Over the last year, Metro State Mapping and Surveying Professor Herb Stoughton and several of his students worked with volunteers of the Professional Land Surveyors of Colorado and surveyors from the Colorado Department of Transition to identify the actual mile-high altitude on the grounds of the Capitol.

Since the 1990s, surveyors have found several areas across the United States to actually be higher in elevation. Using the new national vertical datum they determined the 13th step of the capital to be mile high, not the 18th step, which held the marker since 1969.

On Monday, Gov. Bill Owns placed a brass marker on the 13th step of the Capitol, declaring it the exact spot that is 5,280 feet. This was the third-time the official mile-high marker has been moved because of surveying adjustments.