The History of Colorado and Altitude Research

The beginning of the Altitude Research Center can be traced back to the collision of the Pacific and North American Plates that formed the Rocky Mountains almost 120 million years ago. This event endowed Colorado with its unique geography and the natural laboratory it formed has attracted prominent scientists ever since.

Organized, effective high altitude research began in Colorado in 1911 with the Anglo-American Expedition to Pikes Peak, composed of scientists from Oxford University in England, and Yale and Colorado College in the United States. This team of scientists established the basic principals of ventilatory acclimatization to altitude.

In the 1950s a University of Colorado School of Medicine scientist named John Lichty discovered that babies born at altitude have a lower birth weight. This can have health implications for the rest of their lives.

Colorado Altitude Research Institute
The first effort to organize these scientists into a center devoted to altitude research was attempted in the early 1990s with the formation of the Colorado Altitude Research Institute. Under the leadership of Charles S. Houston, MD, CARI achieved many important goals, including the largest survey into the incidence of acute mountain sickness ever.

From CARI to ARC
In 2002, two CARI members, Dr. Benjamin Honigman and Dr. Robert Roach, established the Colorado Center for Altitude Medicine and Physiology to unite scientists interested in altitude research in one place. The name was shorted to the Altitude Research Center in 2006. Today the center continues Colorado's storied history of research into the impact of hypoxia on human health.

ARC and ARC-F
In the fall of 2007 the Advisory Board of ARC decided it would be more effective as a non-profit board and established the ARC-Foundation which received tax-exempt status under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code in March 2008.

If you want to dive deeper into the history of Altitude Research in Colorado, click here