Boulder, Colorado

Boulder is a city in the state of Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in Boulder County. The city is home to over 100,000 people.

Boulder is called a college town because it has the University of Colorado Boulder. This is the main campus of the University of Colorado system.

The city is special because it is at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. This gives Boulder beautiful views and fun outdoor activities like hiking and biking. Boulder is about 25 miles northwest of Denver, the capital of Colorado.

In the future, starting in 2027, Boulder will host the Sundance Film Festival. This is a big event for movies and filmmakers.

History

Boulder Valley has been home to Native American tribes for thousands of years. By the 1500s, the Ute people were the main group living there. In the early 1800s, the Arapaho moved into the area. European settlers arrived in 1858 during the Colorado Gold Rush. Gold was found in Boulder Creek in 1859, and this brought more people to the area.

Boulder became an official city in 1871. The University of Colorado was established there in 1877 when Colorado became a state. Over the years, Boulder has worked to protect its natural beauty by limiting building heights and preserving open spaces.

Geography

Boulder is in the Boulder Valley where the Rocky Mountains meet the Great Plains. To the west are the Flatirons, tall stone slabs that are a symbol of Boulder.

Boulder Creek is the main waterway through the city. It flows into St. Vrain Creek and then the South Platte River. The city is in a wide basin, about 25 miles northwest of Denver.

Boulder has a temperate climate with many sunny days. Winters are usually mild but can get cold. Summers are warm with afternoon thunderstorms. The city gets a fair amount of snow each winter.

Environment

Boulder works to protect its natural areas. The city has volunteers who help watch over parks and wildlife. Sometimes, parks may close to help nature recover. Boulder has used goats to eat unwanted plants.

Climate

Boulder’s climate is usually mild but can change a lot. Winters have average temperatures in the 40s °F, with occasional very cold nights. Snow falls about 88 inches each season but usually doesn’t pile up deeply. Summers are warm, often reaching around 90 °F, with afternoon thunderstorms common. The high altitude and semi-arid conditions mean temperatures can change quickly between day and night.

Demographics

Boulder is the main city of the Boulder, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area.

2020 census

In the 2010 census, there were 97,385 people in the city. The city had many different kinds of people. Most were White, some were Asian, and others came from various backgrounds. About 8.7% of the people were Hispanic or Latino.

Many people in Boulder were students, so the city's population was younger than average. The median age was 28.7 years, much younger than the U.S. average of 37.2 years. A large part of the population was between 18 and 24 years old because of the university.

Economy

Boulder, Colorado, is an important city for jobs and business. In 2010, the area around Boulder had a big economy worth $18.3 billion.

In 2007, Boulder became the first city in the United States to add a special tax to help the environment. In 2013, a magazine called Forbes put Boulder on its list of great places for jobs and careers.

Top employers

In the city's report from 2022, the biggest companies and organizations that employ people are listed here:

Arts and culture

Bolder Boulder

Boulder has held a 10 km road run called the Bolder Boulder every year since 1979 on Memorial Day. Many people run, jog, walk, or use wheelchairs. It is one of the biggest races in the world and ends at Folsom Field.

Music

Boulder has many music groups. The Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra began in 1958. The Colorado Music Festival started in 1976 and holds summer concerts. There is also the Boulder Bach Festival for the music of J.S. Bach, and the Colorado MahlerFest for the works of Gustav Mahler.

Dance

Boulder has several dance groups. Boulder Ballet started in the 1970s, and Lemon Sponge Cake Contemporary Ballet began in 2004.

Conference on World Affairs

Each year, Boulder holds a Conference on World Affairs where people talk about important topics.

eTown

The radio show eTown is based in Boulder at eTown Hall.

Polar Bear Plunge

Since 1983, people have jumped into the cold Boulder Reservoir on New Year’s Day for fun.

Naked Pumpkin Run

A Halloween tradition started in 1998 where people run wearing only shoes and a pumpkin on their heads. It stopped for a while because of rules but some people still try to do it.

Boulder Cruiser Ride

The Happy Thursday Cruiser Ride is a fun bike ride that started in the early 1990s. Riders sometimes dress up and decorate their bikes. It is still going on today.

World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade

Every year, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows holds a very short St. Patrick's Day parade that is just one block long.

Boulder International Film Festival

Started in 2005, this Boulder International Film Festival shows movies each March in many places around Boulder.

Sundance Film Festival

Starting in 2027, Boulder will host the Sundance Film Festival for ten years. It will then have the choice to keep it longer. Boulder is much bigger than the old host city, Park City, Utah. Other cities like Salt Lake City-Park City and Cincinnati wanted to host it too.

Parks and recreation

Boulder has many open spaces and nature areas for people to enjoy the outdoors. About 60% of this space, which is around 61,529 acres, is open for everyone.

Near Boulder, in Eldorado Springs, there are places to try rock climbing. The city also has climbing spots on the Flatirons and in Boulder Canyon. Each year on Groundhog Day, a special event happens at the Chautauqua Ranger Cottage with Flatiron Freddy, a stuffed marmot.

Government

See also: List of mayors of Boulder, Colorado

Boulder is a city that has its own special ways of making decisions. The people there help choose what happens in their community.

Many people in Boulder support Democratic ideas. In recent years, most people in Boulder County have chosen to register as Democrats, with fewer registering as Republicans or with no party at all.

Boulder cares about protecting the environment. In 2019, the city said there was a "climate emergency" and made goals to use clean energy and lessen pollution from cars and buildings. The city works with everyone to make these changes in a fair way.

Education

The Boulder Valley School District runs most public schools in Boulder. Some areas in the northeast send their students to the St. Vrain Valley School District instead.

Boulder has special schools called charter schools, such as Preparatory High School for grades 9 to 12, Summit Middle School for grades 6 to 8, and Horizons Alternative School for kindergarten to grade 8. There are also many private schools in the city.

Boulder is home to several colleges and universities. The largest is the University of Colorado Boulder, a public university. Naropa University is a private university. The Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts offers cooking classes and has a campus in Boulder and another in Austin, Texas.

The city also has many science institutes, including the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, and the National Snow and Ice Data Center. These institutes study weather, space, and the environment.

Media

Main article: Media in Boulder, Colorado

Boulder has several newspapers. The Daily Camera began in 1890 and became a daily paper in 1891. The Colorado Daily started in 1892 as a university newspaper but is no longer connected to the university.

Boulder is part of the Denver television market and gets many radio stations from Denver or Ft. Collins. The city has its own public service channel called Boulder 8 TV. There are also several radio stations, including non-commercial KGNU and commercial KBCO.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Boulder has strict rules about building new homes. Because of this, more people have jobs in Boulder than actually live there. Many workers live in nearby towns like Longmont, Lafayette, Louisville, Broomfield, and Denver. This makes many roads busy with traffic going in and out of the city each day. Boulder has many roads and highways, like US 36, to help with travel.

Boulder is known for its safe and fun paths for walking and biking. The city has special paths just for bikes and people walking, making it easy to get around by bike. There are also buses that travel all over the city and to nearby places. Although there isn’t a train that stops in Boulder, there are plans for new train services in the future to connect Boulder with other cities. Boulder is a great place for bike lovers, with many miles of bike paths and special underpasses to keep riders safe. The city also has a special airport, Boulder Municipal Airport, used mainly for small planes and gliders.

Notable people

See also: List of University of Colorado Boulder alumni

Boulder, Colorado has been home to many interesting people. Some of these include Al Bartlett, a retired physics professor, and Jello Biafra, the lead singer of the punk rock band Dead Kennedys. Tony Boselli played football and was chosen for the Pro Bowl five times. Bill Bower was one of the last pilots from the Doolittle Raid during World War II. Arleigh Burke served as an Admiral in the United States Navy. Scott Carpenter was an astronaut in Project Mercury. Thomas Cech won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Alonzo Clemons was a sculptor.

Other notable residents include Kristin Davis, an actress, and Allen Ginsberg, a famous poet who lived much of his life in Boulder. Matt Hasselbeck was a three-time Pro Bowl quarterback in football. Carrie Ingalls from the TV show Little House on the Prairie lived in Boulder for a time. There are also athletes like Lauren Jortberg, an Olympic cross-country skier, and Scott Jurek, an ultramarathon runner. Chief Niwot was a leader of the Arapaho tribe and lived near where Boulder is today.

In popular culture

Boulder, Colorado has been in many movies, books, and TV shows. The movie Sleeper from 1973 was filmed there. It used some local houses and the Mesa Laboratory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Famous writer Stephen King used Boulder in his book The Stand. He lived in Boulder for a short time and wrote another book called The Shining there.

The TV show Mork & Mindy from the late 1970s and early 1980s was set in Boulder. The TV show The Office also had a character who moved to Boulder.

Country singer Emmylou Harris wrote a song called "Boulder to Birmingham" about a friend.

The TV show Broad City ended with one of the main characters moving to Boulder. Many scenes from the 2006 movie Catch and Release were filmed in Boulder.

Sister cities

Boulder has friends in cities around the world. These are called sister cities. Some of Boulder's sister cities are Dushanbe in Tajikistan, Jalapa in Nicaragua, Kathmandu in Nepal, and Kisumu in Kenya. There are many more. You can visit special places in Boulder that remember these friendships. For example, there is a tea house from Dushanbe and a mural from El Mante, Mexico, that you can see in the city.