Tonight Colorado Inside Out Travels Back in Time to 1876

The Emmy Award-winning Colorado Inside Out is offering another blast from the past at 8 p.m. tonight on Colorado Public Television with "Time Machine Special: Circa 1876." 

Colorado became a state in 1876, the same year the nation celebrated its centennial — which explains this state's nickname. It's a little harder to explain some of the revisionist history you'll see on the show, which features host Dominic Dezzutti (as Joseph Sewald, first president of the University of Colorado), chatting in a bar with 5280's Natasha Gardner (Colorado's first official First Lady), Denver City Councilman Kevin Flynn (William Byers, publisher of The Rocky Mountain News) and David Kopel (Thomas Patterson, the state's first official representative to Congress). And, yes, I'm there, too, as Augusta Tabor, wife of Horace, who'd yet to hit it rich in Leadville — and had yet to dump Augusta for that minx Baby Doe.

The show also includes footage shot at the Colorado Railroad Museum, as well as several special guest stars, including Julius Ames as General Phil Sheridan, Denis Berckefeldt as presidential candidate Samuel Tilden, Alan DeLollis as Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes, Daniel Salazar as ranchero Cipriano Salazar and Time Machine impresario Larry Patchett  as R. W. Woodbury, publisher of The Denver Daily Times.

And after you watch this version, watch out: On July 16 CPT12 will learn if its last trip back in time, to 1940, will win another Emmy.
"Circa 1876" will repeat several times this weekend; find out more here.