The original item was published from August 21, 2020 9:54 AM to September 1, 2023 1:58 PM
In honor of Shark Week, enjoy this series of Parker-themed shark facts.
Day 1: Adult whale sharks, the largest living species of shark, weigh an average of 41,000 pounds. To put that into perspective, a loader used by our Public Works Department clocks in at 38,000 pounds.
Day 2: Blue sharks have been observed up to 1,150 feet beneath the ocean’s surface. To reach an equivalent length, you’d need to stack 46 copies of the Parker Fieldhouse Climbing Wall (25 feet high) atop one another.
Day 3: Great white sharks eat an average of 11 tons (22,000 pounds) of food in a single year. Humans, by comparison, eat around a half ton of food per year. During the Town’s 2019 Household Chemical Roundup event, residents dropped off 55,000 pounds of paint materials alone to be safely disposed and recycled.
Day 4: Parker’s founding dates back to construction of a way station by Alfred Butters sometime around 1864. The property came to be known as the 20-Mile House for its approximately 20-mile distance from Denver. At top speeds, tiger sharks can reach 20 miles per hour, meaning one could leave the historical downtown Parker landmark and reach the Mile High City in an hour, given the span was underwater.
Day 5: The great hammerhead shark migrates distances upwards of 750 miles. That’s a greater distance than the total number of lane miles of roads within the Town of Parker, which is just over 500.
Day 6: Parker’s resident shark dwells at Discovery Park. “ManEater,” by Jim Choate, is a welded steel shark that doubles as a bike rack. The sculpture was intended to give the viewer an up close and personal idea of the average size of a young adult great white shark. Please feel free to park and lock up your bike in the belly of this predator before exploring Discovery Park.
Day 7: Dwarf lantern sharks are the smallest known living shark species. On average, they measure between 6 to 8 inches from snout to caudal fin. At that size, a dwarf lantern shark could easily fit within a globe from the Town of Parker’s trademark lampposts.