There were no rock shows at Red Rocks throughout 1969.īut the most prolonged ban came about in 1971, after a Jethro Tull show in June. In 1968, she refused to perform because of contract issues, causing fans to rush the stage and destroy a piano. And while Aretha Franklin wasn't a rock-and-roll artist, her fans caused a ban on all rock shows. For a short time, alcohol sales were banned, until cooler (and more profit-driven) heads prevailed. It began in 1964, when fans threw beer cans on the stage at a Peter, Paul and Mary show (and this wasn’t the first time - they’d done the same at a 1962 Ray Charles performance). It’s probably one of the worst-kept secrets of Red Rocks - that there’s a service tunnel backstage, and pop-culture famous folks from the last fifty years-plus have taken to writing on the walls, sometimes just signing their names, other times leaving messages, even responding to the messages of the stars that came before them, marker in hand.īans Have Plagued Red Rocks Over the Yearsįor all the famed acts that have graced the venue over the years, there have been more than a few events that shut down business as usual, at least for a while. YouTube There's an Underground Tunnel With Rock-Star Graffiti It's her violence, or so it's said, that colored the rocks red in the first place. She's often holding a bloody hatchet (thus the name), and she appears either with or without her head, threatening visitors who in some way are not respecting the natural cathedral, in her spectral opinion. But the most enduring legend is that of the Hatchet Lady, who's usually seen naked, either on horseback or emerging from one of the small shallow caves dotting the landscape. There are a lot of superstitions regarding Red Rocks, from phantom Ute drums in the distance to mysterious music rising from the ethereal past. And the group was also the first big security risk, as it received a number of death threats, and the idea of snipers atop the rocks was a serious concern. The experience was notable for a couple of other reasons, too: The Fab Four were the first band of many to require oxygen tanks on stage because of the elevation. But the August 26 concert did break the box-office record for an open-air venue at that time. It was, in fact, the only show in the Beatles’ legendary 1964 American tour that didn't. While there’s no deed of sale or record of any $50K transaction (the amount cited by most historical sources) in the Jefferson County records, there was legal maneuvering going on, and it’s likely that sum was paid to remunerate the owners for the condemned and commandeered parcel of land that became part of the Denver Mountain Parks system.Īnd get this: It didn’t sell out. In the early 1920s, the City of Denver was using - some say abusing - eminent domain to take over vast areas of land, partly to compete with Colorado Springs in the battle for a growing car-related tourism industry. It Was Probably Unethically (If Not Illegally) Seized But not all of Walker’s ideas for attracting visitors were stellar: In 1912 he proposed, among other wacky plans, to carve one of the great natural formations into a full-scale replica of the Sphinx. YouTube Its Original Name Was "Garden of the Titans"įrom its christening in 1906 through the mid-1920s, Red Rocks was called Garden of the Titans, almost assuredly a marketing ploy to compete with the already established Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. When Earth's plates pushed up the Rocky Mountains more than 65 million years ago, they also erected the umber rocks we find there today. In fact, there are also fossils from the Jurassic Period - 160 million years ago - that include a Mososaurus and flying reptiles from that age. But isn’t it nicer to envision a big ol’ long-necked aquatic dinosaur lounging back against one of the rocks? Listening to Phish, no doubt. Or it died there, anyway, as the forty-foot fossil it left behind proves. Speaking of dinosaurs, a plesiosaur lived at Red Rocks. It’s telling that we know more about the dinosaurs that lived in the area than we do the Native Americans, who likely utilized the natural acoustics for their own ceremonies. Sadly, over the many iterations of construction and development, any uncovered artifacts were deemed unimportant at the time and subsequently lost. For centuries leading up to the American expansion in the mid-nineteenth century, Red Rocks was a home to the Ute tribe, and evidence of their presence is all over the surrounding area.
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