University of Colorado at Boulder Parent Guide
Boulder Trivia
- Bicycling is so highly regarded in Boulder that sometimes the city plows the Boulder Creek bike path before they plow the streets.
- Robert Redford was a janitor at The Sink, before moving on to become famous.
- Boulder became the first city in the US, in 1967, to tax itself for funds to be used specifically for the acquisition, management and maintenance of Open Space.
- Among 14 comparable cities, Boulder ranks Number 1 in people who walk to work, work at home and drive with more than one person in the car. It ranks second among those who bike.
- The Denver Post once described Boulder as “The little town nestled between the mountains and reality.”
- The Hotel Boulderado was named by combining Boulder and Colorado in hopes that no visitor would ever forget where they had stayed.
- Baseline Road is a significant east-west route to both Boulderites & cartographers, because it marks the 40th parallel on world maps.
- Boulder’s Third Flatiron towers 1,400 feet high, a few hundred feet higher than the Empire State Building, and has been climbed by people without using their hands, on roller skates, naked and in 8 minutes (by separate climbers).
- A 1992 survey by the Centers for Disease Control found that Colorado had fewer overweight people per capita and more people who exercise than any other state.
- A Colorado Daily poll found that seven out of ten Boulderites own bicycles. Another guidebook states that Boulder’s bicycle count is approximately 93,000 – almost equal to the total population!
- The Chautauqua Auditorium is an all-wood structure built in 1898. In the evening, when the Colorado Music Festival musicians stop playing, you can often hear the rafters-dwelling owls hooting along with the music.
- The Flatiron Mountains got their name by pioneer women who said they looked like flat, metal irons used to iron their clothes.
- Flagstaff Mountain was named for the flagpole that sits on top of the summit, which was visible when Boulder was first settled, as it was a completely treeless plain.
- Scott Carpenter, a NASA astronaut, grew up in Boulder. He named his space capsule after his home on Aurora and 7th. The capsule was Aurora 7.
- The buildings at the University of Colorado at Boulder are built with red sandstone, quarried in nearby Lyons.
- Boulder’s going to the dogs! Recent visitor counts to Boulder Mountain Parks found a ratio of 1 dog to every 5 visitors.
- Every year, Boulder Mountain Parks core area receives 1.8 million visits. If that many people made a human chain, it would stretch from Boulder, Colorado to New York City!
- In the past, Chautauqua Meadow has served as a cattle pasture, golf course, backdrop for the “Mork & Mindy” television show and a ski area with rope tow, all before it was protected as a natural grassland.
- With Coors, Anheuser-Busch and local microbreweries, this area has become the largest beer-producing triangle in the world.
