Colorado Curiosities by Pam Grout

Author:Pam Grout
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780762762002
Publisher: Globe Pequot
Published: 2014-10-20T00:00:00+00:00

Rocky Mountain Too High

Leadville

Leadville gets a lot of mileage out of its ranking as highest incorporated city in the country. Doctors come to do studies (one doc in the 1960s even catheterized a bunch of local high school kids just to see if they suffered any pulmonary hypertension), partyers come for the alcohol buzz (a two-ounce shot of Jack Daniels goes twice as far in Leadville as it does in, say, San Diego), the high school basketball team likes to psyche out opponents by setting up oxygen tanks near their benches, and the chamber of commerce proudly touts the “highest city” distinction in all its literature. Of course, the Leadville chamber is probably the only one anywhere that also offers a health proviso to potential tourists: “Stay at 5,000 feet for a day or two before coming. Get extra rest, drink more water, and avoid alcoholic beverages, caffeine, and salty food.”

It’s just that there’s one little catch with the ranking: There are two other municipalities (both in Colorado, of course) that are higher according to the official USGS contour maps. Alma, which rings in at 10,355 feet, and Montezuma, which is perched at 10,335, are a couple hundred feet higher than Leadville at 10,152. If you want to get nitpicky, you can make a case that Leadville is the highest city since Alma and Montezuma are towns, but incorporated municipalities nonetheless.

But no matter who is higher, Leadvillians will always get a big kick out of a certain World War II movie in which the squad captain tells his bomber crew that they’re going to have to wear oxygen masks because “we’re going to 10,200 feet.”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.