Leadville Boom Days

Celebrate the glory days of Leadville from August 4th- 6th with activities such as burro races, mining challenges, and a street fair consisting of over 100 booths featuring crafts and food. Leadville really comes to life during these three days, with live music playing every day and activities for families every day. Classic activities include a sack race, egg toss, and pie eating contest. Nothing brings the family closer like a face full of pie and a mess of egg all over the kids!

MINING EVENTS

Join the competition and tradition that has been in place since 1885 in one, some, or all of the mining competitions taking place on Saturday and Sunday. Win cash money and show off your incredible herculean strength in front of the entire town! The ‘Jack Leg’ event involves a one hundred pound mechanical drill where competitors attempt to drill the deepest hole in a given time. Given the immense weight of the drill and the violence of the shaking, this is a task that requires some serious muscles. A second event that takes place is called the ‘hand steel’ competition, where one or two people use a steel drill and sledge in order to dig the deepest hole in a rock. In the olden days, if the sledge operator hit the hand of their partner (holding the drill), the drill holder was allowed a free swing at the sledge wielder. Talk about motivation! Fortunately this rule is no longer enforced (enforcement is now frowned upon). The final event is called ‘hand mucking’. During this event, competitors must race to fill a cart with half a ton of broken rock (muck) and wheel it to the finish in the fastest time. Watch out, those muck carts can get sendy! Sign up today and compete, or come watch one of the most unique competitions on the planet.

BURRO RACING

Think the mining competition is crazy and/or intense? Just keep reading. The burro race is a high alpine marathon with what other than a donkey in tow. Runners struggle to keep their beloved burros motivated throughout an entire 26.2 mile course, and onlookers get the chance to guess the runners time (and win a prize if they are closest). Last year, the closest guesser came within seconds! This event goes back to the gold rush days, where miners would venture out with only their mining gear and burro, and hurry back with a donkey loaded up with gold. Sure enough the miners of old had a much harder time of it; one can only imagine how those poor old burros felt.

FAMILY ACTIVITIES

Come for the parade, stay for the crafts, and enjoy food from one of the several stands. Dance and sing along to the live bands scheduled to play on Saturday and Sunday, and check out the Boomin car show on Saturday as well, featuring some of the coolest cruisers in the county. Vote on the top ten coolest cars, eligible for cash prizes. Bury your face in a pie and crush the competition in a pie eating contest, or show off your finesse in the egg toss. The sack race is great for the kids, and can be a spectacular show of failure for onlookers to look and laugh at. Get your face painted while you’re at it, and become the life of the party the entire time!