Sometimes, living in Denver feels like a fever dream. Beyond the 200-plus one-way streets and otherworldly airport lore, some facts about Denver woven throughout its history, quite frankly, sound made up.
Here are eight of our favorite Denver facts that you have to fact-check to believe.
Led Zeppelin Played Their First-Ever USA Show Here
One of our favorite Denver facts: just a few months after rebranding themselves from “The Yardbirds,” Led Zeppelin played their first-ever United States show in Denver, Colorado.
In a playing style Rocky Mountain News music writer Thomas MacCluskey described as “powerfully, gutsily, unifiedly, inventively, and swingingly,” Led Zeppelin opened for Vanilla Fudge at the now defunct Denver Auditorium Arena on December 26, 1968, the first show the band ever played across the pond. Just a couple weeks later, they released their debut album, Led Zeppelin, containing such iconic hits as “Dazed and Confused” and “I Can’t Quit You Baby.”
The Arena may be closed, and Bonham may have passed on – but one thing remains: you should keep this fact stowed away for the next time you’re flirting with someone cool.
The Cheesman Park Undertaker Chopped Up The Bodies
Sure, we all know that Cheesman Park is fertilized with the ghosts of Gold Rushers, but how many of us have heard the details?
As the Cheesman legend goes, the city of Denver hired undertaker E.P. McGovern to help turn a then-downtown cemetery into a park. McGovern was tasked with removing the bodies from the cemetery with the promise of $1.90 per body (that rate would be equivalent to about $70 per body in 2026).
With dollar signs in his eyes, McGovern cooked up a scheme to maximize his profit, throwing respect for the dead out the window. He chopped up the bodies, puzzle-pieced them into child-sized coffins and reburied them. And he could have got away with it, too, if it wasn’t for his sloppy execution, leaving body parts and bones behind when he fled the scene. Cheesman visitors found bones as recently as the ‘60s, and McGovern’s actions land him on at least the top-ten list of creepiest Denver men of all time.
Western Wear was Perfected Here
While some modern Denver cowboys may fall into the whole all hat/no cattle adage, Denver is the site of some serious wrangler history. And while Denver’s deep roots in cattle ranching trace back to Mexican vaqueros in the late 1800s, the city is also the birthplace of some other significant Western traditions. Mainly: dripped out cowboys.
In 1935, Jack A. “Papa Jack” Weil founded Rockmount Ranch Wear Manufacturing Company and changed westernwear forever.. Soon after founding the company, he realized he could save cowboys a lot of grief (and ripped shirts) by introducing buttons designed to unsnap when they’re caught on a bull’s horn. While European companies held patents for a similar design, Weil introduced the signature pearl button details and distinctive embroidering on yokes and pocket flaps.
Rockmount Ranch Wear says Papa Jack “is to Western wear what Henry Ford is to the car,” and we tend to believe them: beyond the snap-button shirts that define the aesthetic, Weil also commercialized the bolo tie. Where would vintage resellers and wild west hipsters be without Papa Jack?
…as was the Cheeseburger
Allegedly, Denver is the birthplace of perhaps the most iconic American staple food. In the 1930s, Louis E. Ballast introduced the cheeseburger at the restaurant he owned: Humpty Dumpty Barrel. Ballast loved to be the first to do anything, even claiming that Humpty Dumpty Barrel was “Colorado’s first drive-in” eatery. And after apparently being the first to ever put a slice of cheese on a burger patty, Ballast registered a trademark for the cheeseburger on March 5, 1935.
Though a Louisville, Kentucky restaurant has a 1934 menu to prove their claim to cheeseburger invention, Ballast’s trademark stands. It is commemorated by a granite monument in the parking lot of a Key Bank on the property where Humpty Dumpty once stood. For a pilgrimage, head to the Key Bank at 2776 N. Speer Blvd, and, per Roadside America’s instructions, look for “the tiny stone on the right (north) side, behind some bushes in front of the Key Bank” (because for some reason the monument is in the bushes).
Playboy (May Not Have Actually) Called Colfax “The Wickedest Street In America”
Colfax Ave has its fair share of recognition: a character holding its own in South Park and On The Road, the backdrop for Barbie creator and East High School alum Ruth Handler’s upbringing. It’s the longest continuous commercial road in the United States and number one in our hearts.
One popular quote called Colfax the “wickedest street in America.” Or did it? Though urban legend claims Playboy published the phrase and launched perhaps the most badass street moniker in the history of ever, historians can’t find proof that the phrase was ever in print.
Playboy did print a couple of banger lines, however.
D. Keith Mano told the magazine in 1977: “No one, you see, has ever been born in Colorado. Colorado or not Colorado is a choice people make when they come of age, at bar-mitzvah time. If America’s puberty could be pin-pointed by longitude and latitude, it’d be right there … Coloradans have seceded spiritually; they give off an athletic, high-altitude arrogance. Wiser than the rest of us, more passionate and compassionate, more self-certain. More natural, damn it. As if they were organic human beings and we, you and I, were so many Swanson TV dinners.”
Mano’s got us there, guys. He also called Denver “Omaha with mountains,” causing Playboy to beg the question: Is Colorado the latest nirvana or just a hundred thousand square miles of shuck?
Shuck or wicked, we’ll take it either way.
READ: Ranking 10 Major Denver Roads From Worst to Best
You Can’t Bring Gum Into Red Rocks
It’s true: Red Rocks security will make you throw out your pack of gum. They claim it’s because miscreants will stick chewed gum under the seats or throw it on the ground, which will damage Red Rocks’ natural structure and beauty.
As for other substances? Jury’s out.
The Rockies’ Dinger Was Born From An Actual Fossil
Right around the 6th inning of a Colorado Rockies game, your mind starts to wander. I’m sure it has occurred to all of us during our pre-stretch slumps: why is Dinger a dinosaur?
As it turns out, Coors Field workers discovered prehistoric remains while building the ballpark. The fragments were small, but they were large enough for paleontologists to determine they belonged to some sort of plant-eating dinosaur (Denver’s first vegans?).
In April 1994, our beloved purple Dinger hatched from an egg before a game while Coors Field was still under construction. He’s still causing mischief today, and the original bones those workers discovered are safely stored in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
And we’re left with perhaps the most hilarious image accompanying these Denver facts.
The Denver Airport is (Technically) Bigger Than Manhattan
And Boston. And San Francisco. And Miami. And that’s just the walk to the Frontier dungeon! (Just kidding – but I lose a little part of my soul every time I walk to gate A84).
In reality, the Denver Airport covers about 53 square miles of land area. By comparison, the city of Manhattan covers about 22.7 square miles, Boston covers 48.4 square miles, San Francisco spans 46.92 square miles and Miami boasts a humble land area of 36 square miles.
And if your athletic friend has ever forced you to take the Sky Bridge back to baggage claim after a long-haul flight, you, too, have felt every square inch.
