weeks. Within two months, the population swelled to 10,000, and the Gregory Lode was dubbed “The Richest Square Mile on Earth.”
35. The oldest military base in Colorado, Fort Garland, was established in 1858. The legendary Kit Carson, a frontiersman and trapper, served as its commander.
36. A carousel named after Kit Carson is still operating in Burlington. As the oldest wooden carousel in the U.S., it’s the only one that still has its original paint.
37. The highest paved road in North America runs from Idaho Springs to Mt. Evans, climbing to a height of 14,259 ft.
38. The Dwight Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel, located between Clear Creek and Summit counties, is considered the highest vehicular tunnel in the world. Situated at 11,001 ft above sea level, it spans 8,960 ft and accommodates about 26,000 cars per day.
39. The lyrics to the popular patriotic song “America the Beautiful” were penned by Katharine Lee Bates after she was inspired by the view from Pikes Peak. “America the Beautiful” is also the name of a pass offering discounted admission to U.S. national parks.
40. Renowned Wild West gunslinger Johnny Henry “Doc” Holliday, initially a dentist by profession, was charmed by Glenwood Springs, where he passed away from tuberculosis at the Glenwood Hotel on November 8, 1887.
41. In Colorado, the historic Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad operates year-round. Initially used to transport iron ore, gold, and silver from the San Juan mountains, it has been in operation since 1881 and appeared in films like “How the West Was Won” (1962) and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969).
42. The world’s largest hot springs pool is in Glenwood Springs, close to the Hotel Colorado, a favorite spot of former President Teddy Roosevelt.
43. Fountain, a town in Colorado, has a unique demographic makeup that closely replicates the exact ethnic distribution of the entire U.S. population.
44. The Rocky Mountains, part of the Cordillera, stretch from Alaska to Antarctica over a distance of more than 9,321 mi. Colorado is home to 52 of these mountains, known as Fourteeners, which exceed 14,000 ft in height.
45. The Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument near the town of Cripple Creek is the result of the eruption of Guffey Volcano millions of years ago, which left behind numerous fossils and petrified trees.