Explore America and discover people, places, artworks, and history that connect to Colorado in the Smithsonian’s collections, held in trust for the American people. Colorado is home to the U.S. Air Force Academy, the majestic Rocky Mountains, Pikes Peak, and the ancient cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde. Gold mining, which began 1858 and continues today, played a key role in establishing the state.
The state has produced notable figures in arts and culture. Actor Lon Chaney became a horror-movie legend with his roles in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera during the 1920s. Fellow Coloradan Douglas Fairbanks rose to fame in the same era, starring in swashbuckling films including The Mark of Zorro. Postmodern author Ken Kesey, best known for his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, also called Colorado home. In sports, heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey—known as “The Manassa Mauler”—was born in Manassa and held that title from 1919 to 1926. In 1998, Coloradan Shannon Dunn-Downing was the first American woman to win a snowboarding medal in the Winter Olympics.
In science and technology, astronaut Jack Swigert was the command module pilot on the Apollo 13 mission. The mission to the moon was abandoned when an oxygen tank onboard their spacecraft exploded, but all three crew landed safely on Earth. In around 1960, Colorado University graduate Spencer Silver invented the adhesive that would later be used in Post-It Notes. In 2015, the Smithsonian recognized Ft. Collins as one of America's "Places of Invention" for clean-energy innovations.
