Instead of gold, prospectors trudging through the foothills of the Greenhorn Mountains in 1859 found chunks of red marble that would later give the capitol its distinctive splendor. The chunks made up the only known deposit of red marble in the world. Workers later called it Beulah Red, for the little town nearby.

Cutting, polishing, and installing the marble in the Capitol took six years, from 1894 to 1900. Except for small pieces around the fireplace in the Pueblo County Courthouse, all the marble in the deposit went into the Colorado State Capitol. It cannot be replaced, at any price.