Quirky Colorado - Rocky Mountain Oddities and Unusual Attractions

COLORADO LEGENDS

Quirky Colorado - Oddities and Unusual

Attractions

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Quirky Colorado

Brothel Museum in Cripple Creek

Colorado Fun Facts & Trivia

Frozen Dead Guy in Nederland

Tropical Bug Museum in Colorado?

Wonder Tower in Genoa

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Mike-HeadlessChicken.jpg (201x250 -- 5747 bytes)

The town of Fruita, Colorado holds an annual

Mike The Headless Chicken Festival

Bug Museum South of Colorado Springs – Yup, the May Natural History Museum of the Tropics, located southwest of Colorado Springs, is a unique museum filled with over 8,000 bugs!

In 1929, John M. May and his father began exhibiting a tropical display of insects at national exhibitions, flower and sports shows in many large American cities. Then, in the 1940's John May built a permanent museum and headquarters building on his ranch nine miles southwest of Colorado Springs. The collection actually contains over one hundred thousand bugs, however only the largest, most beautiful and the most valuable are on display, with the exhibits changing from year to year.

Imagine a stick insect from New Guinea which measures 17 inches long and looks so much like a bundle of sticks that it is invisible unless it moves, a nine inch scorpion of the African Congo, the world's largest purple Tarantulas that actually catch and kill mice and small birds, and the ten inch wide Actius Moths of India that imitate the Cobra Snake to scare off their enemies.

There are Colombian Beetles so large that they can break street lights and knock a man down if they hit him while flying, moths that rob beehives and creatures that build log houses around themselves.

James F. W. May was born in England in 1884, but his family lived in Brazil, South America where he was raised. Mr. May's father was an adventurous man and for some years collected for the British Museum on the Upper Amazon River which, in those days, was virtually unexplored. He died of Yellow Fever which he contacted on one of his expeditions when James was only 8 years old; however, it must have been his father's influence that stimulated James to do his work in this field of Natural History. James' brother, Ted May, was the curator of the Government Museum in Rio de Janeiro for many years and independently built up one of the largest collections of Brazilian Arthropods.

The May Natural Museum is open from May 1st to October 1st and reservations are required for groups in the winter. Groups of ten are the minimum number of persons possible for winter reservations. The Museum is approximately 9 miles southwest of Colorado Springs and one mile west of Highway 115.

A replica of the Hercules Beetle of the West Indies marks the turnoff to the Museum.

Contact Information:

John May Museum

710 Rock Creek Canyon Rd.

Colorado Springs, Colorado 80926

(719)-576-0450 or (800)-666-3841

Brothel Museum in Cripple Creek

The Old Homestead House Museum is a house with a history. The original 1890s brothel once housed several “soiled doves” catering to the area's many miners during the gold rush days.

The building was built and owned by Pearl DeVere, the house madam, in 1896. The finest and most expensive house in the settlement, Pearl required the men to make a financial application before they could be admitted to the house, and then, by appointment only. Pearl was said to have been a beautiful woman and obviously popular, so when she died of a morphine overdose just a year after building her fabulous house, the area men were shocked. Her funeral was the largest that Cripple Creek had ever seen.

Located in Cripple Creek’s Old Red Light District, tours include the history of the famous Parlor House, Myers Avenue, and the Cripple Creek Gold Rush. The Old Homestead is on Myers Avenue, one block from Cripple Creek’s main street, Bennett Avenue and is open from Memorial Day through September. Group rates are available and will also open anytime for group of 6 or more.

Cripple Creek Homestead Museum, Kathy Weiser, June 2006.

What’s really interesting is the museum offers admission for half-price to children ages 10-13 and free for children under ten. Children?? Go figure.

Another interesting note came from our reader Lindy in Elizabeth, Colorado who says that museum staff report hauntings in the old brothel. Once in a while, according to staff, visitors will get a funny look on their face and suddenly ask if there are ghosts at the museum. Obviously, they are feeling a presence of something around them. During recent construction, there were several reports from workers who said that the former "girls" of the house were watching them work. Others have felt someone touching them and sensed movement out of the corner of their eye. Several people have reported that there are three former soiled doves who continue to reside at the old parlor house.

Contact Information:

Old Homestead House Museum

353 Myers Avenue

Cripple Creek, Colorado

719-689-3090

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