Here are 5 things you probably never knew about Garden of the Gods that will blow your mind.
5)
The area was first called Red Rock Corral. Then, in August 1859, two surveyors who helped to set up Colorado City explored the site. One of the surveyors, M. S. Beach, suggested that it would be a “capital place for a beer garden“. His companion, the young Rufus Cable, awestruck by the impressive rock formations, exclaimed, “Beer Garden! Why it is a fit place for the gods to assemble. We will call it the Garden of the Gods.
4)
The Garden of the Gods’ red rock formations were created during a geological upheaval along a natural fault line millions of years ago.
3)
Archaeological evidence shows that prehistoric people visited Garden of the Gods about 1330 BC. At about 250 BC, Native American people camped in the park; they are believed to have been attracted to wildlife and plant life in the area and used overhangs created by the rocks for shelter.
2)
In 1879 Charles Elliott Perkins, a friend of William Jackson Palmer, purchased 480 acres of land that included a portion of the present Garden of the Gods. Upon Perkins’ death, his family gave the land to the City of Colorado Springs in 1909, with the provision that it would be a free public park.
1)
The 300 foot orange sandstone rocks in the Garden of the Gods were once sand dunes. They may have looked similar to those at the Great Sand Dunes National Monument in southern Colorado. An inland sea once again covered Colorado about 225 million years ago.