Before radio and television, the Chautauqua Movement united millions in common cultural and educational experiences. Orators, performers, and educators traveled a national Chautauqua circuit of more than 12,000 sites bringing lectures, performances, concerts, classes, and exhibitions to thousands of people in small towns and cities. Theodore Roosevelt called Chautauquas, "the most American thing in America." On July 4, 1898, over 4,000 people gathered for the opening day of the Colorado Chautauqua. Boulder civic leaders and Texas educators had joined together to create a cultural and educational summer retreat. Located at the base of Boulder's Flatirons, the Colorado Chautauqua National Historic Landmark is one of only a few remaining chautauquas in the U.S. and it is the only site west of the Mississippi that has been in continuous operation since its founding and with its original structures intact and used for their original purposes and is considered THE western representation of a cultural movement that swept the U.S. in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and continues to exemplify its original ideals - lifelong learning, love of nature, voluntary simplicity and music, oration and the arts. Colorado Chautauqua Association invites everyone to visit and enjoy the beautiful natural surroundings, relax in one of the charming cottages or lodges available for nightly rental, share a meal on the Dining Hall porch, or one of many cultural experiences with friends.