Ahh, the state quarters! You know, the ones we’ve been collecting these past few years
and are being released in the order each state was brought into statehood. Fortunately,
the people of Colorado can expect their quarter to be release this summer of 2006. Our
Governor, Bill Owens had five designs to chose from, “Mesa Verde,” “The Centennial State,”
“Pike’s Peak or Bust,” “Colorful Colorado,” and the “10th Mountain Division.” (See adjacent photo)
The Governor chose “Colorful Colorado.” "It is difficult to condense the heritage
and beauty of a 104,000-square mile state into something the size of a quarter,"
said Owens. “All of the final five designs were worthy of being minted. In the end,
I made my selection based on what most people think of when they think of Colorado
- our majestic Rocky Mountains," Owens said.
The writer of this column preferred the “Pike’s Peak
or Bust” design. People of the 19th century the world
around knew about Pike’s Peak. The mountain can be seen
on globes and atlases from that time period as that great
mountain in the center of North America. Even William Palmer,
the railroad tycoon and entrepreneur, staked out the city of
Colorado Springs at the foot of Pike’s Peak in July 1871. He
knew that if he built a railroad from Denver to Colorado Springs
and put up a hotel, people would flock here to see this great mountain,
and they did, by the thousands.
Governor Owens preferred to take the middle approach in that he didn’t want to pick one particular area of Colorado.
He wanted to project our majestic Rocky Mountains. But
did Bill Owens inadvertently pick a mountain when he chose
that design? Yes he did, says this writer. That mountain is
“Long’s Peak” (left photo) in the Rocky Mountain National Park.
-This essay was written by Jeff Christlieb in Denver, Colorado. His web site is: http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.com/~jcrislip/.
