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60 free Boulder trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
48 free Boulder trivia questions with answers. Boulder is a gold-rush camp turned college town, research hub and outdoor playground, and this quiz covers the whole story. Questions range from Chief Niwot and the 1858 prospectors to the Blue Line and open-space tax that shaped the greenbelt, the Flatirons and Eldorado Canyon, Pearl Street Mall and the Dushanbe Teahouse, CU Boulder's Ralphie and Tuscan sandstone campus, the Buffaloes' 1990 title and Heisman winners, the Bolder Boulder and the polar plunge, Chautauqua, Naropa and the Beats, NCAR and NIST's atomic clock, Celestial Seasonings, Mork & Mindy, Stephen King's The Stand and Sundance's move to town. Easy questions ask what the Flatirons are and which sitcom was set here; the hard ones want the year of the Curran Opera House, the formation the Flatirons are carved from and who kidnapped Ralphie I. Made for CU students, transplants, trivia nights on the Hill and anyone who has argued about the best Flatiron scramble. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Boulder and its institutions, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Boulder was founded in late 1858 by prospectors drawn to the area by what?
The Colorado Gold Rush
Thomas Aikins' party camped at the mouth of Boulder Canyon; by 1862 the creek had yielded $100,000 in gold.
Q 02At roughly what elevation does Boulder sit at the base of the Rocky Mountain foothills?
5,430 feet
That is a shade higher than Denver's famous 5,280, and the city lies about 25 miles northwest of it.
Q 03The tilted slabs of sedimentary rock west of Boulder, the city's best-known symbol, are called what?
The Flatirons
Settlers thought they looked like old-fashioned clothes irons; five numbered ones line Green Mountain.
Q 04Which Arapaho leader, linked to Boulder's first settlement, was later killed at Sand Creek?
Chief Niwot
Niwot means 'left hand'; the nearby town of Niwot and Left Hand Creek both carry his name.
Q 05When the county was created on November 1, 1861, which settlement became its seat?
The gold camp at the canyon mouth
The city itself was not incorporated until November 1871.
Q 06Boulder's 1959 'Blue Line' amendment protected the mountain backdrop by restricting what above 5,750 feet?
City water service
No water meant no subdivisions creeping up the foothills.
Q 07In 1967 Boulder voters approved a dedicated sales tax to buy what?
Open space
It was aimed at containing sprawl, and the greenbelt it bought still rings the city.
Q 08Why did Boulder pass a building-height ordinance in 1972?
To preserve mountain views
The rule protects sightlines to the Flatirons, which is why downtown stays low.
Q 09In 2007 Boulder became the first US city to levy what kind of tax?
A carbon tax
It funds the city's climate action plan through residents' electricity bills.
Q 10In 1974 Boulder passed Colorado's first ordinance banning discrimination on what basis?
Sexual orientation
The same year the city adopted a Historic Preservation Code.
Q 11Which late-1970s sitcom starring Robin Williams was set in Boulder?
Mork & Mindy
The Pine Street house used for exteriors is still a stop for fans; the New York Deli on Pearl Street also featured.
Q 12Boulder is the gathering point for survivors of a superflu in which 1978 Stephen King novel?
The Stand
The Shining, by contrast, was inspired by the Stanley Hotel up the road in Estes Park.
Q 13Which film festival announced in 2025 that it would move to Boulder from 2027?
Sundance
The Boulder International Film Festival, founded in 2005, already runs there every March.
Q 21Archaeology shows Native peoples have inhabited the Boulder Valley for roughly how long?
13,000 years
By the 1500s the Ute held the valley; the Arapaho arrived in the early 1800s.
Q 22How many blocks long is Boulder's Pearl Street pedestrian mall?
Four
It runs from 11th to 15th Street and was dedicated in August 1977 after 14 months of construction.
Q 23Which government building sits in the 1300 block on the north side of the Pearl Street Mall?
The Boulder County Courthouse
It no longer holds courts but remains the seat of county government.
Q 14Boulder has hosted the Bolder Boulder, a 10-kilometre road race, on which holiday every year since 1979?
Memorial Day
It finishes inside Folsom Field with one of the largest Memorial Day gatherings in the country.
Q 15Boulder's Dushanbe Teahouse was a gift from a sister city in which country?
Tajikistan
It was presented in 1987, completed in Tajikistan in 1990, and reassembled beside Boulder Creek in 1998.
Q 16Since 1983, hundreds of Boulderites have marked New Year's Day by doing what at Boulder Reservoir?
A polar bear plunge
In 2010 the reservoir also employed goats to keep the weeds down.
Q 17On Groundhog Day, Boulder's mountain-park rangers roll out Flatiron Freddy, a stuffed what?
Marmot
The event is held at the Chautauqua Ranger Cottage.
Q 18Under Boulder law, exterminating which animal requires a permit?
Prairie dogs
The city's Urban Wildlife Management Plan also long avoided chemical pesticides until West Nile virus arrived.
Q 19What was Boulder's population at the 2020 census?
108,250
That makes it the 12th-most populous city in Colorado.
Q 20The Comedy Central show Broad City ends with which character moving to Boulder for an art fellowship?
Abbi
Boulder was also the location for much of the 2006 film Catch and Release.
Q 24Which Boulder-based tea company was founded in 1969 by Mo Siegel and Wyck Hay gathering wild herbs?
Celestial Seasonings
Its headquarters is on Sleepytime Drive, named after its bestselling blend.
Q 25The Boulder tea company introduced its bestselling blend in 1972. What is it called?
Sleepytime
Red Zinger came out the same year and lent its name to a 1970s Colorado bicycle race the company sponsored.
Q 26NCAR, the National Center for Atmospheric Research headquartered in Boulder, was founded in which year?
1960
Its I. M. Pei-designed Mesa Laboratory doubled as a futuristic hospital in Woody Allen's Sleeper.
Q 27NCAR's Mesa Laboratory in Boulder was the exterior of the hospital in which Woody Allen film?
Sleeper
Much of the rest of the 1973 film was shot around Denver, including a church turned into a futuristic McDonald's.
Q 28Which president dedicated NIST's Boulder laboratories, home of the NIST-F1 atomic clock, in 1954?
Eisenhower
NIST itself is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland; Boulder is its western campus.
Q 29The University of Colorado was founded in 1876, how long before Colorado became a state?
Five months
The doors opened in September 1877 to 15 college students and 50 in the preparatory school.
Q 30CU Boulder's live mascot, Ralphie, is what kind of animal?
A female bison
Female bison have always been used because they are smaller and calmer, though she still hits 25 mph around Folsom Field.