A friend of mine found this quiz online this morning, courtesy of the Denver Post. I thought it might be fun to share it here:
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_10035188
In honor of our upcoming Colorado Day, it's time for a quiz:
1) When is Colorado Day?
2) What is the oldest continuously operating business in Colorado?
3) Where is the most senior water right in Colorado?
4) When did the Colorado River start originating in Colorado?
5) Why is there a big "A" on a hillside west of Fort Collins?
6) Colorado is known as "the mother of rivers." What's the longest of her offspring?
7) In 1995, Ben Campbell switched from Democrat to Republican. But he was not the first U.S. senator from Colorado to change parties. Who was?
8) For whom did Coloradans vote in the 1876 presidential election?
9) What Continental Divide pass in Colorado was crossed by two railroad lines?
10) When did Colorado women get the right to vote?
Answers:
1) President U.S. Grant signed a proclamation admitting Colorado as a state on Aug. 1, 1876, so Aug. 1 was a state holiday for many years. Then it was moved to the first Monday in August. It quit being an official holiday in 1985 when the state made Martin Luther King Jr. Day a holiday.
2) Despite its recent claim, the Rocky Mountain News, founded in 1859, is not the oldest continuously running business. The R&R Supermarket in San Luis holds that title. It opened in 1857 as a general store owned by Don Dario Gallegos.
3) Near the oldest business is the oldest water right, San Luis People's Ditch No. 1, which began diverting water from Culebra Creek in 1852.
4) Until 1921, the Colorado River began at the junction of the Grand and Green rivers in Utah. That year, our legislature changed the name of the Grand to the Colorado. But the Grand lives on in place names like Grand County and Grand Junction. It would be simpler to discuss Western Slope water issues if we'd go back to calling it the Grand.
5) Colorado State University began as the Agricultural College of Colorado when authorized by the territorial legislature in 1870. Students were known as "Aggies," and thus the A.
6) The Rio Grande, at 1,900 miles, is the longest. The Arkansas, 1,459, and the Colorado, 1,450 (90 of those miles in Mexico), come next.
7) Henry Moore Teller represented Colorado in the U.S. Senate as a Republican from 1876 to 1882. He resigned to serve as secretary of the Interior (he was the first Coloradan to hold a cabinet position) until 1885 when he returned to the Senate as a Republican. He was a "Silver Republican" when he started another term in 1897, and became a Democrat for his last term, which started in 1903.
8) Coloradans did not vote in the 1876 election; that year the General Assembly chose the state's three presidential electors, who were Republicans and gave Rutherford B. Hayes his one-vote margin in the Electoral College. It was the only time, until 2000, that Colorado's electoral votes made any difference in a presidential election.
9) The Denver & Rio Grande crossed Fremont Pass from 1881 to 1923, and the Denver South Park & Pacific line operated there from 1884 to 1937. A remnant of that line, from Leadville almost to Climax, operates summer excursions as the Leadville, Colorado & Southern.
10) As of statehood in 1876, Colorado women could vote in school elections, and there was a referendum on full suffrage. It failed. One passed in 1893. Colorado was the second state, after Wyoming, to grant full female suffrage, and the first to do so by popular vote. Don't believe all those "Women couldn't vote until 1920" statements you encounter.
And now you can celebrate Colorado Day, whenever it is.
Ed Quillen (ed@cozine.com) is a freelance writer, history buff, publisher of Colorado Central Magazine in Salida and frequent contributor to The Post.
