250 years seems like a long, long time

 The United States will celebrate its 250th anniversary (Semiquincentennial) on July 4, 2026, marking 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

 But here in Colorado: 

Centennial State Lighting up the Fourth of July

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!”

__ Katharine Lee Bates

 

D. & R.G. Scenic Railroad Band in Monument

4th of July celebration, 1889 to 1900, Ouray

Crowds gather around the bunting-draped flagpole and grandstand on Main Street and Fifth (5th) Avenue, Ouray, Colorado; the Magnolia Band is in the center with parade floats on Main (Third, 3rd.) United States flags, streamers, and evergreens decorate the street for the Independence Day celebration. Shows a painted sign on the Hiebler building that reads: "Cabinet Club House" another advertises chewing tobacco., Western History/Genealogy Dept., Denver Public Library.


Group near Palmer Lake, July 4, 1893

Six children, three girls and three boys, pose in the brush on a hillside on Independence Day (July 4th), Palmer Lake, El Paso County, Colorado. The girls wear long, ruffled dresses and hats; the boys wear suits, bow ties, and hats.  Western History/Genealogy Dept., Denver Public Library.


Fourth of July festival, Victor, 1899
 

Bird's eye view of Fourth Street during 4th of July celebration, 1899, Victor, Colorado. Parade consists of horse-drawn wagons & floats marching underneath welcoming arch lettered with Florence & Cripple Creek and Golden Circle names; erected for 1899 festivities boasting 12 million dollars of production by mines in/around Victor. People crowd the boardwalks, businesses have awnings, a United States flag, and sign: "Mitchell's."  Western History/Genealogy Dept., Denver Public Library.

Cripple Creek, July 4 - 1893 

J. G. Wilson, photographer. Crowded street scene with people and horse-drawn wagons and carriages for Fourth (4th) of July celebration on Bennett Avenue, Cripple Creek, Colorado; spectators stand on second story porch of Palace Hotel; striped bunting and United States flags are on commercial buildings; men and women use umbrellas for shade.  Western History/Genealogy Dept., Denver Public Library.

Early Telluride, 1890 and 1895

Telluride Silver Cornet (?) Band parades west on Main Street (Colorado Avenue), Telluride, Colorado. Townspeople line street to watch Fourth of July parade. Businesses include: A. J. Vart, Merchant, two-story Sheridan commercial block, and buildings past First National Bank building. A dog walks with uniformed band with tubas, trombones, drum, horns and banner. Group of uniformed masons march behind band. A tall flagpole with inverted funnel shape platform shows in the middle of the street in background. Ajax, Ingram, and Telluride Peaks are in distance.  Western History/Genealogy Dept., Denver Public Library.

Dolores, Fourth of July, 1893

 Please click on following to read about early days of Dolores

Disappointment was too much to bear

Hanging flume photos

Water flowing in the hanging flume, early summer 1891.

Walking bridge across the Dolores River made from salvaged materials from the hanging flume.

Wooden trestle flume on a side canyon with man pointing on top.

New milestone for Colorado Restless Native

 

I know that many came before me

But none love the place more than me.

___ Restless Native 

 

Quickly, approaching 1.5 million pageviews.

Thing of the past ...

Indians Ute agencies taken at the reburial of Chief Ouray original pallbearers for Ouray

Creator: Beam, George L. (George Lytle), 1868-1935

Portrait of Native American (Ute) men riding horses and identified as (l to r): "George Norris, Joseph Price, Colorow, and Buckskin Charlie." Attire includes feather headdresses, hair pipe chokers and breast plates, a squash blossom necklace, medals, a staff, rings, and eyeglasses, Ignacio, Colorado. A frame building has a sign: "Consolidated Ute Indian Agency."Physical Description1 photo negative ; 20 x 25 cm (8 x 10 in.); 1 photoprint ; 20 x 25 cm (8 x 10 in.)

Born-Digital or Analog: Analog

Subject: United States. Office of Indian Affairs. Consolidated Ute Agency Ignacio (Colo.)Horseback riding--Colorado--Ignacio Tribal chiefs--Colorado--Ignacio Buckskin Charlie, Ute Chief Colorow, ca. 1810-1888 Ouray--Death & burial Norris, George Price, Joseph, Chief. Collection Photographs - Western History Related Material Image File: ZZR700137914

Type of Material: Glass negatives Photographic prints

Notes: Formerly F6377; Title hand-written on back of photoprint, with: "Source of info: D & R G W Magazine V.2 #4 February 1926."; R7001379143

Denver Public Library Special Collections

Coal mine? Ski Area? Old Fort nearby?

 From Colorado Pressless Native

Thursday, September 19, 2013

The many faces of Hesperus

In Colorado:

Title: Rio Grande Southern Railroad depot at Hesperus (Colo.)
Date/circa: 1949
Photographer: Chione, Alfred G. (Morton, Ill.)
Notes: Mile Post 145.51. "The coach on the left is the replacement depot as the Hesperus depot. The rest of the buildings are section house, bunk houses, tool sheds, and the water tower." [Source of quote: Robert Herrone, email 3/27/07.]
Photoprint#: P026161
Center of Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College

In British U-Boats:

In English Locomotives:

In Simon Newcomb Science Fiction about 1900:

In 19th Century poetry:

The Wreck of the Hesperus

IT was the schooner Hesperus,
That sailed the wintry sea;
And the skipper had taken his little daughter,
To bear him company.
Blue were her eyes as the fairy-flax,	5
Her cheeks like the dawn of day,
And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds,
That ope in the month of May.
The skipper he stood beside the helm,
His pipe was in his mouth,	10
And he watched how the veering flaw did blow
The smoke now West, now South.
Then up and spake an old Sailòr,
Had sailed to the Spanish Main,
‘I pray thee, put into yonder port,	15
For I fear a hurricane.
‘Last night, the moon had a golden ring,
And to-night no moon we see!’
The skipper, he blew a whiff from his pipe,
And a scornful laugh laughed he.	20
Colder and louder blew the wind,
A gale from the Northeast,
The snow fell hissing in the brine,
And the billows frothed like yeast.
Down came the storm, and smote amain	25
The vessel in its strength;
She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed,
Then leaped her cable’s length.
‘Come hither! come hither! my little daughtèr,
And do not tremble so;	30
For I can weather the roughest gale
That ever wind did blow.’
He wrapped her warm in his seaman’s coat
Against the stinging blast;
He cut a rope from a broken spar,	35
And bound her to the mast.
‘O father! I hear the church-bells ring,
Oh say, what may it be?’
‘’Tis a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast!’—
And he steered for the open sea.	40
‘O father! I hear the sound of guns,
Oh say, what may it be?’
‘Some ship in distress, that cannot live
In such an angry sea!’
‘O father. I see a gleaming light,	45
Oh say, what may it be?’
But the father answered never a word,
A frozen corpse was he.
Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark,
With his face turned to the skies,	50
The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow
On his fixed and glassy eyes.
Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed
That savèd she might be;
And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave,	55
On the Lake of Galilee.
And fast through the midnight dark and drear,
Through the whistling sleet and snow,
Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept
Tow’rds the reef of Norman’s Woe.	60
And ever the fitful gusts between
A sound came from the land;
It was the sound of the trampling surf
On the rocks and the hard sea-sand.
The breakers were right beneath her bows,	65
She drifted a dreary wreck,
And a whooping billow swept the crew
Like icicles from her deck.
She struck where the white and fleecy waves
Looked soft as carded wool,	70
But the cruel rocks, they gored her side
Like the horns of an angry bull.
Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice,
With the masts went by the board;
Like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank,	75
Ho! ho! the breakers roared!
At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach,
A fisherman stood aghast,
To see the form of a maiden fair,
Lashed close to a drifting mast.	80
The salt sea was frozen on her breast,
The salt tears in her eyes;
And he saw her hair, like the brown seaweed,
On the billows fall and rise.
Such was the wreck of the Hesperus,	85
In the midnight and the snow!
Christ save us all from a death like this,
On the reef of Norman’s Woe!
___ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)

In Greek Mythology as imagined by an Italian artist:

Back in Colorado:

 

Thing of the past ...
Fort Lewis, generator
Creator: Pendike Studio.
A man wears overalls and works on probably a belt-driven power generator at Fort Lewis High School (later Fort Lewis College) in Hesperus (La Plata County), Colorado. The generator reads: "Ames Iron Works."
Date: [between 1911 and 1913?]
Notes: History Colorado.; Handwritten on envelope: "C-Fort Lewis"; Title supplied.; R7200075277
Physical Description: 1 photographic print ; 13 x 18 cm. (5 x 7 in.) on album page.
Source: Gift of W.H. Eldridge, Ft. Lewis, Colo.
Is Part Of: History Colorado, subject file collection.  

 

 

Fort Lewis, kitchen

Creator(s): Pendike Studio.

Summary: A woman in a checkered apron poses with a water kettle in a kitchen at Fort Lewis High School (later Fort Lewis College) in Hesperus (La Plata County), Colorado. Shows a wood burning stove, a serving cart on wheels and pots and pans suspended from a ceiling rack.

Date: [between 1911 and 1913?]

Notes: Accession number: 2000.129.547; History Colorado.; Handwritten on envelope: "C-Fort Lewis"; Title supplied.; R7200075251

Physical Description: 1 photographic print ; 13 x 18 cm. (5 x 7 in.) on album page.

Is Part Of: History Colorado, subject file collection

Source: Source: Gift of W.H. Eldridge, Ft. Lewis, Colo.

History Colorado

 

Fort Lewis, dining room

Creator(s) : Pendike Studio.

Summary: View of a dining room at Fort Lewis High School (later Fort Lewis College) in Hesperus (La Plata County), Colorado. Tables are set with tablecloths, glasses and pitchers. The room has wainscoting, wood floors and ceiling, and curtains on windows.

Date: [between 1911 and 1913?]

Notes: Accession number: 2000.129.547; History Colorado.; Handwritten on envelope: "C-Fort Lewis"; Title supplied.; R7200075243

Physical Description: 1 photographic print ; 13 x 18 cm. (5 x 7 in.) on album page.

Is Part Of: History Colorado, subject file collection

Source: Source: Gift of W.H. Eldridge, Ft. Lewis, Colo.

History Colorado

 

 

 

Local matters to your particular audience

Thing of the past ...

Rocky Mountain News printing plant - promotion using little people

Creator: Rhoads, Harry Mellon, 1880 or 1881-1975,

Date circa 1924. Seven male Little People tend the printing press at the Rocky Mountain News' printing plant, Denver, Colorado. The men were participating in a promotional campaign.

Local, local, local... 

it is all that matters anymore.

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com 

First appeared in Newspapers & Technology in 2003

 

I remember the days of deadlines, but it has been a while.
With the advent of the 24-hour news cycle, deadlines, in their original form, went the way of the Dodo bird.
In my long news career, having worked on weeklies, dailies, monthly magazines, annual reports and consistently and constantly breaking online presences, I also remember when it made a difference.
With the blurring of the lines in modern media, changing economic and social conditions, and consumers that are always on, it no longer does.
That does not mean that the cycle is gone; it is just different.
One of my favorite all-time news references is “The Country Newspaper,” by Millard VanMarter Atwood, a Cornell University professor who first published “the little green book” in 1923.
“This little volume is an attempt to show the importance of the country weekly in the life of the small town and the rural community. It is hoped also that it will give residents of smaller places an insight into the problems with which the country editor is confronted in these days of changing economic and social conditions,” writes Atwood.
Accordingly, he notes that the writer “believes that the changes affecting the country newspaper which have been taking place in the East are prophetic of what may be expected, in time, throughout the whole country.”
Like Atwood, and W.P. Kirkwood, agricultural editor of the University of Minnesota, whom he quotes extensively, the emphasis lies on community service.
As observed more than 90 years ago, I think the local paper (he called it the country weekly) faces a future of growth and greatly increased usefulness.
That is based that on “the idea of community service clarifies the whole problem of policies and expediencies, for it gives the concrete aim to all editorial activities.”
What he meant by that was “purpose.”
“The community service, the community building, then as a master motive, establishes the country-weekly publisher securely in his position of leadership. It assures added community prosperity, and local development of the finer satisfactions of life in which he must share; and no agency can take this from him – neither the city daily, coming in from a distance and concerned with the larger affairs of a larger community, nor the school, nor the church, nor any other.”
Today, metro dailies have suffered recently from their addiction to much broader audiences. National news products like Newsweek can’t find a way to make it work. Even the internet needs to focus. Local, local, local.
But how does it affect the cycle. It is still a cycle, but no longer does it climb down from last page to the printer on Monday night, into a reconstructive Tuesday, followed by lets-get-something done Wednesday, ad-close and dummy Thursday, and Friday’s last chance to comment and file a story, finally spiraling out of control into a catch up weekend.
It is a convergence product we are offering, however, instead of only a weekly print edition. Up-to-date postings on our site. Referring pieces on Facebook and Twitter, maybe Pinterest, and Reddit, throw in a few other places for good measure, and now you have our reach. Our readers are the key. They don't care anything about deadlines. The want it now, or forget it.
We still have to get everything done. But now, it is always due.
But they also want it summarized, and archived, third-party verified, and a hard copy provided. They would like the news this way and that.
Terrible accident in town today, get it on the site right away. Public official resigns in disgrace, you must anticipate that sort of thing. Fire breaks out in the forest, how quickly can you have photos up?
With a certain irony, that is easier. Because the focus whips back around to local, local, local.
That is all that really matters anymore.
###

Drinking Tivoli beer in Denver for more than 100 years

Milwaukee Brewing Co., Creator: Joseph Collier,  Date [1890-1900]

Century plus tab runs for 

Tivoli-Union Brewery Company 

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

The Milwaukee Brewery Company was established in 1859 by James Endlich at 10th and Larimer Streets in Denver, Colorado.  It was an early Denver brewery located in the area that became the Tivoli Brewery complex. In 1901, it merged with the Union Brewing Company to form the Tivoli-Union Brewery Company, which operated until the mid-1960s.

In 1860, the brewery was sold to John Good, who enlarged it and renamed it after the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. In 1901, the brewery merged with the Union Brewing Company to form the Tivoli-Union Brewery.
Built in 1870 by German-born Mortz Sigi, the Tivoli Student Union was originally part of the Colorado Brewery. 

Date: 1902. Men and boys pose with cigars, pipes, shovels, a broom, and beer bottles. Crates and labels read: "Tivoli Union Brewing Co. 1342 10th St Denver, Colo."

"The Tivoli Student Union changed owners and names several times throughout the eighteen and nineteen hundreds, with architectural additions being made along the way. Sigi’s Brewery was founded in 1864. It was renamed the Tivoli Brewing Company after Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen in 1901 by John Good. The Tivoli Student Union remained a brewery until the late 1960s, " according to Auraria Higher Education Center information,  in 1901, the building became the Tivoli-Union brewery, named after the famous amusement park in Copenhagen.

During prohibition, the president of the company kept the brewery alive by manufacturing “Dash,” a cereal beer.

The Tivoli-Union was producing 150,000 barrels of beer annually by the 1950s, but by 1966 it was shut down due to its failing business after a worker’s strike. The brewery closed in 1969 after the Platte River flooded it in 1965, shortly after the Occhaitio brothers purchased the facilities. 

Tivoli Brewery team, Date: [1940-1950] The Tivoli Brewery wagon and Clydesdale horses in Denver, Colorado; people ride the conveyance and watch from behind a fence by a loudspeaker. Harness includes silver studs.

In 1973 the Tivoli was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, guaranteeing the restoration and protection of the buildings and major brewing equipment.

The Denver Urban Renewal Authority bought the dilapidated Tivoli with the help of federal funds and transferred ownership to the Auraria Higher Education Center.

When renovation became too costly, the state contracted private developers to restore the buildings of the Tivoli for commercial use. The buildings were brought together under a three-story atrium. 

In 1991, Auraria students voted to buy back and re-develop the Tivoli to use for educational purposes. It opened as the Tivoli Student Union in 1994.

The Tivoli re-opened as a student union/retail center in 1994 after a two-year renovation. It now serves as a defining hub of the campus.


The plant shown here continued to operate until 1969, producing Denver Beer. Several horse-drawn wagons are on the dirt street in front of the building.

After a forty-three-year absence, Tivoli Beer began flowing again in 2012.

To further develop the revived brand, the brewery’s owners embarked upon a $3.5 million renovation of the old building (with the help of ($975,000 in State Historic Preservation Tax Credits) to serve as their brewery and tap house.

The non-historic additions of the 1980s were removed, and the historic interior features were restored. New brewing equipment occupies the space where Tivoli’s original mash tuns and copper kettles once stood, according to the brewery's information.

Roger Whitacre,  Date:1985,  July. Night view of the Tivoli Brewery Building (formerlyTivoli-Union Brewery) at 10th (Tenth) and Larimer Streets in the Auraria neighborhood of Denver, Colorado. The four-story brick building has arched windows, a smokestack, and a tower with a mansard roof. A sign reads: "Tivoli Beer."

 

It is Friday. Keep 'em coming boys.  Antique beer keg lift conveyor machinery at the old Tivoli (a.k.a. Union) Brewery in downtown Denver. Photo by Rob Carrigan.

 
Outlaw Light (or Outlaw Mile Hi Light) is a fast-growing, affordable 4.2% ABV light Kölsch-style beer produced by Tivoli Brewing Co. in Colorado. Marketed as a "crushable," independent alternative to major brands, it features a slightly maltier, crisp profile. It is expanding nationwide, with partnerships including singer HARDY and the Outlaw Music Festival. 

 

 

Cruise Above the Clouds 2016

 

The 2016 Cruise Above the Clouds set a new record for number of entries in the iconic car show. The Woodland Park displayed 350 cars all through the streets and parking lots of Woodland Park and thousands of car buffs and curiosity seekers wandered from classic car to exotic automobile under ideal weather conditions Saturday, Sept. 10.

1: Dave Blix’s Porche Red 55 Ford F-100 Pickup was shining up nicely in the morning sun. Blix’s first wife gave him the devil because he paid $300 for the truck 35 years ago and he spent 12 years restoring it.  “The wife is gone, but I still have the truck,” he said. It is all from ‘54, ‘55, ‘56 Ford F-100 parts, except for the Cleveland 351 engine that came out of a Mustang.

2: Jerry Kabbe’s Forest Green flamejob paint on his 1957 GMC pickup inspired other-world fantasy and set the truck apart in sea of classic and standout “automobilery.”

3: It is not everyday that you run into someone (even at a car show) driving a 1962 Plymouth Valiant, and that is precisely why Mike Buctter of Colorado Springs likes showing up in the unique equipment. 

4:Take a classic 1957 Chevy, modify it slightly in the front with 1958 Chrysler 352 Hemi, and drive it from Aurora to a premier car show in the mountains around Woodland Park and Cripple Creek. Owner Andy Haney kept it  under 60 m.p.h., and gas mileage around 15 miles per gallon.

5:Linda and Bob Brown’s 1969 Pontiac Firebird is rare. Pontiac was sponsoring the Olympic Ski Team that year and a “Ski Package” was available on some models. However, it was not supposed to be available on the convertible. Three were ordered from Denver anyway and built in Van Nuys, until orders from Michigan disallowed. “One got out,” says Bob.

6: Obligatory fuzzy dice in a 1956ish Chevy.

7: This car is sort of dinosaur-like… a real fossil, but well-preserved. They don’t make them J.J. and Mike Triebold’s 1955 Yellow and Black Sunliner anymore.

8: Anytime you get cars together, especially alot of them, you probably will eventually need a tow truck. Viola! Bill Schwindts 1949 Yellow Dodge.

9: Well, Jay Cimino can also have a 1957 Studebaker Silver Hawk, too.

10: Jay Cimino is car guy, and car guys like 1957 Chevys, even if they operate Phil Long Ford. This is no ordinary 1957 Chevy convertible, however.

11. You might pull up side-straddle over a small streambed, drop the side gates and create a bridge to Terabithia with this 1962 Convair Rampside.  

12. It is kind of like a car, only smaller. Francesca Ferrero's 1970 Fiat has just enough room for your body mass, and a little bottle of gas. Many of you have owned recycling containers that are larger.

13. Four-door 1956 Chevy, red and white, simple elegance.

Photos by Rob Carrigan

For at least 30 years, Grampa Bredo was on ice

 

Grandpa Bredo Morstoel died from a heart condition in 1989.

 "Nobody should have to choose 

between a cold heart and a dead heart."

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com 

 I first discovered the "Frozen Dead Guy" in an early Barbabra Lawlor article in the Nederland "Mountain Ear," shortly after the turn of the 21st century.  A great fan of the quirky little newspaper in "Ned," I followed the story's development as the odd circumstances that blossomed over the next decades into a town celebration, national attention and international renown for "Grampa Bredo."

"The Mountain Ear,'  of course had more to do with small town Nederland, than a body part of Bredo Morstoel, the central figure in this odd story. But as long-time Ear publisher Barbabra Hardt noted in 2022:

"The Mountain-Ear has had great years and hard years. 2019 was by far the hardest, that’s the year after Barbara Lawlor died. “She was the paper. She covered every event. She wrote 80% of it every week.”  

Frozen Dead Guy Days

 

"Grandpa Bredo is a century plus a decade or more years old. For at least 30 years, he’s taken up residence in a Tuff Shed in the hills above Nederland, Colorado, where he remains very, very, very cold. More specifically, Grandpa is frozen in a state of suspended animation, awaiting the big thaw. The one that will bring him back to life," said FrozenDeadGuyDays.org.

"There is a good story behind this, one that stretches from Norway to California to Colorado, involving cryonics, deportation, psychics, celebrations, and a dedicated Ice Man. It’s a tale that has captured international attention and sparked a must-attend annual event called Frozen Dead Guy Days."

Life After Death

"Before Grandpa Bredo Morstoel died from a heart condition in 1989, he enjoyed a comfortable life in Norway, where he was born and raised. He loved painting, fishing, skiing, and hiking in the mountains of his homeland. He was also the director of parks and recreation in Norway’s Baerum County for more than 30 years," reports the site.

"After he died, things got really interesting. Instead of a burial, he was packed in dry ice and prepared for international travel. First, he was shipped to the Trans Time cryonics facility in Oakland, California, where he was placed in liquid nitrogen for almost four years. Then, he was moved to Colorado in 1993 to stay with his daughter Aud Morstoel and his grandson Trygve Bauge, both strong advocates for cryonics who hoped to start a facility of their own."

There he stayed for years under cold cover, in a shed, near his grandson’s home, and about to be left on his own, due to some pesky visa issues.

The Grandfather Clause

"If you peruse the laws of Nederland, you’ll discover that it’s illegal to store a frozen human or animal (or any body part thereof) in your home. We have Grandpa Bredo to thank for this. When grandson Trygve was deported in the mid-90s because of an expired visa, Bredo’s daughter stepped in to take care of the household – including keeping her father on ice."

However, Aud was evicted for living in a house with no electricity or plumbing and was about to head back to Norway. This meant that the family’s fledgling cryonics facility was destined to come to a halt. Worried that her father would thaw out before his time, she spoke to a local reporter, who spoke to the Nederland city council, who passed Section 7-34 of the municipal code regarding the “keeping of bodies.”

Luckily for Bredo, he was grandfathered in and allowed to stay. Suddenly, he was a worldwide media sensation. And he has been well cared for by his family and community ever since.

The Iceman

 "Bo Shaffer saw an intriguing want ad on the Internet in 1995 posted by Trygve. He applied for the one-of-a-kind job, got it, and is now known as the “Ice Man.” Every month, Shaffer and a team of volunteers delivers 1,600 pounds of dry ice and packs it around Grandpa Bredo in his sarcophagus, surrounded by foam padding, a tarp, and blankets. As Cryonicist-in-Charge, Shaffer keeps Grandpa at a steady -60 degrees Fahrenheit. He also gives tours to investigators, filmmakers, local volunteers, and even psychics who have purported to communicate with the dearly departed (by one account, Bredo is amused by the fuss but doing fine)," says FrozenDeadGuyDays.org.

"Shaffer feels the weight of this responsibility, knowing how much has been invested in keeping Grandpa in his cryonic state. Now frozen for over 20 years, he has kept the hope alive for his family and their faith in cryonics, as well as spurring an annual festival in Nederland that has grown into a full-fledged winter celebration."

Dead Man’s Party

For a town like Nederland that thrives on the colorful, the offbeat, and the weird, Frozen Dead Guy Days is a fitting way to end the short days of winter and head into the melting snows of spring. Trygve Bauge calls it “Cryonics’ first Mardi Gras.”

Frozen Dead Guy Days, one of Colorado’s most beloved annual events for more than 20 years, is kicking off a new chapter in Estes Park. Taking place now near St. Patrick’s Day weekend in March , the reborn Frozen Dead Guy Days features live music and entertainment all weekend long, and will be held at the Estes Park Events Complex and The Stanley Hotel, with satellite events occurring around town.

Festival goers can expect the weird and wonderful happenings from years past, including coffin races and a polar plunge, as well as plenty of new and elevated Estes twists, like a frostbite fashion show, roaming freak show acts, a Bands and Bloodys Sunday Brunch and more.

 From Estes Park' information about recent years of celebration; 

"Grandpa Bredo is over 120 years old. For years, he was the resident of a Tuff Shed in the hills above Nederland, Colorado, just 40 miles south of Estes Park, where he remained very, very, very cold. These days, Grandpa is still frozen in a state of suspended animation, awaiting the big thaw. The one that will bring him back to life."

"There is a good story behind this, one that stretches from Norway to California to Colorado, involving cryonics, deportation, psychics, celebrations, a dedicated Ice Man and a cryonics rescue mission. It’s a tale that has captured international attention and sparked a must-attend annual event called Frozen Dead Guy Days,"  says Estes Park's web page.

"So how did all of this begin… and more importantly (particularly for Grandpa Bredo), how long will it last?"

 Although Trygve and Aud filed a complaint against Nederland involving money and naming rights in 2005, Frozen Dead Guy Days continued to be held annually. 

Long-time organizer Amanda MacDonald partially relinquished ownership and control of the event in 2019. The celebration was last held March 19–20, 2022 after a two year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. Organizers announced the 2023 iteration would be cancelled, stating Nederland refuses "to work with the festival's current owners again."

Change is location

For 2023, the festival moved to Estes Park, and currently (2025) charges an average of $38 per person which includes Coffin Races, Frozen Games, Art, and multiple national touring bands.

 In a recent story by Molly Cruse, of Colorado Public Radio, Mar. 14, 2025, "Today, Grandpa Bredo rests in a 12-foot-tall steel tank filled with liquid nitrogen and set to -320 degrees in the Stanley Hotel’s historic ice house which has since become the “International Cryonics Museum.” Visitors can take a tour of the museum and Grandpa Bredo’s resting place for $20." 

Despite some Nederland locals saying they’re “relieved” that the festival moved on, there are still a few who say they will miss it. 

“We never had any trouble from it or anything,” said Mike Parker, who has worked at Nature’s Own, a crystal shop, for over 20 years. “I know something's missing.”

Andelman said she plans to help Estes Park with the transition. For the last few years, she has been heavily involved in making sure organizers at the Estes Park Frozen Dead Guy Days Festival retain the quirkiness of the original festival.

“I have experience in everything and I was like, ‘I am here if you need me, we need to figure out a way to work together’,” Andelman said. “I don't know if they wanted to accept me, but I'm not just Nederland; I am Frozen Dead Guy Day. It is an event that came from years and years and of effort, so let's figure out how it can continue on that path.”

A few years ago, I sold about a dozen wine barrels to City of Estes Park, that they said would be used during "Frozen Dead Guy Days" up there, as well as other  city events.

Events  beyond our control have been lining up to take a shot at us the last few years.

But like a lot of misfortune, it turns out, that the real story of any event is our response. “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it,” just as Helen Keller noted.

And Colorado locations are known for creating an event — just to emphasize those responses.

This year the festival will be held  from March 27-29, 2026, for Frozen Dead Guy Days, a quirky winter festival celebrating the legend of Grandpa Bredo.  at Estes Park Events Complex. But according to the organizers, there will be Frozen Dead Guy Day-themed activities the entire weekend, to keep with the tradition of the former Nederland-based festival. 

 rickpawl - originally posted to Flickr as don't ask - frozen dead guy days

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