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50 free Denver trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Denver was founded by land speculators who named a gold-rush townsite after a territorial governor who had already quit, and it has been outgrowing its origins ever since. It is the only state capital that is also a consolidated city-county, the only city ever to win an Olympic bid and hand it back, and the place where Chipotle, Quiznos and Smashburger all started. These 50 questions cover the whole story: Montana City and Auraria, the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte, the Denver Pacific railroad that saved the town when the transcontinental line went through Cheyenne, Soapy Smith, the Silver Crash, the Carnation Gold Rush, Stapleton and the airport that replaced it, Rocky Flats, the 1972 vote that sent the Winter Games to Innsbruck, and the 2008 Democratic convention. There is geography (the capitol-step benchmark, the 105th meridian through Union Station, the mousetrap interchange), sport (the Broncos, Rockies, Avalanche, Nuggets and Rapids), culture (Red Rocks, the Clyfford Still Museum, the Great American Beer Festival) and the oldest sister-city link in the country but one. Easy questions stick to nicknames and teams; the hard tier asks about mayors, treaties and the hotelier who angled the downtown grid. Every answer is cited to a page we checked and comes with a one-line explanation. Play it solo or print it for a Colorado night alongside our Broncos and Nuggets quizzes.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which mountain range rises just west of Denver?
Rocky Mountains
Downtown sits about 12 miles east of the Front Range foothills.
Q 02What is Denver's famous nickname?
The Mile High City
The official elevation is exactly 5,280 feet, measured at a benchmark on the State Capitol steps.
Q 03Where is the benchmark that fixes Denver's official one-mile elevation?
The State Capitol steps
The city as a whole ranges from 5,130 to 5,690 feet.
Q 04Denver was founded where the South Platte River meets which waterway?
Cherry Creek
Confluence Park now occupies the site of the first townsites.
Q 05In which year was Denver founded?
1858
Gold had been found in the Rockies that November, setting off the Pike's Peak Gold Rush.
Q 06James W. Denver, the city's namesake, was governor of which territory?
Kansas
William Larimer picked the name to curry favour, not knowing Denver had already resigned.
Q 07Who staked the Denver City claim with cottonwood logs in November 1858?
William Larimer
He and Captain Jonathan Cox were land speculators from eastern Kansas Territory.
Q 08What was the first settlement on the Denver site, founded by Lawrence prospectors in 1858?
Montana City
It was abandoned within a year in favour of Auraria and St. Charles City.
Q 09The rival settlement of Auraria was named after a gold-mining town in which state?
Georgia
It sat across Cherry Creek from Larimer's claim.
Q 10Which 1861 treaty saw ten tribal chiefs cede the land of modern Denver?
Fort Wise
Many Cheyennes said only a minority of chiefs signed it; the dispute led to the Colorado War.
Q 11The first transcontinental railroad bypassed Denver for which Wyoming city?
Cheyenne
Citizens raised $300,000 in three days and built the Denver Pacific link, finished in June 1870.
Q 12Which Leadville mining millionaire built Denver's first opera house?
Horace Tabor
He also built a business block at 16th and Larimer in the 1880s.
Q 13Which crime boss ran Denver's bunco gangs in the 1880s and 1890s?
Soapy Smith
Elected officials and police worked alongside him to control elections and gambling.
Which charity's precursor was formed in Denver by religious leaders in 1887?
Q 21In which two years did Denver host the Democratic National Convention?
1908 and 2008
The 1908 gathering met in the Municipal Auditorium, now the Ellie Caulkins Opera House.
Q 22Which 1993 event drew about 500,000 people, the largest gathering in Colorado history?
World Youth Day
The Catholic Church's sixth World Youth Day ran August 10–15.
Q 23Which nuclear weapons plant about 15 miles from Denver made plutonium pits until 1989?
Rocky Flats
A 1957 fire and leaking waste contaminated parts of the city with plutonium-239.
United Way
They pooled fundraising and coordinated relief for the city's poor.
Q 15Denver's booming flower industry of the 1880s–1930s was nicknamed what?
The Carnation Gold Rush
Floriculture thrived on the High Plains for half a century.
Q 16In which year did the City and County of Denver come into being?
1902
Voters approved a home-rule amendment separating it from Arapahoe and Adams counties.
Q 17Denver is the only state capital in the US to be what?
A consolidated city-county
It is surrounded by Adams, Arapahoe and Jefferson counties.
Q 18Which Winter Olympics did Denver win and then decline to host?
1976
Colorado voters rejected public funding in 1972 and the Games went to Innsbruck.
Q 19Which city took the 1976 Winter Games after Denver withdrew?
Innsbruck
Denver is still the only city to back out after winning an Olympic bid.
Q 20Who led the movement against hosting the 1976 Olympics and later became governor?
Richard Lamm
He served three terms as Colorado governor from 1975 to 1987.
Q 24Which meridian, the Mountain Time reference line, passes through Denver Union Station?
105th
That position lets Denver reach both US coasts, Europe and Asia in one business day.
Q 25Roughly how many miles east of the Rocky Mountain foothills is downtown Denver?
12
The city sits on the western edge of the High Plains.
Q 26What was Denver's population at the 2020 census?
715,522
That made it the 19th most populous US city and fifth most populous state capital.
Q 27How many official neighborhoods does the City and County of Denver have?
78
The system dates to 1970 and most boundaries are unchanged since.
Q 28What does the neighborhood name LoDo stand for?
Lower Downtown
RiNo, for River North, is another of the city's colloquial district names.
Q 29The former Stapleton neighborhood was renamed what in 2020?
Central Park
It was built on the old airport site; Mayor Stapleton had been a Ku Klux Klan member.
Q 30In which year did Denver International Airport open, replacing Stapleton?
1995
It is the largest airport by land area in the United States.