Audio By Carbonatix
On August 1, 1876, Colorado gained statehood – becoming the 38th state to join the Union, and the only one to do so on America’s 100th birthday. So after you mark your calendars for August 1, 2026 – when the Centennial State will celebrate a big anniversary – you can start the party now.
Coloradans are rightfully proud of life along the Rockies, from the Western Slope to the Eastern Plains, from the Wyoming border down to Raton Pass. It’s not just that we get to mark our statehood because of an arbitrary number of yearly notches in our communal belt – it’s that for all its challenges, Colorado is pretty damn impressive.
So here’s to our Centennial State: Raise a glass (of Rocky Mountain spring water, of craft beer, of cider) and sing her praises on this Colorado Day, including – but definitely not limited to – these ten:
We Inspired “America the Beautiful”
The song that many think should actually be our national anthem – but nonetheless is a patriotic favorite that stirs the hearts of many – was composed right here in Colorado. The origins of what we now know as “America the Beautiful” started as a poem written by English professor Katharine Lee Bates during a trip to Pikes Peak. It was actually composed at the grand and historic Antlers Hotel only three years before that Colorado Springs landmark was destroyed in a fire in 1898. Spacious skies, amber waves of grain, purple mountain majesty, fruited plains – that’s about America, sure, but Colorado has them all.
We Have the Highest Paved Road in the U.S.
It might not seem like a big deal for those who’ve been over Mount Evans more than once, and probably taken the “hike” from the parking lot to the summit – more a casual stroll, really, which always makes out-of-town visitors happy, since they’re also experiencing breathing at altitude for the first time. But the Mount Evans Byway is still a sight to see, and an American record that will likely stand for time immemorial.
Jolly Ranchers, Chipotle and Cheeseburgers
All of them were invented – or at least copyrighted – right here in Colorado. The Jolly Rancher brand started in Golden, originally as an ice cream store, and eventually its “Fire Stix” caught on and became the eminently sweet suckable treats we all know and love. The cheeseburger is still apocryphally credited to Louis Ballast of the Humpty-Dumpty Drive-In near Federal and Speer back in the day (or at least Ballast had the notion to take credit first). And Chipotle – well, it started here, but unwisely moved its HQ to California in 2018.
We Were Too Cool for the Olympics
Sure, our state boasts a lot of Olympic training centers, especially for winter events, but back in the early ’70s, voters said no to bringing the 1976 Winter Games to the Mile High City. And not because we knew we were already going to be celebrating our centennial that year, and knew we’d be busy. Then-State Representative Dick Lamm helped lead the defeat of the proposal, calling it an “unwieldy fiasco” that would cost both taxpayers and the environment. To this day, Denver remains the only city in the world to say thanks but no thanks to the Olympic games. (Note: The video above was produced in support of the Olympics…and includes some pretty big “alternative facts.”)
It’s a Great State to Be a Sports Fan
Despite snubbing the Olympics, Colorado is still a major player in most major American sports. We bleed orange and blue for our Broncos. The Avalanche has won twelve division titles and three Stanley Cups since coming here from Quebec in the mid-’90s. The Nuggets just won the hearts of basketball fans across America. The Rockies…well, we had Rocktober back in 2007. So baseball fans, keep the faith – we’re due.
It Has Snowed Somewhere in Colorado Every Month of the Year
Granted, if it’s August, it’s only going to snow up in the mountains, but still: snow in August. That’s a pretty awesome thing that you usually only find in stop-motion Rankin-Bass holiday productions from the 1970s.
Denver International Airport Is the Biggest in the U.S.
When measured by land area, that is, at over 33,000 acres of land. That’s a lot of space, especially when you consider how much of it is already taken up by underground reptilian kingdoms. On a related note, Colorado Day is the one time every year when Blucifer comes to life and runs amok across the Rockies looking for Raiders fans – and when he finds them, he’ll sit them down, light them up a bowl, and explain just where in life they may have gone wrong.
We Have Our Ghosts…Including the Real Hotel From The Shining
Estes Park’s Stanley Hotel – built by the Stanley Steamer fortune (that’s cars, by the way, not carpet cleaning) – is one of the most awesomely haunted places in America. It not only bears the imprimatur of no less than Stephen King himself, but also hosts scary stories of its own real history, all fiction aside. It’s the only thrill ride in America where you can book a room and stay a while. But it’s not our only locale for contact with the spirit world; just check out Cheesman Park – and all the stately and haunted manors surrounding it – right in the middle of Denver.
Overall, We’re Rational
No matter your politics these days, you have to admire Colorado’s willingness to think things through. We led on marijuana decriminalization, and that led us to doing the same with psilocybin. This isn’t a recent thing: We were the first state to establish the right of a woman to vote by popular referendum all the way back in 1893. We were the first state to pass a law allowing abortion in 1967. Considering the state as a whole, we’re still pretty purple, with a mix of red in rural parts of the state and down in the Springs, and blue in most of the other urban areas. Do we agree on everything? Absolutely not. Do we sometimes have intolerant bakers and theoretical web-designers doing their best to muck things up for people? Unfortunately, yes. Do we have our less-than-stellar thinkers still inexplicably in office? Yes, by all that’s Boebert, we do. But still, we manage. We do our best to be our best. Keep on keepin’ on, Colorado.
And Wow…Are We Pretty, or What?
Colorado’s population was under 200,000 in the 1880 census, only four years following statehood – and in 2020, 140 years later, just shy of 6 million. There are lots of reasons for that, but we here in Colorado can experience one of the big ones just by going outside: Natural beauty. Colorado is a stunner.
What’s your favorite thing about Colorado? Share it with us in a comment, or send your suggestions to editorial@Westword.com.
