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Another Ed Sadowski creation
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About
Colorado
About this site
Ed Sadowski, creator of Superlative Colorado, is an author, former librarian, journalist, and PR practitioner. He is a semi-native who compulsively chronicles Colorado superlatives: the first, highest, largest, longest, etc.
It's natural that anything that is out of the ordinary, unique, rare or unusual, from whatever standpoint, stands out, gets our attention, is more interesting than the ordinary and usual. Something under our nose that we didn't think twice about is more appreciated when its superlatives our pointed out. That's human nature. What may be extraordinary about me is that I am obsessed and compulsive about noting and collecting such tidbits of information that is measurably or quantitatively or qualitatively out of the ordinary.
For decades Ed has been amassing and categorizing and cataloging certain types of factoids and trivia that I would encounter. First, it was casual, something he ran across by happenstance would be noted. Then, he raised this proclivity to a new level by actively pursuing such information. At first, before computers, he filled boxes with newspaper clippings. Now he fills files digitally, a task made so much easier with the Internet.
As far as he knows there is no other site like mine. That in itself is a superlative, if we define superlative as something that stands out in some "significant" way to distinguish it from other things.
There is no central encyclopedic/almanac type of source that adequately rounds up the scattered superlatives reported on websites and publications. Superlatives are often scattered or buried in the mass of writings that we are faced with the information explosion, thus lost, for all intents and purposes. There are books, articles and websites that recount firsts in history and science and various other superlatives.
The Guinness Book of World Records falls into that type of category, but, as impressive as it is, it is not exhaustive. By attempting to be broad, Guinness fails to cover it all, all the detailed minutiae drilled down deeply that a local focus affords.
This site is an attempt to contribute to the existing collection of such information, but not restricting it to just one type of superlative, but all superlatives. Ed does, however, restricting myself to a geographic area, Colorado, in order to truly be as comprehensive as possible, not overlooking the smallest factoid that may have been lost to history.
We are wont to use prideful hyperbole, sometimes inaccurately, such as Denver’s 17th Street being the “Wall Street of the West,” conveniently overlooking the West Coast in our definition of the “West.” This is a natural tendency of PR hype that spills over to mis-coloring history and current state of affairs. Wall Street of the Rocky Mountain Region would be more accurate.
Ed is aware that superlatives can be thrown around loosely and inaccurately. Words can be mis-used, such as “unique,” which means one of a kind, but not unusual, which is often how the word is meant. But in a few cases I do include in this site "hype" if it is interesting and reasonably defensible, and presented here as hype and not a rock solid fact ("reported to be..." or "touted as..."). Another qualifier I use is phrases like "possibly the largest..." when it is close to impossible to substantiate the veracity of such a claim, but is a reasonable assumption based on the historical record.
Superlatives chronicled by Ed or others are not always the final answer. The height of a mountain or a building has a virtual 100% finality (unless some unlikely error in calculation or typo has been discovered to negate it), but other superlatives are less authoritative in character and merely "as reported" and can be tentative if additional reporting supersedes the original claim. A newspaper in Wyoming identified the West's oldest still-operating elevator there, not aware that a claim in Denver (the Sugar Building in LoDo) beat Wyoming's by one year. I've done some research to verify that Denver's Brown Palace was the first hotel lobby atrium, but who's to say that some obscure hotel in Europe or Asia, so far undiscovered by me on the Internet, has actually beaten that first?
Thus one can present something as a superlative until otherwise disproven or challenged by conflicting data. Certainly, Ed welcomes corrections and updates to my information: please make use of this site's contact page for any input.
Superlative
