The white and lavender Rocky Mountain Columbine (Aquilegia saximontana) was designated the official state flower of Colorado in 1899 after winning the vote of Colorado's school children.
The Tesla Experimental Station was built in 1899 by inventor Nikola Tesla for his study of the use of high-voltage, high-frequency electricity in wireless power transmission. Tesla chose Colorado Springs because it is one of the most active lightning strike areas in the United States. He used the lab for only one year. On 7 January 1900, the famous inventor made the final entry in his Colorado Springs journal. In 1904, he was sued for unpaid bills, and the lab was torn down. Its contents were auctioned off to satisfy Tesla's debts.
President Warren G. Harding visited Aurora's Fitzsimons Army Hospital in 1923, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited in 1936. In 1943 the hospital was the birthplace of 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. And President Dwight D. Eisenhower recovered from a heart attack at Fitzsimons for seven weeks during the fall of 1955.
Pueblo is the hometown of four Medal of Honor recipients (more than any other municipality in the United States) -- William J. Crawford, Carl L. Sitter, Raymond G. Murphy, and Drew D. Dix. President Dwight D. Eisenhower upon presenting Raymond G. "Jerry" Murphy with his medal in 1953 commented, "What is it ... something in the water out there in Pueblo? All you guys turn out to be heroes!"
SHARE THIS PAGE!