COLORADO MOUNTAIN FESTIVALS
Salida is home to FIBArk, America’s oldest whitewater festival, whose acronym stands for this bold, river-running declaration.
In 1916, traveling piano tuner Walter S. Thompson discovered the future site of the Mishawaka while piloting an early, single-cylinder vintage model of this vehicle.
Proving that Colorado will put a stage anywhere, the annual "Top of the Rockies" festival features live musical performances held inside this type of underground structure, hundreds of feet below the surface.
What is a mine (or gold mine)?
Jack Weil of Denver’s Rockmount Ranch Wear invented a shirt feature using mother-of-pearl "diamonds" in 1946 so that if a cowboy's shirt caught on a saddle or horn, the fabric would harmlessly break away rather than tear.
What are snap buttons (or snap-front Western shirts)?
Long before gaining fame on The Hateful Eight and Miami Vice, this rugged actor played college football for the Colorado Buffaloes and was even drafted by the Denver Broncos in 1971.
Who is Don Johnson?
Lake City hosts an annual barbecue and Jeep tour honoring Alferd Packer, a notorious 1874 mountain guide who survived a brutal winter in the area by doing this to his travel companions.
What is cannibalizing them?
To build this grand 3-story, 40-room canyon showcase in 1896, John Zimmerman and his family individually molded and burned every single brick by hand on site.
What is the Keystone Hotel?
At a 2014 Fiddler's Green gig, this country superstar and "Friends in Low Places" singer hilariously took a camera from a front-row fan and used it to film a close-up of his own nose.
Who is Garth Brooks?
his wild West showman drew 25,000 people to his 1917 funeral on Lookout Mountain, but his burial sparked a massive feud when a rival city in Wyoming claimed Denver stole his body and offered a $10,000 reward to steal it back.
Who was William "Buffalo Bill" Cody?
In the late 1980s and '90s, this diminutive Diff'rent Strokes star lived in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, where he worked at a local model train shop and hosted a Sunday night light jazz radio show.
Who is Gary Coleman?
This Nederland festival features coffin races and polar plunges, inspired by a cryonically frozen Norwegian man kept in a local Tuff Shed.
Before buying a rustic resort a mile east of the Poudre Canyon Chapel in 1957, Robert and Margaret Lewis fell in love with the area while driving up from Greeley to deliver these goods on weekends.
What are doughnuts? (The origin story of the Mountain Greenery Resort)
Denver Broncos fullback Jon Keyworth recorded this "silly" 1977 novelty song to celebrate the team's first-ever Super Bowl appearance.
What is "Make Those Miracles Happen"?
A contractor trying to save money on a massive city park project in 1893 simply built over the graves of Denver’s Mount Prospect Cemetery, leaving an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 bodies buried beneath what is now this popular urban park.
What is Cheesman Park?
While working as a Denver dishwasher and waitress in the late 1970s, this future TV star got her comedic start by testing out biting wisecracks on customers.
Who is Roseanne Barr?
Fairplay’s annual "Burro Days" features a notoriously grueling 29-mile race where runners lead a donkey by a rope to the top of this 13,186-foot mountain pass and back.
What is Mosquito Pass?
In 1931, builder Brye Gladstone cleared a dense grove of aspen trees to build "Gladstone's Cottages," a destination known today by this name.
What is Sportsman's Lodge?
After gate-crashing fans caused a riot involving tear gas during a 1971 gig by this "Aqualung" band, Denver banned rock concerts at Red Rocks for five years.
Who is Jethro Tull?
In 1935, Louis Ballast of Denver’s Humpty Dumpty Drive-In legally trademarked the name of this ubiquitous American food item, though he never aggressively enforced the trademark, allowing it to enter public use.
What is the Cheeseburger?
Before finding fame on Saturday Night Live, this comedic icon attended Denver's Regis University as a pre-med student, later returning to the state to study Hunter S. Thompson firsthand for a film role.
Who is Bill Murray?
Steamboat Springs hosts a Winter Carnival where kids are pulled on skis down main street by horses, an event started in 1914 to fight this specific winter affliction.
The name of this historic 1920s canyon resort comes from a unique acoustic phenomenon heard just west of the property along the river.
What is Glen Echo?
This iconic band's 1964 Red Rocks show is legendary for being the only stop on their first US tour that failed to sell out.
Bill and Dorothy Harmsen failed at selling ice cream during Colorado's brutal winters in the 1940s, leading them to shift to a hard candy that wouldn't melt or spoil, inventing this famous fruity candy brand in 1949.
What are Jolly Ranchers?
Born in Kansas, this actress grew up in Denver and attended East High School before making international entertainment history as the first African American to win an Academy Award.
Who is Hattie McDaniel? (Gone With the Wind)