After moving out of Colorado, I was immediately drowning in a sea of questions about my state. Now, I love my home state, and that is never going to change, no matter how uncomfortable I get when I have to explain these things over and over again. So, for the sake of getting the word out there, let's clear things up and shut down some misconceptions about the Centennial State.
1. The entire state is "mountains"
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Contrary to popular belief, no, Colorado is not composed entirely of mountains. I've noticed that, when I tell people I'm from North of Denver, they assume that means I live in the mountains. Sorry to break it to you, but the beautiful Rocky Mountains are West of Denver, not North. Of course, a great deal of the state is mountainous, but not all of it. Some parts of Colorado are incredibly flat, and you can't even see the mountains from them.
The Western Regional Climate Center explains this pretty simply: "Although primarily a mountain state, nearly 40 percent of its area is taken up by the eastern high plains." Sixty percent is still quite a bit of land, but it isn't all of it!
2. Everybody from Colorado skis
Well, first of all, this isn't true, because I was born and raised in Colorado and I've never gone skiing. In fact, a very small portion, roughly ten percent, of Colorado's 5,272,000 residents actually went skiing in the 2013-2014 ski season, according to The Denver Post. The majority of the Colorado ski economy comes from out-of-state skiers, and not actual residents.
3. Colorado's just a lot of big cities
Just because Denver, Boulder, Greeley, Telluride, and other cities are mentioned in songs and television, it doesn't mean that they're the only places Colorado has to offer. Colorado has tiny towns and large cities and everything inbetween. Denver is obviously the largest city, with a population of 649,495 in 2013. Colorado Springs followed closely behind at 439,900 in the same year. The smallest town in Colorado, as of 2013, was Lakeside, boasting a whole eight residents. Colorado Demographics ranks 452 Colorado cities by population, the median city (La Jara) coming in at 810 residents in the tally. If those examples don't satisfy the question that Colorado isn't just Denver, you're out of luck.
4. Everybody's a health freak
Not everyone in Colorado purchases exclusively organic food, and not everyone in Colorado is vegan or vegetarian. Yes, many Coloradans are incredibly health-conscious and often choose a lifestyle that either involves working out more, or even just using public transportation or a bike to get to work, but that isn't everyone. Denver does come up on the list in being one of the fittest cities, but according to Meghan Holohan at Today, it comes in third behind Minneapolis and Washington D.C.. Even though not everyone is a health nut, what's wrong with ranking there? Why do people see that as a problem? It's a mystery to me.
5. Everyone's a stoner
Finally, the one you've all been waiting for! Surprise, surprise, not everyone in Colorado jumped on the bandwagon to recreationally smoke marijuana when it was legalized via Amendment 64 in 2012. Unsurprisingly, a Google Search for "everyone in Colorado" leads to results that are almost exclusively about weed. The vote on Amendment 64 was actually incredibly close: 55% of Colorado voters said "yes'" to the legalization of marijuana . . . but 45% said "no." The difference between these two statistics is very slim, and still, less than half of the state population actually voted.
Josh Ingold at The Denver Post stated that monthly use of marijuana in Colorado hit 12.7% in 2013. While this is quite the increase from previous totals, this is still just TWELVE PERCENT of the population, and not everybody.
While there are always plenty of misconceptions to debunk, lots of things about Colorado are true, like how you can easily find a place that smothers something in green chile. But the one stereotype you can always get right about a Coloradan? Our state pride!
