Exploring Colorado Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mt. Elbert

There are 52 mountain peaks above 14,000 ft (4,268 m) in Colorado ("fourteeners" as mountain climbers call them) and Mt. Elbert is the highest at 14,433 ft (4,400 m). It is also the highest point of the Rocky Mountains in the United States. Seventy-five percent of the land in the United States above 10,000 ft (3,048 m) is in Colorado.

Answer: Mesa Verde

The Ancestral Puebloans lived in Mesa Verde, starting around 600 A.D. Originally building adobe huts, around 1190 they started building the famous cliff dwellings. They carved out 600 of them before they left the area before the 15th century. The national park, in southwestern Colorado near the spot where four states meet, was authorized by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906.

Answer: Central City

Central City (officially the City of Central) was the site of the Gregory Lode, a rich vein of gold discovered in 1859. Other nearby veins were soon found. Within a year the population of the city went from almost nothing to 10,000. After the fortunate few made their fortunes the miners drifted away; by 1920 most of the veins had been exhausted.

As gold prices rose in the 1930s, mining was again tried but didn't last long.

Answer: corn

Colorado is not all mountainous. The eastern part of the state is part of the Great Plains; agriculture contributes five billion dollars to the state's economy each year. Corn subsidies from the federal government average 78 million dollars per year, and Colorado has a long history of growing corn; the ancient Anasazi indians started growing maize about 2,000 years ago.

Answer: the Colorado State Capitol building

The red marble (occasionally called Colorado Rose Onyx) was used as wainscoting in the state capitol building, a process that from quarrying to final installation took from 1894 to 1900. Except for a couple of fireplace facings in other buildings, the entire vein of marble was used in the capitol; it is literally irreplaceable.

Answer: Eisenhower Tunnel

The Eisenhower Tunnel is on I-70, the east-west Interstate route through Colorado. It is a twin-tube tunnel almost 1.7 mi (2.73 km) in length. It tunnels under Loveland Pass on the Continental Divide with its highest point being the west portal at 11,158 ft (3,401 m).

It took eleven years with many mishaps and problems to overcome before both tubes were completed. As one of the engineers said: "We were going by the book but the mountain couldn't read".

Answer: Pikes Peak

Pikes Peak is on the eastern side of the Front Range, the first mountain range encountered on a westward trip through the American midwest. From there can be seen the "purple mountain majesties" of the Rocky Mountains to the west and the "amber waves of grain" of the Great Plains to the east. Bates wrote the poem during the summer of 1893, while on a trip up the mountain from Colorado Springs, where she was teaching.

She originally titled the poem "Pikes Peak".

Answer: The Centennial State

The Territory of Colorado was organized in 1861 and was granted statehood on August 1, 1876, the year of the Union's centennial of signing the Declaration of Independence. It became the 38th state, after Nebraska and before North and South Dakota, the latter two being added simultaneously.

Answer: sand dunes

Outside of Alamosa you will find sand dunes formed over 400,000 years ago. The 700 ft (213 m) dunes were formed from sand and soil of the Rio Grande River and its tributaries. The 44,000 acre area has been set aside as Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.

Answer: Leadville

Leadville was first settled during the Pikes Peak gold rush in 1859. It was originally named Oro City but when the gold petered out, silver was discovered with cerussite, a lead ore. The townspeople wanted to rename the town but couldn't find a suitable named concerning silver so Leadville was proposed and became the town's name. Lead's potential health hazards weren't understood at the time.

As with most mining-based towns in the western U.S., Leadville's population boomed (14,000 in 1880) and then declined as the veins of ore ran out.

Its elevation is 10,152 feet (3,094 m).