Article by Calen Brennan
You might feel that the white marble that covers the Colorado State Capitol is the most important portion of the building or the 200 ounces of 24K gold covering the dome. You would be incorrect. The most priceless material is actually inside the Capitol… and it’s pink.
The construction of the Capitol was barely in its infancy when the unusual pink stone was located at what was then named the Beulah Red Marble Quarry and leased by David Kelly, head of the Denver Onyx and Marble Business. The stone was so unusual, it was recommended that it would make a greater wainscoting material than the hardwood that the Capitol Creating Commission had previously planned to use. In 1893, the Commission created the choice to use the marble.
The trip to transfer the stone from the quarry to Pueblo CO took two days. From Pueblo, the marble was freighted to Denver by rail. In 1893, 4 (66.15 in today’s income) bought the services of the men and women who were to set up the marble. A crew of ten-12 men worked grueling ten hour days for .50-1.75 to drill and mount the marble. That’s the equivalent of about .36-.25. It took 6 years, from 1894-1900, for the marble to be entirely installed.
The Beulah Red Marble Quarry did not last long following the completion of the Capitol Constructing, being shut down in 1906. The marble supplies were almost entirely exhausted by the requirements of the Capitol, so a lot so that Italian stone had to be imported to serve as wainscoting in less visible parts of the developing. Even today, reconstruction and renovation efforts need that imported stone be employed to harmonize with the Beulah red marble.
Some sources claim that “all” of the Beulah red marble went into the Capitol Building. This is not very accurate. Despite the demands of the Capitol, it seems that sufficient of the marble was produced available for the old McClelland Library and the Pueblo County Courthouse to have fireplace trims of it. Not a couple of Beulah properties have some samples of the stone in trims and rockwork even today.
There have been reports of pictures in the stone of famous Colorado and U.S. personages. Molly Brown may be identified on the West Wing archway and George Washington can be seen on the West Wing rotunda Wall. There are also much more prosaic pictures, such as a Christmas turkey.
The Capitol Constructing is open to the public year-round, Monday to Friday. If you are looking for a actual piece of Colorado history, take a appear at the swirling rose-colored stonework that you will never ever see anywhere else in the globe!
