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From physics to health care to candy so sweet it sticks to your teeth, Colorado has long been a land of invention. In honor of the state’s 150th anniversary, we rounded up nine wonders of Colorado ingenuity.
Read More: 11 Weird and Wonderful Colorado Roadside Attractions
1. Post-It Notes
In 1968, 3M researcher Spencer Silver was trying to create an adhesive so strong it could be used to build airplanes. Instead, the CU Boulder alum’s experimenting spit out one that was tacky yet easily removable. Slap it on to a square piece of paper and, voilà, the Post-It.
2. Dry Fogger
Freezing the set of Michael Jackson’s 1982 “Thriller” music video with liquid nitrogen to produce its creepy mists left CU alum Jim Doyle feeling cold. The special-effects guru’s solution, which uses dry nitrogen, has since set the scene for Janet Jackson, the Broadway production of The Lion King, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, for which Doyle received an Oscar.
3. Tampons
After a friend confessed to using a sponge, Denver physician Earle Haas wrapped cotton around a cardboard applicator, stuck a string to it, and created the modern tampon in 1929. He later sold the patent to the founder of Tampax.
4. 3D Printing
Working late in his lab in 1983, Charles Null cast UV light on polymer resin to build layer after layer until he’d produced…a plastic cup. Thus, 3D printing was born. The company he subsequently founded—3D Systems, which has a massive facility in Littleton—casts prototypes for aerospace, medical, and automotive industries.
5. Crocs
The tech for this comely, comfortable clog came from Canada. Turning it into a $4 billion company beloved by everyone from Justin Bieber to your dad, though, was pure Boulder ingenuity.
6. Cheeseburger
After experimenting with chocolate and peanut butter, Louis Ballast, owner of the Humpty-Dumpty Drive-In near North High School, settled on cheddar and attempted to trademark the cheeseburger in 1935. The process was never completed, and others probably paired the two first, but a monument to Ballast’s ingenuity (erected by a grateful dairy association) still stands at the corner of Speer Boulevard and Alcott Street.
7. Jolly Ranchers
When an unusually rainy summer clouded their Golden ice cream shop’s prospects, Dorothy and Bill Harmsen concocted a recipe for a cinnamon taffy stick in the 1950s and then pivoted to candy, including the stick-to-your teeth treats, now owned by Hershey, that bear the company’s name today.
8. 3D Digital Cinema
In 2005, Boulderite Gary Sharp and his colleague Kristina Johnson came up with the polarization-control technology and nifty glasses that make modern 3D movies possible. In short, you can thank them for Avatar.
9. Parking Boot
The nemesis of negligent parkers everywhere was devised by an iron worker and amateur violinist named Frank Marugg who was just trying to help out a cop buddy. It worked: The Denver Police Department collected $15,000 in unpaid tickets within 25 days of unveiling the clamp in 1955.
