You might think that the white marble that covers the Colorado State Capitol is the most valuable part of the building or the 200 ounces of 24-karat gold that covers the dome. You would be wrong. The most priceless stuff is actually inside the Capitol … and it’s pink.
Construction of the Capitol was only in its infancy when the unusual pink stone was found in what was then called the Beulah Red Marble Quarry and was rented by David Kelly, director of the Denver Onyx and Marble Company. The stone was so unusual that it was suggested that it would be a better cladding material than the hardwood that the Capitol Building Commission had previously planned to use. In 1893, the Commission made the decision to use marble.
The trip to move the stone from the quarry to Pueblo CO took two days. From Pueblo, the marble was transported to Denver by rail. In 1893, $ 164 ($ 3,866.15 in today’s currency) purchased the services of the people who would install the marble. A crew of 10-12 men worked grueling 10 hours a day for $ 1.50-1.75 to drill and mount the marble. That’s the equivalent of about $ 35.36 to $ 41.25. It took 6 years, from 1894 to 1900, for the marble to fully install.
The Beulah red marble quarry did not last long after the completion of the Capitol building, which was closed in 1906. Marble supplies were almost completely depleted by Capitol requirements, so much so that Italian stone had to be imported for serve as paneling in the less visible parts of the building. Even today, reconstruction and renovation efforts require imported stone to be used to harmonize with the red Beulah marble.
Some sources claim that “all” the red Beulah marble went to the Capitol. This is not entirely true. Despite the Capitol’s demands, it appears that enough marble was made available for the old McClelland Library and Pueblo County Courthouse to have fireplace moldings. Not a few houses in Beulah have some samples of the stone in moldings and rock work even today.
There have been reports of images on the stone of famous people from Colorado and the United States. Molly Brown can be found in the west wing arch and George Washington can be seen in the west wing rotunda wall. There are also more prosaic images, like a Christmas turkey.
The Capitol Building is open to the public year-round, Monday through Friday. If you are looking for a real piece of Colorado history, take a look at swirling pink masonry that you will never see anywhere else in the world!