The Emma Crawford 2014 Coffin Races

Return with me now to the hauntingly haunted streets of Manitou Springs, Colorado for the 20th Annual Emma Crawford Coffin Races. And was it a good one this year. Perfect weather. Perfect.

Oh god, look at the crowd. There was an expected attendance of 12,000 or more. When I left (which was, admittedly, before the actual races got underway) there were cars stretched out for miles still trying to get in.

The event itself had over 70 entries. And never has the race had so many great costumes and elaborate race coffins.

There is always a pirate team. Sorry I don't know more about the various clubs and businesses that compose the races. This could be a law firm for all I know, the scurvy dogs. R!

These are the Veterans of the Al Packer Wars, or something. Whatever, it's just good to see Uncle Al represented.  The coffin rider (Emma Crawford) was a little kid in a stew pot.

Figured these guys would be cranking "Flight of the Valkyries" but nope.

These folks were very sporting. They're zom-bees. Get it?

LOL! DO U EVEN LIFT, BRO?

ONE OF US, ONE OF US! GOOBLE GOBBLE GOOBLE GOBBLE!

The Road Warrior/Beyond Thunderdome team might have been the most epic. But it's hard to get a picture of people when you are being crushed up against them. This is only like a third of the team.

I wish I could have gotten pictures of just one percent of the costumes. At this rate, the Emma Crawford Festival is destined be a contender for the greatest Halloween event in the country.

Yep. Coffin Races. Pretty much.

I tried to take a selfie and the sun exploded. I hate when that happens....

Manitou Springs, the Halloween Capitol of the Rockies.


There are many great pictures of the festivities at the Emma Crawford Coffin Races Facebook.

The Colorado Cannibal (& Me)

This bottle which (one presumes) once contained medicinal brandy is my family's connection to celebrated Colorado Cannibal Alferd Packer. D.S. Hoffman was my great-grandfather and, at the time of the so-called Al Packer Massacre, was a physician at the remote mountain town of Lake City, where trail-guide Al Packer would later be tried for the murder of the five members of a prospecting expedition that came to a gory end near Lake San Cristobal. It's really quite a long story so I'll give you the post-card summary right up front:

Souvenir shops in the lovely town of Lake City are crammed with Al Packer momentos and post cards such as this one showing the massacre site.

Here's my own photo of the memorials plaque.

And backed up a bit to show some of the surrounding territory.

And here's Lake San Cristobal. I slept at the lodge there, once.

Here's a couple of pics of an Al Packer wax exhibit in Denver. I kind of doubt it's still around since I haven't seen any recent images.

This seems to be from the Denver Courthouse but I don't really know. The following are from an old souvenir booklet I bought as a kid, followed by a couple of movie trailers for fun:

As you can see, quite a legend has been built up around the incident. In case you didn't notice, that's South Park creator Trey Parker as Alferd Packer in Cannibal: The Musical. And though Ravenous was probably inspired as much by Indian legend as Al Packer, Robert Carlyle's character is clearly modeled after Packer. There is quite a lot of information about Al Packer (and what became of him) online, as well as images, songs, recipes and what have you. Here's the Wiki just to get you started on the whole fascinating story.