Answer to Week 3 - Where was the Colorado Desperado? 

Denver’s City Park!

Jimmy Maddo found Ophelia the Outlaw and her bevy of baddies in Denver’s City Park.  The largest of the park within Denver, City park was begun in the early 1880s, with children planting trees as part of the first Arbor Day, in 1884.  The park, originally shadeless prairie, would change dramatically over the ensuring years.        

As part of Mayor Speer’s “Give While You Live” campaign, a number of grand entranceways were added to the park.  The two most frequently seen are the Sullivan and Monti Gates.  The Sullivan Gate, with its statues honoring ‘the Miners’ and ‘the Gleaners’ sits where the City Park Esplanade meets Colfax.  The Monti Gate, donated by Joshua Monti, who had the distinction of being one of JJ and Margaret Brown’s neighbors, welcomes folks turning off Colorado Blvd. for the Museum of Nature and Science.  Two other gates, the McLellan and Sopris, are less known.  On a working tour of Europe, Mayor Speer admired a statue in Dusseldorf honoring childhood.  Completely charmed by the statue, Mayor Speer asked the artist to create a copy, which now graces City Park.

The park’s central feature is a Ferril Lake, honoring Colorado poet Thomas Hornsby Ferril, whose words grace the rotunda of the capitol.  Visitors may paddle boats out to see the fountain in the lake.  The fountain was placed for the presidential convention being held in Denver in 1908.  It was refurbished for the presidential convention in 2008 and may still be seen in the lake today.           

Numerous cannons from the wars of the country’s past may be found within the park, and there are many pictures and photo-postcards showing people throughout the years using the cannons not only as photo backdrops but also as photo platforms.

On the north side of the park is the Denver Zoo, and on its eastern side is the Museum of Nature and Science.  The park offers many more things to see, including the Thatcher Fountain, the Avenue of the Lilacs and the ‘I Have a Dream’ monument.  City Park is a great place to wander, regardless of the season, and it comes with gates to enter and exit through to honor your triumph!

Where Is the Colorado Desperado? Week 4

Where in Colorado is Jimmy hunting for Ophelia and the Bailey Baddies this week? Check for clues below. Learn more about Jimmy Maddo, the Colorado Desperado, and his Wild West adventures here. Let’s have fun and explore the places of Colorado digitally until we get to traveling again! 

Jimmy Maddo, the Colorado Desperado, and his sidekick, Opus, were enjoying some small-town hospitality. Well, they would have been enjoying it a lot more if they could just track down the Bailey Baddies. They had gotten word that the troublesome pair had come this way, but after traveling down a lonely highway for miles and miles, all they found were herds of cattle and fields of crops - no outlaws. 

They were stumped, with no more leads to follow, so they decided to hang out for a while in one of the small towns in the area to see if Ophelia the Outlaw and Lariat Louise would show up. They spent the morning exploring the town’s museum - after all, the artifacts there could spark Ophelia’s artifact-stealing tendencies like kerosene can spark a four-alarm fire. But they saw no sign of her. 

Disappointed, Jimmy and Opus climbed back into the History-Mystery-Mobile and tried to decide where to go next. 

“How ‘bout tryin’ a different town? I’m ready t’ move on. Every time we drive past the high school, I see the sign with their mascot and it makes me feel kinda melancholy,” Opus lamented.

Jimmy was about to respond, when a squawking sound from the speakers interrupted him.

“Jimmy, you need to go help Polly right away. Ophelia has her cornered!” The Voice gave Jimmy directions to one of the oldest agricultural experiment stations in the state, and soon Jimmy and Opus were on their way.

When they arrived, they found that Ophelia had already fled, but had tied up Polly and left her behind!

“Polly, what happened!?!” Jimmy cried as he untied her. 

“Those rotten baddies snuck up behind me, that’s what!” exclaimed the frazzled professor. “I came down here to do some research, and I stumbled across some forgotten archives filled with manuscripts written by Jerre F. Swink.” she further explained.

“Jerre who?” Opus puzzled.

“Jerre F. Swink,” replied the professor. “He was the supervisor of this research center for years and years. Not to be confused with G. W. Swink, who started the -”

“Where did Ophelia go after she jumped you?” Jimmy cut in. From the excited gleam in Polly’s eyes, he figured she was just getting warmed up with her history lesson, and as much as he loved history, he was worried Ophelia would get away.

“Oh, right! Ophelia tied me up while Lariat Louise hotwired an old pickup truck that was parked nearby. Then the two of them grabbed the documents I had just found and took off down the highway. Come on!”

Soon the three were speeding down the highway, searching intently for the old pickup.

“Polly, why do you suppose Ophelia wanted those papers?” Jimmy asked.

“Those papers were about how to keep fruit from going bad. Do you suppose she is trying to twist the information in those papers so that she can ruin the produce instead?” Polly gasped.

“That does sound like just the kind of rotten thing she would do,” Jimmy exclaimed. “And I think I know where she’s heading!”

He gave the History-Mystery-Mobile more gas as he sped toward the site for the oldest continuous fair in Colorado.

Just as they were nearing the fairgrounds, they were met with an overwhelming smell of rotting fruit! Sure enough, parked just off the road were the Bailey Baddies. There was a big pile of rotten cantaloupes on the ground next to the parked truck, and Ophelia was handing them up to Louise, who was arranging them in a high stack in the bed of the old pickup. Jimmy quickly pulled over, and then everyone piled out of the History-Mystery-Mobile and charged right over to Ophelia. 

“Whew! Sure wish I’da brought a face coverin’ to protect myself from that putrid stank,” exclaimed Opus. But Jimmy was so intent on stopping these produce-hating crooks that he didn’t even notice the smell.

“Stop right there!” Jimmy yelled. “You should be ashamed of yourself, trying to ruin such a long-standing tradition! You were trying to ruin the fair by stealing all their beautiful, delicious fruits and replacing them with these old, rotten ones, weren’t you!” Jimmy glared accusingly at her.

Ophelia opened her mouth to reply, when suddenly a giant avalanche of rotten cantaloupes cascaded out of the truck toward Jimmy and his friends. Apparently, Lariat Louise had been trying to scramble out of the pickup bed so she could get away, but instead she upset the stack of melons, causing them to tumble out and bury everyone in a rancid, slimy, fruit salad.

By the time Jimmy, Opus, and Polly unburied themselves, the Bailey Baddies had scrambled back into the truck and were flying down the highway. Jimmy sighed as the troublesome duo sped off out of sight.

“Well, at least you stopped her from ruining the fair,” Polly encouraged. “I’ll go on up to the fairgrounds and make sure the folks there know to keep a close eye on their produce,” she volunteered.

“Thanks, Polly. I’m sure the town wants to keep their melons in capital shape. And Opus and I will keep looking for the Bailey Baddies. They may have gotten away this time, but don’t worry. We’ll find them again, or I’m not Jimmy Maddo, the Colorado Desperado.”

Where were the Bailey Baddies this week?

Where is the Colorado Desperado?  C'mon back next week for the answer!