Phantom Canyon
Do phantoms really roam Phantom Canyon Road? Reports of apparitions abound on what used to be the railroad from Florence to Cripple Creek. In the 1890s, some saw a man in a prison uniform standing along the tracks — except he’d been executed at the nearby state penitentiary.
Potatoes
Rufus Clark came to Colorado in the Gold Rush and found treasure in potatoes! “Potato King” Clark’s first wagonload sold for fifteen hundred dollars, a fortune in 1860. By the time the state became the newest in the union, the ‘tater was a key cash crop and could attract a crowd.
Fireweed
Hike through a forest scorched by fire. Blackened trunks give way to a wash of brilliant pink and magenta blooms sweeping the ground before you. Fireweed is Colorado’s comeback artist. It loves disturbed soil and soaks up sunlight flooding in after wildfire clears the forest canopy.
Blue columbine
Six species of columbine grow in Colorado, but only one holds the state crown — the blue columbine. Golden stamens on white petals framed by blue-to-lavender sepals and spurs, people often squeal in delight when they spot this striking bloom in aspen groves and meadows. Equally captivated? Migrating hummingbirds.
Mountain Plover
A plover on the plains is like a canary in a coal mine. Despite its name, the Mountain Plover prefers the dryer and open prairie of eastern Colorado. Audubon himself misnamed it, and you may never encounter one. It’s hard to hear. And it’s hard to see, with muted plumage blending into seas of grass.
Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales
The CPR studios welcomed students from Julia Cogan and Miriam O’Connor’s 5th-grade class from Escuela de Guadalupe. These young broadcasters learned how to produce a Colorado Postcards segment from Colorado Postcards creators Gillian Coldsnow and Jon Pinnow.
Minnie J. Reynolds
Journalist Minnie J. Reynolds started writing for the Rocky Mountain News’ society page in the late 1800s. Her intellect and wit propelled her into a leading political writer — and helped Colorado women gain the right to vote.
Melvin-Lewis Cemetery
A shopping center near Cherry Creek State Park is like many of its kind — big box shops, retail and eating establishments. But between a couple restaurants in the parking lot is an unlikely sight: a cemetery.
Colorado Springs, Brown Teeth, and Fluoride
When Frederick McKay got to Colorado Springs in 1901 to set up his first dental practice, no one knew what he would soon help to discover: the connection between Fluoride and tooth decay.
Mt Rosalie
The fourteener nearest Denver, Blue Sky used to be called Mount Evans after the governor responsible for the Sand Creek Massacre. But on this portion of the Front Range lived another name change … and a love story. Mount Bierstadt honors the leading landscape artist of the nineteenth century, Albert Bierstadt.
Decalibron
The Decalibron … neither an ancient Greek sport nor a machine of science fiction, it’s a hiking trail that gets its name from the first syllables of Mounts Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln and Bross … fourteeners connected by a single ridge.
Papa Jack Weil’s Western Shirt
Colorado helped stitch the legacy of cowboy style in Denver. In the 1940s, Western shirts evolved from rugged leather to breathable cotton, and their design followed suit. Longer tails kept shirts tucked in in the saddle, while pointed yokes added strength across the shoulders.
Ivy Baldwin
Balloonist William “Ivy” Baldwin was the first American aviator to be shot down in wartime – in 1898, during the Spanish-American War. He was also a tightrope walker who balanced his way high above the roaring waters of South Boulder Creek dozens of times.
Olga Little
When Olga Little came to Durango in 1895 as a teenager, she was already an experienced horse handler. She then became Colorado’s first woman “jackpacker.” Miners depended on Olga and her string of surefooted burros to come to them high in the mountains with loads of supplies, then pack gold and silver ore out.
Moose
Last September, Dr. Kim Walter, the digital teacher librarian at Shelton Elementary School in Golden, reached out to tell us she wanted to use Colorado Postcards with her students. She contacted Colorado Postcards creators Gillian Coldsnow and Jon Pinnow, who met with the students virtually to kick off the project.
Ouray’s Danny Boy Connection
You don’t get more Irish than Danny Boy. And yet, without a Colorado link, that poignant combination of words and music might never have happened. Frederick Weatherly wrote the poem after he lost his father and son within three months of each other. He intended to write a song, never quite found the melody.
