Showing posts with label Denver. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Denver. Show all posts

Sunday, July 19, 2026

Denver's Big Blue Bear!


Standing outside the Colorado Convention Center, on 14th Street between California and Stout in Denver, is a 40-foot (12.192 meters) Blue Bear Sculpture that peers into the center's windows.
 


The official name for the sculpture is "I See What You Mean," and it is a popular Denver Public Art sculpture that has been peering into those windows since 2005.



Sculpted by artist Lawrence Argent, the structure is clad in polymer-concrete and depicts an American black bear standing on its hind legs, peering into the Convention Center's lobby. Argent's decision to sculpt a bear was based on the wildlife native to the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The black bear is the only species of bear currently found in the mountain range, and is seen by many as a symbol of the region. According to Wikipedia, Argent was inspired specifically by a newspaper photo of a bear peering through someone's window, which he stated "resonated with him."




Artist Lawrence Argent did not originally intend the bear sculpture, made of steel, polymer, and concrete, to be vividly blue! In fact, the blue color was a complete accident. Originally, the bear was going to reflect the colors of Colorado in shades of sandstone, but a printing error for its prototype showed Argent just how remarkable this piece could be in a bold hue, reflecting Denver's deep blue skies.


Inside the wonderful History Colorado Center, there is a smaller replica of the Big Blue Bear peering in a window that children can stand in front of in an exhibit called "Denver A to Z."  
My grandchildren are almost all teenagers now, but they loved to visit this very "hands-on" museum when they were little, and this photo collage shows three of them excited to stand in front of the bear.


Blue sculptures in Denver seem to be a theme... a few months ago, I blogged about another iconic giant blue sculpture of a Mustang that stands along the road as one approaches or departs Denver International Airport in this post. 


In the History Colorado Center is a colorful replica of the "Welcome to Colorful Colorado" road sign that greet travelors of as they cross into Colorado from over 3 dozen major highway locations. These signs have greeted visitors since 1950! 


There are many wonderful places to visit in Denver--I hope you'll come for a visit someday soon!




Posted by at 38 comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

Sunday, July 12, 2026

Four Mile House Historic Park

Four Mile House is the oldest standing structure in the city of Denver, Colorado!

The oldest portion of the house was built in 1859, and the location served as the last stagecoach stop before entering what was then the "Colorado Gold Rush" city of Denver, on the Wells Fargo Butterfield Stagecoach route between El Paso and Denver.


Routes from the plains towards the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains.
 
The Colorado Gold Rush, originally known as the Pikes Peak Gold Rush, started in 1858 and was the second largest mining excitement in United States history after the great California Gold Rush a decade earlier. Over 100,000 people participated in this rush and were known as “Fifty-Niners”, a reference to 1859, the year the rush to Colorado peaked.

“Pikes Peak or Bust” was the motto of many emigrants, a reference to the mountain in the Front Range that guided many early prospectors westward over the Great Plains.

Gold Rush Prospectors

Gold prospectors were the first major non-native population to enter the region, leading to the creation of many early towns, including Denver, Boulder, Golden, and numerous smaller mining towns, some of which are still active communities today.

As prospectors flooded the region in search of quick riches, the rapid population growth led to the creation of the Colorado Territory in 1861 and to the U.S. State of Colorado in 1876.

The rear of Four Mile House

Four Mile House was built in late summer or fall 1859 by the brothers Samuel and Jonas Brantner. In 1858, Jonas had come to Colorado from Ohio to look for gold. After prospecting unsuccessfully on Cherry Creek and the South Platte River, he gave up and staked a farming claim along Cherry Creek.

In August 1859, Jonas’s brother Samuel arrived in Colorado, and they soon built a two-story log house on Jonas’s land. Samuel, his wife, and their infant daughter occupied the house in October 1859.

 The house might have acquired the name “Four Mile House” in 1859 or 1860, when part of the Cherokee Trail began to be used by mail carriers traveling between Colorado City (now part of Colorado Springs) and Denver as well as by immigrants following the Smoky Hill Trail from Kansas to Denver. It was four miles from the house to Broadway in the city of Denver.


In 1860, the Brantners sold Four Mile House to Mary Cawker. A widow from Wisconsin, Cawker moved into the house with her two children that September. She operated it as a stage station with a bar downstairs and a tavern, and held dances on the second floor.


 Over the next decade, stages regularly stopped at the house to change horses and to allow passengers to change clothes and freshen up before they arrived in Denver after their 700-mile, 12-week journey across the midwestern and high desert plains.

Mary Cawker sold the house to Levi Booth for $800. An attorney originally from Wisconsin, Booth moved into the house with his family in August 1864. He continued to operate the house as a stage stop and tavern for the rest of the decade.


Over the years, the current U-shaped plan evolved as three buildings were butted together to accommodate changing needs. Together, the 1859 squared log construction, the circa 1860s woodframe construction, and the 1883 brick portions reflect the evolution of rural housing during the Denver area’s early settlement period.

Glendale neighborhood of Denver in the distance of the Four Mile House grounds.


In 1946, the Booth family sold Four Mile House to Glen Boulton, who stayed there for nearly thirty years. During those years, the house, previously on the edge of the city, was surrounded by development as Denver spread southeast and Glendale became an enclave of businesses and bars. In response to encroaching development, preservationists worked to ensure Four Mile House’s survival. In 1968, the house became a Denver landmark, and in 1969, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.


In 1977, the nonprofit Four Mile Historic Park Inc. was formed to care for the property, which was opened to the public the next year as a living history museum.

One of the members of our friends group had volunteered as a tour guide for many years at Four Mile Park, and she decided to plan an outing for us to take a self-guided tour of the park and house, and then have lunch afterwards at a local restaurant.

Click on the collage to enlarge it.

We enjoyed looking at all the interesting history exhibits about Four Mile House in its Visitor Center...


...and then strolling the grounds to see how the land had been developed as a farm in the late 1800s, which included a school house...


... and a blacksmith shop, a summer kitchen, and a barn housing 1800s era transportation vehicles.


We had a guided tour of the inside of Four Mile House with a volunteer who told us more of its history.

Four Mile Historic Park is a great resource for educators and students to learn about Colorado’s early history and hosts many events for all ages during the year.



If you are a history enthusiast, and would like to learn more about Four Mile House there is an interesting PBS Experience show about it on YouTube with fascinating vintage photos of the covered wagons and stagecoach rides--see video above.

We we all so glad to see that Four Mile House was preserved and is now a wonderful view back into the pioneer days of our nation's history.



Posted by at 32 comments:
Labels: , , , , , ,

Sunday, May 17, 2026

Operation Pollination


Wild bee populations in North America have collapsed by up to 96% in two decades, according to the Xerces Society, an international nonprofit organization that protects the natural world through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats. Unfortunately, in many places, the essential service of pollination is at risk from habitat loss, pesticide use, and introduced diseases.
 


My husband and I were invited to attend a Denver Metro South Rotary Club meeting held in the conservatory of the Colorado Governor's Residence at Boettcher Mansion in Denver, Colorado, because one of our friends was receiving a citizenship award from the club that day. 
One of the topics discussed that day was the upcoming "Operation Pollination," an Epic Day of Service at Denver Audubon Kingery Nature Center, held this past weekend, where volunteers planted native plants, assisted with garden maintenance, and helped with invasive plant removal. 

You can watch a YouTube video of this event at this link.
 

Amy Yarger, the Senior Director of Horticulture at the Butterfly Pavilion, located at 6252 W. 104th Avenue in Westminster, Colorado, was one of the guest speakers at the Rotary Club event, and spoke about the importance of invertebrates and things we could do to improve, protect, and care for their threatened habitats.


Butterflies I photographed at past visits to the Butterfly Pavilion.

The Butterfly Pavilion is the first stand-alone, Association of Zoos and Aquariums-accredited non-profit invertebrate zoo in the world and a leader in invertebrate knowledge, inspiration, and connection.
We have visited it many times with our grandchildren--you can see a couple of past blog posts about it at this link.


Yarger told us that pollinators are not just bees--they are anything that helps move pollen from one part of a flower to another. This movement fertilizes a plant, helping make seeds, fruits, and new plants. Some plants can pollinate themselves, and others use wind or water to move their pollen. But many plants need help from insects and animals like bees, butterflies, birds, bats, and even some small mammals.



We learned there are at least five ways to save pollinators by focusing on habitat:

1. Replace one patch of lawn with native plants. Residential yards have enormous potential as pollinator habitat, and converting even a portion of turf grass to native pollinator plantings makes a measurable difference.

2. Plant for the full season, not just summer. Use plants that bloom from early spring into late fall, and plant in clumps rather than single specimens so pollinators can find and use them efficiently. In Colorado, goldenrod and native asters carry pollinators through fall when almost nothing else is blooming, including migrating monarchs.

3. Stop fall cleanup. Seriously. Pollinators overwinter in hollow stems, attached to plants, and in leaf litter. Cutting down perennial gardens in the fall destroys these overwintering sites. Leave stems standing until early April. What looks messy to you is a nursery to them.

4. Leave bare dirt. This one surprises people. More than 75% of native bees are ground-nesters and require patches of unmulched, bare soil. A small, sunny, unplanted corner of your yard, left intentionally bare, is more valuable to native bees than most garden features.

5. Cut pesticides, especially neonicotinoids. Choose plants that have not been treated with pesticides, insecticides, or neonicotinoids. If you must use a pesticide, use the least-toxic option and apply it at night when bees and other pollinators are not active. Many nursery plants, including ones marketed as "bee-friendly," are pre-treated. Ask before you buy.


You can see charts for beneficial pollinator plants to grow in different areas in the US on this link on Xerces. 


One of the speakers at the Operation Pollination event was a woman who lives in my community who has totally replaced her typical suburban "all grass" landscape--see top photo in the collage above--with an amazing flower and vegetable garden--seen in the bottom photo! She was also instrumental in forming a "Makers Market" at our neighborhood community center, where locally grown vegetables and flowers, as well as handcrafted products, could be sold on selected weekends.  It was truly inspirational to see what one person could do!



Finally, this was our friend Stephanie, along with her son, after she received her good citizenship award for her volunteer work in our community. We were happy to be there to congratulate her!




As a bonus, after the Denver Metro South Rotary Club event, we were all invited to take a tour of the Colorado Governor's Residence at Boettcher Mansion. 
I took many photos there -- please come back next week to see that post.


As you can see in the photo above, the snow we received a few weeks ago is still evident on the high Rocky Mountains. We may get some more snowfall tomorrow when another cold front arrives after we had a very warm week. It is never dull weather-wise in Colorado!




Posted by at 34 comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

Sunday, May 10, 2026

Life Lately

I hope Mother's Day was a happy one for all! We went to scenic Golden, Colorado, and had a wonderful brunch at the restaurant in the Golden Hotel. 

They had a fun photo booth in the lobby, and so all the ladies took the photo above.

April and May brought beautiful spring flowers to our area, but...

...early May also brought us a cold front and a heavy, wet snow!

Because of our high elevation, we often get a few spring snowfalls in Colorado, and this one was well-needed, as our state has been in severe drought this year.


My husband and I braved the drive to Denver on that snowy night to attend Opera Colorado's beautiful production of Puccini's opera, Madama Butterfly. 


 In typical Colorado style in spring, the temperature rose to the 70s F (21.11 C) the next day, and all the snow melted!


Besides going to a Wildlife Refuge, a Mansion, the Denver Zoo, and the Littleton Museum, we have been busy over the past couple of months with our grandchildren's happy occasions — sports, prom, and music and dance recitals.


Spring has also brought more birds and baby bunnies to our yard, along with the usual hungry deer.


Look what we saw heading west on Interstate 70 recently--our first glimpse of a "Waymo" car!  Waymo is a fully autonomous driverless taxi, and it is currently in service in 11 states, with Denver, Colorado, now being tested as one of the many new areas where it will become standard for hire, 24/7.  Our daughter experienced riding in a Waymo taxi while on a business trip in Arizona, and she really enjoyed it and felt completely safe. The company conducts extensive testing to ensure safety and reliability in various conditions, and has been testing its ability to drive in snow and ice in Colorado. Right now, have been using drivers, just in case, until they are assured of safety in our city. Waymo will start the autonomous service in Denver and work toward expanding into the metro area and Denver International Airport sometime this year if all goes as planned.

Have you ridden in a Waymo? How was the experience?


Posted by at 36 comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

Sunday, April 26, 2026

A Visit to the Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance

In March, the Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance visited our community senior group; you can read that post at this link.  A wonderful Outreach Program Specialist, James Garcia, brought four different zoo species to show us and tell us about them. James has been with Denver Zoo for 22 years, most of which have been with "Zoo to You Community Outreach Programs," and he told us we would have a follow-up visit to the zoo to see more in  April, which occurred at the end of last week!


Our Metro District recreation coordinators drove the participating seniors by bus to the Denver Zoo and Conservation Alliance in Denver, Colorado, where we met James and received free tickets to enter the zoo. Then we met volunteer docents, who asked us which group we would like to be a part of -- Reptiles, Primates, Carnivores, or Birds. My husband and I chose the carnivore group.



Please click on the photo to enlarge it.

There is a lot to see at the zoo, and since we were only visiting for a few hours, dividing into groups was a good idea.

Right now and until May 10th, 2026, there is a special, limited-time exhibit at the zoo called "Glowing Wild." The exhibit was an after-dark event all throughout the zoo to take one on a glowing journey inspired by wildlife and conservation. It consists of 60 illuminated scenes and 175 new, larger-than-life lanterns that bring animals and their stories to light, all handcrafted by Chinese artisans. Although we were visiting during the daytime, the lanterns were still beautiful to see! Our docent told us that the exhibit was such a success that it will be returning next spring.

You can see what it looked like at night on this YouTube link.




The day of our zoo visit, the temperature was 80 F (26,67 C).  Many of the animals were resting in the shade.

Addax


We had time to stop and see every animal we passed by.


Our docent told us an interesting story about this group of African Wild Dogs. One was born with a defective hip that required one rear leg to be removed. After surgery to remove the leg and recovery, the dog was reintroduced to the pack. The zookeepers were puzzled to see the dog gaining weight, and they found out that the other dogs were taking care of it and bringing it extra food!





We now found the African lions relaxing in the shade.


They are so majestic!



Please click on to enlarge



Lions in the wild are threatened by development, and their numbers are decreasing





Please click on to enlarge

I found this information very interesting--the Lions, wild dogs, and hyenas rotate yards daily to keep them mentally and physically stimulated.



Four lion cubs were born in the zoo last August and are growing large and thriving! They were fun to watch through a glass window!



Please click on to enlarge to learn more about the cubs.




The cubs' mother, Araali, was taking a nap on a nearby ledge! 





There was a Lego exhibit in the past at the zoo, and this "Leo the Lion" remains from that exhibit. It took 6,408 Lego bricks to build him!







A baby reticulated male giraffe was born at the zoo last March! 

Information from the zoo website:

"This adorable baby boy is the first offspring for both four-year-old BB and four-year-old Jasiri, who joined DZCA in 2022 from Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and Lee Richardson Zoo, respectively.

This pregnancy was part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ (AZA) Giraffe Species Survival Program (SSP), which works to ensure the long-term survival of this Endangered species. The birth of this calf is a significant step in giraffe conservation efforts, helping to maintain a genetically healthy population in human care."



Please click on to enlarge to read these two Racoons' story






You can tell the American Flamingo apart from the Chilean because the Americans are the brightest pink of all the flamingo species


More "Glowing Wild" exhibit lanterns


We only saw about half of the 80-acre zoo in the two hours allotted to us, but we enjoyed our visit. My husband and I have visited the zoo many times in the past--you can see this post from 2015 when we brought our two grandsons for a visit, and see the bears, elephants, primates, reptiles, and birds, etc, in that post that we missed on this visit, as well as the Merry-Go-Round and Train Ride.

The Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance does wonderful work, ensuring that endangered animals from around the world live long and healthy lives!


Posted by at 33 comments:
Labels: , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)