Colorado's commemorative quarter revealed

My current home state of Colorado chose a design for our state commemorative quarter and it looks great! But I would have chosen the “Birthplace of the 10th Mountain Division” design to honor the men of the 10th Mountain Division of the U.S. Army, who trained during World War II at Camp Hale, Colorado. Anything to honor our soldiers.

The final design was one out of five that Governor Bill Owens chose from. Actually, over 1500 ideas were submitted, but they were shortly narrowed down to five. "It is difficult to condense the heritage and beauty of a 104,000-square mile state into something the size of a quarter," said Owens. "All of the final five designs were worthy of being minted. In the end, I made my selection based on what most people think of when they think of Colorado - our majestic Rocky Mountains."

The Colorado mountains are amazing. We have 53 peaks that exceed 14,000 feet in height, the Colorado 14ers. If I were going to be here in Colorado longer, I would think about climbing all of them. That's right, there are climbers that have conquered all 14ers.

Great job Owens on the state quarter. Although, it looks like you have created a bit of controversy with it too. Owens spoke on the Hugh Hewitt radio show yesterday about the new state quarter and gave some friendly criticism to Minnesota's state quarter:

The Great Quarters War broke out on the Hugh Hewitt Show today, when Governor Bill Owens brought me up to speed on the fact that my mountains --Mts. Harvard, Princeton, and Yale-- grace the back of Colorado's new state quarter. (Governor Owens named me Warden of the Collegiate Peaks in February of 2004, and Mt. Harvard is among my peaks.) Perhaps the governor was swept up in the enthusiasm of the new design, Governor Owens then went on to unfavorably contrast Minnesota's state quarter with the new Colorado quarter. Word reached Minnesota Governor Pawlenty --we called him and played the Ownes' comments-- and, well, it got a little ugly. Governor Pawlenty suggested some sort of honor duel, and though I think an exhibition game between University of Denver and University of Minnesota hockey teams would be great --perhaps even a fundraiser for Young Life with youth camps in both states?-- the thinking is a combined downhill-cross country face-off between the two governors, with one event in each state.