More Festival Fun

Skeleton Craze

Voting is open through Halloween!

Throughout the month of October you’ll find skeleton friends lurking in spots around town. Vote for your favorite, and the Best Skeleton will be crowned at the end of the month. It’s a fun, family-friendly event for residents and visitors alike to see our historic downtown in a spooky new light. 

 

Skeleton Craze list of businesses and map

Skeleton Craze

Throughout the month of October you’ll find skeleton friends lurking in spots around town. Vote for your favorite, and the Best Skeleton will be crowned at the end of the month. It’s a fun, family-friendly event for residents and visitors alike to see our historic downtown in a spooky new light. Get your ballot at the Visit Manitou Springs office at 354 Manitou Avenue starting October 1.

spooky tour guide holding lantern

Ghost Tours

These eerie yet fun ghost tours will walk you through long lost stories of real residents in Manitou Springs’ history. The ghostly spirits come back to visit during weekends in October. 

The Manitou Springs Heritage Museum, along with our friends at Theatre d’Art, provide these evening tours that are thoughtfully scripted and brilliantly presented to provide a fun, family experience.

Theatre d’Art has been creating expressive and rebellious performance art in the Colorado Springs area for 20 years. We are committed to supporting the local artists and storytellers at the soul of our work, while introducing new audiences to provocative works of alternative and immersive theater.

Theatre d’Art is proud to be teaming up with the Manitou Springs Heritage Museum to help keep Manitou weird at Halloween! 

Know Your History

Emma Crawford came to Manitou Springs in 1889 searching for a cure for her tuberculosis in the area’s famed cold-water mineral springs. She fell in love with the charming mountain town and her dying wish was to be buried on top of Red Mountain.

Unfortunately, Emma succumbed to her illness in 1891. Her lover, a civil engineer on the Pikes Peak Cog Railway named Wilhelm Hildenbrand, honored her wishes. With the help of eleven other townspeople, Wilhelm carried Emma’s coffin up the 7,200 foot slope and buried her near the summit of Red Mountain.

In 1929, after years of snowy winters and spring rains, Emma and her coffin came racing down the mountainside. The young children who happened upon her remains found only the casket handles, a nameplate, and a few bones.

Visit the Manitou Springs Heritage Museum website for more historical details about Emma’s life.

All Events

Check out the official calendar for everything going on in October.