(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Frozen Dead Guy Days Moves To Estes Park; A Colorado State Open Thread 2/20/23 [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-20 Every Tuff Shed has a unique serial number. This one is grandpa1. Several decades ago, Bredo Morstoel went on a ski trip in Norway and woke up dead (or rather, didn’t wake up at all) the next morning. His grandson, Trygve Bauge, said “No, Wait!” Grandpa might not really be dead, and if we keep him REALLY cold, the day will come when science can bring him back to life. However, the laws in Norway said, “Nope, you can’t do that.” So Trygve shipped the body, packed in dry ice, to Trans Time Cryonics in California, USA. The company closed a few years later. Not to be dissuaded, Trygve purchased a chunk of wilderness in the Colorado mountains, and began building his own Cryogenics Institute, which consisted of grandpa’s sarcophagus packed in a larger container of dry ice stowed in a garden shed in the yard of a mountaintop libertarian compound. Trygve systematically ignored local authorities, laws, building inspections, utility services and zoning regulations. One story goes that he went out and moved the flags for electrical utility installation onto his own property and said nothing when construction workers arrived to pour cement and install equipment. When it was finished, he claimed that the power installation belonged to him because it was on his property. The power company was not amused. Trygve enjoyed playing cat and mouse, repeatedly antagonizing local officials until they finally did some checking, found that he was not a citizen, did not have papers or passport, and were all like, “Dude, you are SO outta here. We are tired of your shit.” (Not a real quote.) Officials went up to the property to evict him, found out about grandpa frozen in the garden shed and collectively soiled their knickers. No one wanted custody of a dead body. Arrangements were made for a hired caretaker to maintain the cold storage unit and Trygve was deported to Norway. Bo Shaffer became known as the Iceman, dutifully hauling dry ice up the mountain on a regular basis. Shaffer wrote a book about the whole thing, Colorado’s Iceman & The Story Of The Frozen Dead Guy, published in 2011 by History Press. I found my copy at a local grocery store. That’s my source for most of this story. More details about the backstory can be found in the current Estes Park Dead Guy Days links below. Now, the location of the garden shed was excellent for a view of the Colorado mountain peaks, located as it was, on top of one. The top of a mountain peak just west of Boulder, yep. Some of you may be concerned about that garden shed and you would be correct. With every storm, more pieces came off, and no matter how hard Shaffer worked to patch it back together, mother nature had other ideas. At last, Shaffer found sponsors and a new building was donated by the Tuff Shed company. Publicity, photographs with the shed company owner and a live radio broadcast put the frozen dead guy and Nederland on the map. Someone came up with the idea of a celebration to bring visitors and money into town. Events included live music, parties, costumed coffin races, ice sculptures, a hearse parade, costumed polar plunge, brain-freeze contest and a dead-guy look-alike contest. The event became a good-natured competition with another Colorado town (Manitou Springs) who holds its own coffin races and celebration for a mining-era corpse that rode back into town on a landslide. Hey, I bet Colorado is the only state with TWO corpse-inspired celebrations. If you find more, please tell us in the comments! Frozen Dead Guy Days returned to Nederland in 2022 after a two year break for the pandemic. This video was posted by coffin-racing team, the Traveling Tacos. 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 over St. Patrick’s Day weekend on March 17-19, 2023, the reborn Frozen Dead Guy Days will feature 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 deadman fashion show, roaming freak show acts, a Bands and Bloodys Sunday Brunch and more. Official FDGD video from 2017 by Roaming Bison Productions. Have any of you participated in the festivals of Nederland or Manitou? Tell us about it! Have you attended significant festivals, concerts or events elsewhere in Colorado? If you’ve been to multiple events, which ones did you enjoy the most? Which ones would you not go back again? This is your open thread. What’s happening where you are? How much snow did you get this week? [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/20/2151504/-Frozen-Dead-Guy-Days-Moves-To-Estes-Park-A-Colorado-State-Open-Thread-2-20-23 Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/