COLORADO PLAYGROUND —1920

The Colorado Association ; Publisher

High Spots of Colorful Colorado [1920s Promotional Brochure]

Colorful Colorado Opportunity's Playground
A high-contrast visual manifesto of the American West, designed to market Colorado as the ultimate union of rugged recreation and industrial opportunity.

This brochure serves as a transitional artifact of regional branding, moving away from simple frontier imagery toward a curated 'Mountain Parks System' identity. Utilizing a distinct dual-tone cyan and black aesthetic, it captures the pre-1933 'Century of Progress' era of Colorado tourism, emphasizing the state's role as the 'very top of the United States.'

KEY FEATURES
+++ Physical: Stapled pictorial wraps; 8 x 9 inches with an original vertical center-fold as designed.Extensively illustrated with cyan-tinted halftone photographs; features a sprawling 'pictorial map' of the state with vignette icons of oil wells, sugar beet factories, and natural landmarks. 8 x 9 inches; [12] pages including wraps.
+++ Content: Detailed sections on the 'Denver Mountain Parks System', the Royal Gorge, and 'Colorado Vacation Hints.' Includes a unique section on 'Denver and the Denver Mountain Parks' citing $2.50 auto tours. 
+++ Imprint: The Colorado Association, Dept. H-3, 514 16th Street, Denver. 

CONDITION: Very Good. The bindings are tight and the staples are secure. The internal pages are clean without flaw, retaining the original crispness of the paper stock. The outer wraps show a contemporary travel agency stamp (Kansas Motor Club AAA) and a distinct black mark at the lower center of the front panel. Aside from these external handling marks, the specimen is remarkably well-preserved with no splitting to the center fold.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE --
The Colorado Association was the primary engine for the state's interwar 'Opportunity's Playground' campaign. This brochure represents the apex of that movement, produced before the 1933 World's Fair re-branded the state for a global audience.

The artifact captures a specific moment in the development of the Denver Mountain Parks System—a municipal achievement that was then considered 'envied by civic experts the world over.' It documents the early infrastructure of Mount Evans and the Lookout Mountain drive, long before modern highways altered the landscape.

For the collector of Western Americana, the inclusion of the Ute Indian Reservation and Mesa Verde cliff dwellings on the pictorial map underscores the era’s fascination with 'The Mystery of the Orient' and indigenous history as a commercial tourist 'High Spot.'

SCHOLARLY FEATURES
+++ Civic Branding: Documents the early efforts of The Colorado Association to professionalize state tourism, transitioning from 'wilderness' to a 'managed playground' for the motor-car era.
+++ Industrial Context: The pictorial map provides a primary record of Colorado’s interwar economy, specifically highlighting the 'Frozen Oil Well' and 'Beet Sugar Factories' alongside natural wonders.
+++ Accessibility: Captures the 'Golden Age' of rail and auto transit, listing specific round-trip fares from Boston ($87.80) and New York ($99.57) as benchmarks of 1920s travel costs.

SUBJECTS: Colorado History, Denver Mountain Parks, Western Americana, 1920s Graphic Design, Tourism, Pictorial Maps, Ute Indians, Royal Gorge, Americana.

Item #21948

Price: $24.00