U.S. History

Ask a Stoner: What's your favorite music to smoke to?

Sand Creek Massacre and John Chivington's explosive actions 151 years after Glorieta Pass

The explosions outside the State Capitol yesterday startled people from downtown to Capitol Hill. But unlike so many other explosions today, these were planned. Artillery blasts marked the 151st anniversary of the Battle of Glorieta Pass, on March 26, 1862, when Colonel John Chivington led the First ... More >>

Top ten hemp legends: Which myths are true -- and which went up in smoke?

Did Henry Ford really make a car out of hemp? Was the Declaration of Independence written on hemp paper? Did Abraham Lincoln use hemp oil in his lamps? The hemp plant, a variety of Cannabis sativa that's the subject of this week's cover story "Green Acres," is steeped in lore. Some hemp legends ar ... More >>

Civil rights activist Whitney Young Jr. to be featured on PBS's The Powerbroker

When you think of the Civil Rights Movement, you likely think of Martin Luther King Jr. -- for good reason. The role he played was monumental -- and because of that, monuments have been erected, pages in textbooks set aside and a national holiday named in his honor. So much attention has been given ... More >>

The studied, somber Lincoln is hugely entertaining

DU's already got a case of presidential debate fever

Barack Obama will be speaking in Golden Thursday, marking the umpteenth recent visit to Colorado by a presidential candidate or surrogate. And he'll be back again on October 3, when he's scheduled to face Mitt Romney in 2012's first presidential debate -- at the University of Denver, which is alread ... More >>

A Shot in the Dark

From the Archives: Last letter from a Union soldier to his brother

Uselma Duncan is not a household name. He was not a world-famous artist or poet, and he wasn't abundantly wealthy. Uselma Duncan was a dry goods clerk who fought on the side of the North during the early months of the Civil War. He represents a faceless, nameless number -- one of the millions of ind ... More >>

A Celebration to Remember

Barack Obama snubs the Brown Palace...again

The Brown Palace has hosted every U.S. president since Teddy Roosevelt first visited in 1905, thirteen years after the hotel opened, except for two: Calvin Coolidge and Barack Obama. And now Obama has snubbed the Brown again, opting to stay at the JW Marriott in Cherry Creek last night...after slumm ... More >>

Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth: "The chemistry in the band is better than it's ever been"

Iced Earth (due tonight at Summit Music Hall) came out of the rich heavy metal scene in Tampa Bay, Florida in the late '80s. At a time when melodic heavy metal, especially the glam variety, was on the wane, Iced Earth came in with the wave of metal that produced a melodic speed metal as well as the ... More >>

Take the Middle Passage

Barack Obama follows Calvin Coolidge's lead, snubs Brown Palace

Brown Palace 1892.​A week after Snobama buried the Front Range in hype and hope, we're still shoveling out -- and just dug up this fun fact: The Brown Palace has hosted every U.S. president since Teddy Roosevelt first visited in 1905, thirteen years after the hotel opened, except for two: Calv ... More >>

Rally Round the Flag

Reader: 1 guy on your 10 most bangable dudes in Colorado history list isn't worth banging

​Our list of the 10 most bangable dudes in Colorado history featured plenty of vintage hunks, including the young Buffalo Bill Cody, seen here. But a reader drew a (very funny) line in front of one pick.

Author David Eisenbach on working with Larry Flynt and gay Presidential sex scandals

​In their book, One Nation Under Sex, Larry Flynt and David Eisenbach are looking for high profile sex scandals that the history books might have missed. That might sound like a book filled with hearsay and smut, but the purpose isn't so much to bring down our nation's leaders, but to humanize ... More >>

Comment of the day: The occupation of Hawaii

God save the queen?​Hawaii is probably the weirdest U.S. State, as Sarah Vowell observed when she interviewed with our Amber Taufen on Friday: The U.S. basically annexed it over the course of a summer, and even today, native Hawaiians recognize a strong loyalty to the former monarchy -- someth ... More >>

Sarah Vowell on Hawaii, monarchy and Unfamiliar Fishes

​At 3 p.m. on Sunday, Sarah Vowell will sign copies of her latest tome, Unfamiliar Fishes, at the Tattered Cover LoDo, 1628 16th Street. We caught up with Vowell about her inspiration for the book, what she learned and how this book fits into her previous body of work.

Patrick Stickles of Titus Andronicus talks bagpipes, Bright Eyes and the Boss

​ Titus Andronicus is frightfully serious about punk rock. The group of well-read, New Jersey-bred twenty-somethings recently released The Monitor, a concept album about the Civil War that contains spoken-word, era-appropriate interludes, male-female call-and-response, and three track punk su ... More >>

Patriot Games

Happy Birthday Abraham! Five Songs that mention Abraham Lincoln

With an entire day devoted to the vast, ceremonious, celebration of love, it's quite easy to overlook President's Day. But while Valentine's Day gets all the press and glory (and presents!), we'd be completely remiss not to at least acknowledge the men who helped shape who we are today. Without pres ... More >>

Bloody buffalo hunt diorama to stay in Colorado History Museum collection

Photo by Melanie AsmarAre those kids playing catch with an eyeball? Grody. Spilled entrails. Dogs guarding picked-over bones. Men dangling raw flesh above their mouths like bunches of grapes. Children tossing an eyeball back and forth. Sound like the apocalypse? A cannibal's birthday party? No, i ... More >>

A Good Day

Juneteenth returns to Five Points with a parade and festival.

Today's featured event: Pulitzer Prize winner and East High grad Dan Howe on what God hath wrought

East High grad and author Daniel Howe will talk about his 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winning history tome, What Hath God Wrought -- The Transformation of America: 1815-1848, at 7 p.m. tonight at the Colorado History Museum, 1300 Broadway. The 928-page book, published in late 2007, covers American histor ... More >>

Land of Lincoln

Making History

A footnote in many other tales, Joseph Priestly finally gets his own book.

Hearing Voices

Howard Zinn and company bring history to the stage.

I'm Not Don Cheadle or Judy Collins, But Still...

Things that Won’t Be at the Presidential Memorabilia Exhibit

Get to the Points: Kiva Restaurant

The Rebirth of Cool

It Takes a Tribe

Tonight: A Bold Light on Dark History

The Civil War State

Colorado was pivotal in keeping the Union together.

C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America

Starz FilmCenter in the Tivoli Student Union

Hail to the Chief

Next Stage's Assassins is a grand musical look at America's killer instinct.

Exploring La Raza

The tale of Chicanos in Colorado is captured in La Raza de Colorado.

Cage Death Match

National Treasure makes one long for good Nic Cage movies . . .like Con Air.

Best Comment on the CU Recruiting Scandal

Joyce Lebra

Blast From the Past

DCTC's adaptation of John Brown's Body stands tall.

Best Theater Ensemble Work

Manson Family Values
The LIDA Project Experimental Theatre Company

Best Blockbuster Museum Exhibit

Painters and the American West

Best Rock That Looks Like George Washington

Roxborough Park
Colorado State Parks

A Fraying Yarn

The white author of a book on quilting thinks her black male co-author is getting all the credit.

Hey, Hey, It's the Fourth of July

1776 salutes the birth of a nation in song.

Black to Nature

Bill Gwaltney wants to see more people like him at Rocky Mountain National Park.

Don't Know Much About History

History in the Making

The battle over the Sand Creek massacre just won't end.

Small World

Country Music