
Mount of the Holy Cross
“There is a mountain in the distant West / That, sun-defying, in its deep ravines / Displays a cross of snow upon its side.”

By Jon Pinnow

The lark bunting
Look in the foothills & mountain valleys of Colorado, and you’ll find the state flower – the Rocky Mountain columbine. The state tree is nearby – the blue spruce.

By Jon Pinnow

Colorado rodeos
One of the country’s first rodeos took place July 4, 1869, in Deer Trail, Colorado. Today, top rodeo prizes can be hundreds of thousands of dollars.

By Jon Pinnow

Oscar Wilde
Before Oscar Wilde wrote the comedy of manners “The Importance of Being Earnest,” he visited Leadville in 1882. It was, he said, “the richest city in the world.”

By Jon Pinnow

Whitetail and mule deer
If you see a deer in Colorado, it’s either the Mule deer sporting big ears, or the White-tailed deer, named for the color under the tail it holds high when […]

By Jon Pinnow

The Hard Rock 100
There are marathons, there are ultra marathons, and then there’s the Hard Rock 100.

By Jon Pinnow

Yule Marble
In Washington, D.C., the Lincoln Memorial is surrounded by 36 giant columns, one for every state in the union at the time of Lincoln’s death in 1865.

By Jon Pinnow

Pikes Peak
Standing tall and broad-shouldered, Pikes Peak is Colorado’s best known mountain. The Ute called it “Sun Mountain.” Oral history says their ancestors walked the summit a long time ago.

By Jon Pinnow

Horace Tabor
When you say “TABOR” to Coloradans today, they might first think of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. But the word is more than an acronym.

By Jon Pinnow

The American Bison
Strictly speaking, in Colorado a Buffalo is a collegiate athlete from Boulder.

By Jon Pinnow

Buckskin Joe
In Colorado, there was a man, who became a town, which became a tourist attraction and movie star of sorts. And now: “Buckskin Joe” is in private hands.

By Jon Pinnow

Colorado baseball’s first innings
The Glenwood Sluggers … The Walsenburg Wonders … Pueblo’s Lithia Ball Club … Denver’s Young Bachelors. All were baseball teams in the early years of Colorado’s baseball story.

By Jon Pinnow

A Montrose by any other name
Shakespeare reminds us that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” The same holds for the Western Colorado town, of Montrose. Or Mon-TROZE, or MONT-roze.

By Jon Pinnow

Molybdenum
Between Copper Mountain and Leadville, more than 11,300 feet above sea level, the town of Climax once stood.

By Jon Pinnow

The Many Springs of Colorado
Hot Sulphur Springs, seat of Grand County, gets its name honestly: there are in fact geothermal springs in town, burbling sulfurous and hot.

By Jon Pinnow

Shep’s Crossing
If you have to cross the railroad tracks in Broomfield, between Midway Boulevard and Industrial Lane, you’ll use a pedestrian bridge called Shep’s Crossing.

By Jon Pinnow