Colorado Porch

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History and culture

Mining towns and railroads, landmarks and museums, festivals, food, and the local-color stories that make each corner of Colorado make sense.

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Local notes

More history and culture notes

502 sourced notes in this topic

History and culture

Broomfield's library is named for Mamie Doud Eisenhower, who came to its dedication

Broomfield's public library carries the name of First Lady Mamie Doud Eisenhower, who attended its July 1963 dedication alongside General Eisenhower.

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History and culture

Burlington keeps a working antique carousel that is a National Historic Landmark

The Kit Carson County Carousel in Burlington is an early-1900s wooden carousel the county bought in the 1920s, later named a National Historic Landmark.

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History and culture

Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument lies just north over Tennessee Pass

North of Leadville over Tennessee Pass, Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument protects a World War II mountain-training site and lands that remain culturally important to the Ute people.

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History and culture

Canyon Pintado: a thousand years of rock art on the road to Rangely

A 16,000-acre stretch of public land along Highway 139 south of Rangely holds Fremont and Ute rock art panels, some close to a thousand years old, reachable from marked pull-offs.

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History and culture

Cathy Fromme Prairie protects a rare shortgrass view of Fort Collins

Cathy Fromme Prairie holds a rare pre-settlement shortgrass landscape on south Fort Collins, with wetlands, wildlife, and a raptor overlook.

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History and culture

Coal and the railroad shaped the towns of the Yampa Valley

Routt County's towns grew up around ranching, coal, and the arrival of the railroad, which helped shift the county's center to the Yampa Valley and Steamboat Springs.

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History and culture

Deer Trail and the rodeo that may be the world's first

On July 4, 1869, ranch hands near Deer Trail held a bronc-riding contest widely recognized as the world's first rodeo, and the eastern-plains town still rides every summer.

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History and culture

Dillon's lakeside amphitheater makes the reservoir a summer stage

On the north shore of Dillon Reservoir, an open-air amphitheater and a high-altitude marina turn a few short summer weeks into the town's brightest season.

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History and culture

Eagle's Nest ties the North Fork Poudre to the Laramie Foothills

Eagle's Nest Open Space near Livermore is Larimer's quiet foothills side: the North Fork Poudre, short trails, and a century-old golden-eagle nest.

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History and culture

Fort Morgan's Rainbow Arch Bridge has stood over the South Platte for a century

Fort Morgan's Rainbow Arch Bridge is a National Register-listed bridge over the South Platte River with a long local history.

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History and culture

Francisco Fort Museum: La Veta grew up around Colorado's last original adobe fort

La Veta's Francisco Fort Museum sits inside an 1862 adobe trading post that the town grew up around, the last original adobe fort still standing in Colorado.

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History and culture

Friday Nights Under the Stars at CU's Sommers-Bausch Observatory

On clear Friday nights when CU classes are in session, anyone can walk up to the Sommers-Bausch Observatory and look through a 20-inch telescope for free.

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History and culture

Georgetown's Christmas Market keeps an old-world December alive

Georgetown's December market brings roasted chestnuts, wagon rides, carolers, and a Santa Lucia procession to its historic streets.

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History and culture

Go Underground at the Phoenix Gold Mine

A family-run mine above Idaho Springs walks you into a real gold tunnel and lets you keep whatever you pan out of the creek.

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History and culture

Golden grew as a supply town, not a mining camp

Golden was founded during the 1859 gold rush as a supply and transportation hub for miners heading into the mountains, and it took its name from early settler Tom Golden, not from gold itself.

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History and culture

Grand County is named for a river that no longer goes by that name

Grand County took its name from the Grand River, the old name for the upper Colorado River that begins within its borders.

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History and culture

Healy House and Dexter Cabin show Leadville's Victorian boom up close

The Healy House Museum and Dexter Cabin in Leadville are History Colorado heritage sites that preserve the Victorian-era homes of the silver boom.

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History and culture

In Meeker, a free museum sits inside the army cabins that started the town

Meeker's free White River Museum fills two 1880s log cabins built as army officers' quarters, opening a door to the 1879 Meeker Incident and the Ute history beneath the town.

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History and culture

Julesburg moved four times - and one version was called the Wickedest City in the West

The town anchoring Sedgwick County has been built and rebuilt four times, and one short-lived end-of-track version earned the nickname Wickedest City in the West.

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History and culture

Lafayette and Louisville grew up on coal, not gold

The eastern Boulder County towns of Lafayette, Louisville, Superior, and Marshall began as coal-mining communities, a very different heritage from the gold and silver camps in the mountains.

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History and culture

Longmont began as a planned colony organized in Chicago

Longmont began in the early 1870s as the Chicago-Colorado Colony, a planned town funded by selling memberships to settlers.

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History and culture

Mayflower Mill: Silverton's ore mill still set up to run

Two miles outside Silverton, the Mayflower Mill keeps its original 1930 ore-processing machinery in place, and the historical society opens it for self-guided summer tours.

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History and culture

Mile High Flea Market: Colorado's original open-air market in Henderson

A weekend institution in Henderson that has run since 1976, spreading 80 acres of vendors, food, music, and kids' rides across Adams County.

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History and culture

Monte Vista's Ski Hi Stampede has run since 1919

Monte Vista's Ski Hi Stampede, billed as Colorado's oldest pro rodeo, has gathered the San Luis Valley each July since 1919.

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