There are few things I adore more than my Rocky Mountain home and its rich livestock-rustlin' history. My dad wore cowboy boots with three-piece suits and I've had massive voice-crush on John Denver since before I can remember. A tangible token of my love for the Centennial State is pictured above. It may not look like much, but that jumble of chain and beads is a true, if incomplete, labor of love. I've had some of the scariest and most disturbing experiences of my life acquiring the materials for it (think dead fish. Lots of dead fish), but it has been well worth it. . . as long as I actually finish the dreaded thing (I'd like to take this time apologize to the half-soldered grasshopper stained glass and the novel I started when I was 8). Aaaaanyway, I've included some extra Colorado tidbits after the jump, so head on over!
A few endearing facts about Colorado (I got them from the internet, so I assume they're true):
- The World's First Rodeo was held on July 4th, 1869 in Deer Trail.
- In Fruita, the town folk celebrate 'Mike the Headless Chicken Day'. Seems that a farmer named L.A. Olsen cut off Mike's head on September 10, 1945 in anticipation of a chicken dinner - and Mike lived for another 4 years without a head.
- In 1859, John Gregory discovered "The Gregory Lode" in a gulch near Central City. Within two weeks, the gold rush was on and within two months the population grew to 10,000 people in search of their fortune. It came to be known as "The Richest Square Mile on Earth".
- 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).
- Colorado is the only state in history, to turn down the Olympics. In 1976 the Winter Olympics were planned to be held in Denver. 62% of all state Voters choose at almost the last minute not to host the Olympics, because of the cost, pollution and population boom it would have on the State Of Colorado, and the City of Denver.
