My Learning Safari: 19th Annual Emma Crawford Coffin Races

The story goes that Emma Crawford moved to Manitou Springs back in 1889. Like many people of that day, she came for the mineral water and the tuberculosis treatment centers. She passed away on December 4, 1891. Her dying wish was that she be buried at the top of Red Mountain. Her husband kept her wish and carried her up the 7,200 ft. slope. After many years of heavy rains, in 1929 she washed down the side of the mountain and into Manitou Springs. Since 1995, the people of Manitou Springs have been remembering her with the Annual Emma Crawford Coffin Races. It's weird, quirky, and only in Manitou, which are all reasons that make me want to go. My mom and dad even made the trip up this year to see this one-of-a-kind event. So on October 26th we joined the 8,000+ people lining Manitou Avenue.

The event starts with a parade of all the coffins and hearses so that you can see them and pick your favorites before the races begin.

The most elaborate coffin, obviously going for looks over speed

Duck Dynasty was popular this year. You'll see several others.

Casually walking down the street, but notices this picture
being taken by my mom...

and decides to come over for a close-up...

and creepily touches my mom's face. So weird!

After they've all made it up the street and back down, it's time for the races to begin! Each heat consists of two teams racing their coffins up the street to get the best time. Four people are pushing and they have to have one "Emma" in the coffin along for the ride. Only video could give you even somewhat of an idea of what this is like:

In case you couldn't quite tell, that was one of the Duck Dynasty teams chasing after a duck.

The four fastest teams race again at the end to determine the top 3 fastest coffins overall. There is also an award for the best coffin and the best Emma.

Winner of the Best Coffin

Winner of Best Emma and one of the finalists
for speed

Words can't describe how weird it is, but it's so entertaining. Even just the spectators around are often a sight to see. People really get into this. And you can probably tell from the pictures that we got a great day for it. You never know what could happen in October, so we were very thankful for the warmth of the sunshine! It made for a perfect day to have a little picnic in the park while we let some of the craziness clear out after the races.