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Just how colorful is Colorado?
Herald Features Editor
First we picked on Delaware. That was way too easy.
Then we went big: Texas. Apparently Texans are not easily irked. There was little response to the Oct. 18 GeoQuiz - even to the No. 2 bodily function joke. Maybe it was just that no one got it. Maybe we weren't nasty enough. Oh well.
Anyway, as promised, today we lampoon our own dear state - my native state - of Colorado.
How could one possibly mock such a beautiful, versatile state as Colorado? Let us count the ways.
Colorado tends to attract some strange people, looking for something. They come lookin' for silver, they come lookin' for gold. They come lookin' for solitude. Mostly, they come lookin' for a Rocky Mountain High.
Speaking of Rocky Mountain High, and how we've seen it raining fire in the sky, a big thanks to folk singer John Denver for increasing Colorado's population by hundreds of thousands of starry-eyed Easterners and Midwesterners in the 1970s.
His songs led a lot of misguided folks here, thinking their lives of desperation would turn idyllic as they nestled into their long-awaited niche among the white-capped mountains. Have y'all sobered up?
Ready for today's GeoQuiz? Better be. (Answers below.) 1. The city of Denver was named after: a) John Denver, singer/songwriter; b) Bob Denver, aka Gilligan; c) James Denver, one-time governor of Kansas.
2. What is the only city to be awarded the Winter Olympics and then vote not to have them?
3. The federal prison system's only so-called "Supermax" unit is in Colorado. It hosts the infamous and notorious, including the Unabomber, Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, Al-Qaida terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, and many others you'd love to have over for dinner.
Supermax isn't exactly a tourist attraction, although the Durango-sized city it's near does have a prison museum. Name that city. And, if you can, name the main tourist attraction that draws summer visitors to that area.
4. Our lovely state is site of one of the most appalling attacks on Native Americans. The Sand Creek Massacre took place Nov. 29, 1864, when about 650 Colorado volunteers attacked a village of Cheyenne and Arapahos. At least 150 were killed, many of whom were women and children.
The Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, dedicated in 2007, is located on the Colorado plains near which of these towns: a) Creede, b) Sedgwick, c) Naturita, d) Chivington.
5. You know about our famous cannibal, right? Alferd Packer apparently ate four of his companions, supposedly after they died. Did he murder one or more first? The mystery remains. Name the town nearest the spot where this great Coloradan had his feast. A skull chip from one of Packer's victims, and more, can be found at the Hinsdale County Museum.
6. How many states border Colorado? Name them.
7. Colorado is officially the: a) Rocky Mountain High State, b) Centennial State, c) Ex-Hippie State, d) Golden Nugget State.
8. When John Hinckley tried to assassinate a U.S. president, it brought fame to a certain Colorado town. Hinckley lived off and on with his parents in what city southwest of Denver? Hint: It begins with an "E" and it's in Jefferson County. Also, at which president did he take aim?
9. Which of these is unique to the state of Colorado? a) Colorado City, b) Colorado Springs, c) Colorado River, d) Colorado County.
johnp@durangoherald.com Notice we didn't even mention the Balloon Boy?
Find answers right here on crazy Colorado
Answers to the GeoQuiz 1. c) James Denver. Yes folks, the capital of your great state was named after a Kansan. An 1850s settlement along Cherry Creek was named after the governor of the then territory of Kansas.
2. Denver. After being awarded the 1976 Winter Olympics in 1970, the city voted by 59 percent to 41 percent in November 1972 not to have them. Innsbruck, Austria, took them instead.
3. CaƱon City. The city of 15,000 located about 40 miles west of Pueblo hosts The Museum of Colorado Prisons. Nearby is the Royal Gorge.
4. d) Chivington. The town, ironically, is named after Colonel John Chivington, who launched the Sand Creek campaign against Native Americans.
5. Lake City. The Alferd Packer Massacre Site is accessible just a few minutes south of town.
6. Seven. Starting toward the south, and going clockwise, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma (just a tiny bit of the panhandle).
7. b) The Centennial State. Statehood came Aug. 1, 1876, a hundred years after the U.S. claimed countryhood.
8. Evergreen. He was after President Carter for a while, but on March 30, 1981, he attempted to kill President Reagan to impress actress Jodie Foster. One bullet hit Reagan, who was briefly hospitalized.
Three others were wounded. By the way, Hinckley graduated high school in Dallas County, Texas.
9. b) Colorado Springs. Easy, right? There's a Colorado City in both Arizona and Texas. There's a Colorado County in Texas.
The Colorado River goes through several states - Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and California.
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