Interesting Facts About Colorado

Things you may not have known about Colorado:

1. The highest vertical climb is not on a mountain but up the north side of the Black Canyon. Rising 1,700 feet, this sheer rock face is even higher than the famous Diamond on Longs Peak and was not conquered until 1969.

2. In 1899 Crested Butte recorded 254 inches of snow near the top of Kebler Pass. That year, snow buried a train near Leadville and left only stove pipes showing above cabins at many mountain towns. Usually, Wolf Creek Pass near Pagosa Springs gets the most snow in Colorado.

3. Leadville is the highest (10,200 feet) incorporated town in Colorado and the entire U.S. It has also had the highest rate of premature babies in the U.S. Researchers concluded that the altitude causes smaller babies.

4. Delta, south of Grand Junction, gets less rain per year than Tucson, Arizona.

5. Winds blowing around the Great Sand Dunes near Alamosa create sounds resembling music. That's how Music Pass above the dunes got its name.

6. Colorado was the second state in the U.S. to give women the right to vote. Wyoming was the first. (You would think the eastern states would have been more progressive, but it took the frontier adventure to make men realize how strong and intelligent women were.)