Colorado Territory graduated to statehood when President Ulysses Grant signed a bill making Colorado the 38th state in 1876. Since it was the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the nickname “Centennial State” was born.   

Aug. 1 is feted as “Colorado Day,” which historically meant that towns across the state celebrated our inclusion in the Union on that date. Boulder’s Pow Wow Days are a local example. That special day featured a hard rock drilling contest, a dance, picnic, and rodeo and, of course, a Pow Wow Rodeo Queen. Starting in its inaugural year of 1934, the event was first called the Boulder Pay Dirt Pow Wow. The parade down Pearl Street ended at the Pow Wow Grounds, located between 28th and 30th streets north of Mapleton Street in Boulder.  

• The Western Slope town of Fruita holds an annual festival honoring Mike the Headless Chicken? Mike was a local rooster who somehow survived the attempt at making him Sunday dinner. He was beheaded back in 1945 but survived and lived for 18 months. Although his head was severed, the jugular vein, one ear and part of the brain were intact. Now the Town annually celebrates Mike the Headless Chicken Festival.

• The population of Colorado was 39,864 in 1876; the U.S. figure was 48 million?

• In July of 1936 12-year-old Superior lad Fred McNulty was reported as driving his father’s Model T Ford around town and up to the Industrial Coal Mine? The local sheriff patiently escorted the youngster (and the Model T) home.