Manitou Springs, CO

Emma Crawford Coffin Race ~ Manitou Springs

It must have been frightening to be 17, engaged, and suffering from the dreaded disease of tuberculosis. Emma Crawford was courageous of spirit, and in 1889 she and her family, as did many hundreds of others, moved in the hopes that the dry mountain air and the healing waters of Manitou Springs would cure her consumption.

Emma and her mother were Spiritualists, and both believed that Native American spirits were guiding them. Emma lived with her family on Ruxton Avenue, and walked constantly thru the surrounding hills of Manitou Springs. On one such journey up Red Mountain, Emma Crawford had a vision. With a frightful aversion to cemeteries, Emma tied a scarf to a tree near the summit where her spirit guide had appeared, and made it known that if she died, that was the location in which she wanted to be buried.

Soon after the Crawfords moved to Manitou Springs, Emma was joined by her fiancé, William Hildebrand, a railway engineer on the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. Feeling better, Emma and William threw themselves into their wedding plans. But it was not to be. On December 4, 1891, at the age of 19, Emma Crawford succumbed to her disease before she and William were married.

Being true to his promise, William and eleven other hearty men took two days carrying Emma’s coffin to the 7,200 foot peak of Red Mountain. The location became a popular spot for spiritualists to hike to see if they could communicate with Emma’s spirit. But in 1912, a railway company decided that they wanted to put tracks through that area of the mountain, and relocated Emma’s body. The relocation and the railway were both failures.

Due to inept burial and erosion, Emma’s coffin washed down the side of Red Mountain in August, 1929 in a severe rain storm. In the force of the slide, the coffin broke apart, and Emma’s skull and other bones were discovered in the canyon by young hikers who took her remains to City Hall.

While there are several versions of the story, one says that Emma’s bones stayed at City Hall while officials tried to find surviving family members. After two restless years, her skeletal remains were claimed by one of her pall bearers, who had her buried in an unmarked grave in Manitou’s Crystal Valley Cemetery. Some say that Emma Crawford gently haunts the hills of Red Mountain and won’t rest until she is again buried in her chosen resting place at the summit.

In 1994 the City of Manitou Springs started honoring her with the Emma Crawford Festival. On Friday night of the weekend prior to Halloween, the Emma Crawford Wake is held for her every year at Miramont Castle, a sanatorium in the late 1890s for tubercular patients.

The following day, Saturday at noon, there is the Emma Crawford Parade and Coffin Race down the main street of Manitou, led by hearses. The races immediately follow the parade and are judged on not only speed, but on the creativity and originality of design of the coffin and costumes. Each entry in the race has five participants ~ one who portrays Emma in her coffin, and four mourners who race the coffin, the wheels of which cannot be more than six inches in diameter.

Ten years after the Emma Crawford Festival began, the City of Manitou Springs honored her in 2004 with a memorial headstone. This is an irreverent, celebratory, pre-Halloween Festival that is one of the biggest events of the year in Manitou Springs, just 15 minutes from Downtown Colorado Springs.

Emma Crawford Coffin Race was written by Mimi Foster

Colorado Springs Coffee Shops – Marika’s

Recently I had a less-than-pleasant experience at Panera Bread, which set me on a quest to find wonderfully inviting Colorado Springs Coffee Shops in which to read, write, work, or meet friends. I found near-perfection in nearby Manitou Springs, and when my quest is done, it may just be my ‘place of choice.’

Manitou Springs is a unique and eclectic town less than fifteen minutes from Downtown Colorado Springs. My wonderfully patient husband walked thru the entrance to Marika’s and turned and smiled at me and said, “Just your kind of place.” Indeed, it was a little slice of Nirvana, and exactly what I have been looking for. Located at 739 Manitou Avenue in the heart of town, Marika’s is located in an historic building and is inviting and cozy.

While the front room is engaging, what was even more alluring for me was the fact that Marika’s has separate rooms. Depending on your mood, depending on your desire for quiet, or whether or not you are there just for the coffee, the ambiance, to meet old friends or new friends, or a place to which to escape, Marika’s offers several alternatives.

My personal favorite was the back room that is home to couches and over-sized chairs with tables, and fulfills my personal quest for what I affectionately call The Menstral Hut ~ that place to which I can escape when everyone and everything has gotten on my last nerve. There are also chess sets that are available to while away some time with your more intellectual counterparts.

Open at 7:00 am daily, until 10:00 pm Monday thru Thursday, 11:00 pm on Friday, and 9:00 pm on Sunday, Marika’s offers a large selection of beverages and many enticing treats. Often seasonal but always delicious, some of the indulgences include Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies, Pumpkin Cupcakes, Lemon Bars, Red Velvet Cupcakes, delicious Shortbreads, and many other delights. Their gourmet coffee is South American and Indonesian. Teas are also available, and everything is available hot or iced.

WiFi is free and unlimited, but please be polite and purchase something if you are going to come and use their facilities. I definitely recommend Marika’s for either a quick or prolonged encounter. You won’t be disappointed. (The accompanying song very closely defined my sentiments as we enjoyed a respite at Marika's.)

Colorado Springs Coffee Shops - Marika's was written by Mimi Foster

The key to success in real estate is very simple.

It is all about attitude.

You must believe in yourself.

You must believe that you can do what you put your mind to.

Then, you must do it - come hell or high water, as my grandmother would say.

If something isn’t working, try something else.

Look at rejection and/or problems as necessary obstacles that you must navigate your way through in order to accomplish your goal.

Before long, you will find that your definition of a problem or “challenge” will change the more successful that you become.

Initially, a problem might be that a prospective buyer doesn’t show up for an appointment or can’t qualify for financing. Later on, that is just part of the business.

A real problem might be when the house burns down the day before closing and the buyer has already sold their home. AND…. the seller was supposed to close on a different home the day after this closing.

Note: Pricing a home right is about having a "motivated to sell" attitude.

It is all about attitude.

Our lives are not determined by what happens to us, but by how we react to what happens; not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. It is a catalyst...a spark that creates extraordinary results” -- Wade Boggs

It is all about attitude.

Note: The picture above is of the Incline in Manitou Springs, Colorado. The Incline is essentially one mile of steep stairs. The most challenging part is to keep going when you finally reach the halfway point. The halfway point is the one place that you can quit and go back down.

In order to continue on, you must have a positive, determined attitude. You have to truly want to make it to the top. To make it to the top, you climb one step at a time. Eventually, you will find yourself at the top. It takes a preserving attitude to make it to the top. Yet, the view at the top is the best.

A successful real estate career is the same way. You have to want it. You have to have a positive, determined attitude.

It is all about attitude.

Colorado Springs: See It. Experience It. Live It.

It’s surreal. Just over one week ago Jake (23) & Rebecca (26) exchanged their marriage vows during their wedding ceremony at the Briarhurst Manor Estates in Manitou Springs around 7 pm.

Two weeks prior to this event it had been raining nearly every afternoon. And when I refer to raining, it has been down pouring, something we’ve haven’t really experienced in Colorado for many years, as with nearly every part of our country where the change in weather patterns has been very dramatic.

Anyway, we experienced a break from the rain, as the evening was gorgeous. Temperatures were in the low 70’s, the sky was lit with the stars; there was no wind, no bugs and no interruptions. The outside lighting accented the glory of the event.

If you live in Colorado Springs and require a place to conduct a wedding ceremony, then I highly recommend the Briarhurst Manor Estate in Manitou Springs.

Feel free to contact Colorado Springs Realtor, Cherise Selley, Broker/Owner of Selley Group Real Estate, LLC or you may contact our group of Colorado Springs Realtors @ www.selleygroup.com or 2139 Chuckwagon Rd, Ste 210 - Colorado Springs, Colorado 80919 - 719. 598. 5101

Portions of this article are written by Gordon, as framed by the expressed opinions of Cherise, but not proofread.