WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - State Facts: Colorado

Episode Date: September 5, 2024

Nate is joined by Jillian Golden to talk all about Colorado.

You're listening to State Facts on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm your host, Nate Gallagher, and I'm joined by Hillsdale's resident Colorado, Julian Golden. How are you doing today? Good. How are you? Pretty good. So where are you from in Colorado? From Golden, Colorado. It's the west side of Denver right at the base of the mountains.

Oh, nice. So this question should be easy as what is the capital of Colorado? Denver, Colorado. When was Colorado admitted to the union? It was admitted in 1876. sometime in August. August 1st, 1876. Do you know what number it was?

38. How about the population? So the state is a bit under 6 million, but that's interesting because Denver is about half of that, the Denver metro area, with about 3 million. How about the nickname of the state? It's called either Colorful Colorado or the Centennial State, because 1876, 100 years after declaration.

The state animal I think it's like a big horn sheep Is it actually? Yes, it's the big horn sheep Got a lot of sheep You see them running around the mountains a lot Like if you drive up the highway You can see them up on the sides

But not really I've never seen a sheep They're pretty cool Fluffy Yeah but they also have big horns They're kind of scary They're huge Everything in Colorado is bigger

Hence the name big horn Yeah I assume so Like the deer too Are like twice the size How about the state bird? Oh, it's really lame. It's the lark bunting.

It's this basic little bird that's just brown and black and white. But it's kind of cute, but it's very much just a neighborhood bird. You'll see it everywhere. Does it have like a particular song? Because a lark is like known for singing, at least the term lark. I have absolutely no idea. Okay. How about the state flower?

It's the Columbine. Everybody knows that. Specifically, it's also the blue Columbine, I'm pretty sure. But we do have a lot of other colors, too. They're very pretty, or no? They're really pretty. Again, I've never seen one. They'll grow on the sides of ditches everywhere.

You'll just see them all the time. It's like, it's almost like a wildflower. I think it is a wildflower. How about the state pet? No idea. Rescue dogs and cats. I had a rescue dog once. It was my dog.

How about the state insect? Oh, actually, it's a type of butterfly, I think. I want to say it's purple and orange or blue and yellow or something like that, but it's something hairstring or something. Hair streak? Yeah, it's the hair streak butterfly. Hey. And that is the color, at least in the picture that I saw it.

It was like purple and orange. Yeah, they're like that type of butterfly that has really long bottom wings, and so they kind of trail out when they fly. How about the state gemstone? Does gold count? We had a lot of gold mines. No. Okay.

Gold is not a gem. Gold is a mineral. Okay. No clue. Aquamarine. Hey, that's epic. How about the state tree? It's the blue spruce.

We had a blue spruce growing up in our backyard. It's really, really big now, and we have another baby one right next to it. When they start growing, they're like three feet tall. I mean, obviously. But then they get huge, but it's funny because they all kind of, they grow. vertically at the same time as horizontally. So it's not like they get tall. It's more like there's like a cone and then they're a bigger cone.

But then when the branches go, so it's like it's pine needles, right? But then when they grow, there's like the new needles are really, really soft. It's like a weird almost like paintbrush feeling and they're super soft and you can just like grab them and it doesn't hurt. But then once they're grown up, then it's kind of painful. How about the state fossil? I had no idea. That's awesome. We've got this right near Golden on the way to, on the way to Morrison, which is up 470, if somebody knows. But we have dinosaur ridge, which is like this huge, it's basically this road that goes up the side of a mountain. But the mountain, when it formed, it like pushed up. And so, like, it left a super exposed, like, streak of just fossils and footprints and stuff. And so there's, there's a bunch of them. But there's, like,

There's this big little footprint in the side of the mountain that you can see from the highway like half a mile away. But then when you go up to it, you can like stand inside of it. That seems so cool. It's pretty cool. I wish I could go see that. All right. Well, that's all the time we have today. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

Absolutely. I've been Nate Gallagher with State Facts on Radio for Hillsdale 101.7 FM. See you next time.