Frozen Dead Guy Days

We found out about this event traveling through Nederland Colorado early March 2010. We were visiting one of the locations that sale my wall art named The Rustic Moose in Nederland. Traveling so early in the year and close to winter we figured we would find the town just about empty. Nederland is a small town nestled in the heart of the Rockies a beautiful town no doubt but definitely more of a summer destination. You see when we pulled into town we had never heard of Frozen Dead Guy Days and rightfully thought it would be a good time to visit when the store would not be too busy and we could check our artwork and chat a bit with owners and employees. Boy were we pleasantly surprised to pull into a bustling town filled with people and cars from all over the country. We were even more pleased to find out what was going on.

When we walked into The Rustic Moose we had to ask what was going on. We had not expected the town to be so busy. Nancy quickly responded, that they were getting ready to celebrate Frozen Dead Guy Days and went on to explain some of the events that would be happening. She covered the ice turkey bowling, frozen salmon toss, grandpa look a like contest, the blue ball and that the event was known world wide before I could say, wait, what is the name of the event. You see I had not understood what she said. Nancy paused, chuckled and said Frozen Dead Guy Days more slowly and at my blank look responded, “oh, I just figured you would know.”

This is the story as we heard it. Not from some news outlet but from a long time citizen of Nederland. It goes a little something like this. There is a man named Trygve who truly believes that by lowering the body temperature frequently you can extend and increase the quality of your life. So much so that about 20 years ago he started a polar bear plunge club around the Boulder Colorado area. Trygve’s grandpa Bredo lived a very happy life in Norway while Trygve and his mother Aud resided here in Colorado. In 1989 grandpa Bredo passed from a heart condition, his body was shipped to California to be stored in a cryogenics facility. Around 1993 Trygve and his mother Aud moved to Nederland and thought it would be a good place for grandpa to be, too. There the family stayed together for years keeping grandpa on ice in the shed without anyone having the slightest idea he was there.

As the story goes, it turns out the Trygve and his mother’s visas were expired by quite a bit and Trygve was deported his mother was the next to go and she contacted the local paper about her concern regarding who would take care of her father. Yep this is when the citizens of Nederland found out there was a frozen dead guy in their mists. Not wanting any copy cat freezing the town quickly put into place a law saying that it was illegal to freeze people or body parts in the future but because grandpa Bredo had been there for so long he was “grandfathered” in.

It was just five years later when the enterprising people of Nederland decided to use the fame the had achieved when the story broke about their Frozen Dead Guy into one of the most unique and fun festivals we have ever heard of. So, if you are looking for something to shake off those winter blues be sure and stop by Nederland for their Annual Frozen Dead Guy Days and while you’re their check out my wall art in The Rustic Moose.

Ron White, stone carver and entrepreneur, has been carving stone since 1993, and is shown in more than 40 galleries across the US. Prior to beginning his work with stone carving Ron has worked extensively with leather, wood cabinetry and even jewelry. Learn more about Ron White and his work at http://www.derivedfromnature.com.

This article was published on Saturday 20 November, 2010.
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