32nd Annual Emma Crawford Coffin Races

Celebrate 32 years of racing at the Emma Crawford Coffin Races in Manitou Springs!

In 1995, the Manitou Springs Chamber of Commerce launched the nation’s first ever coffin races to honor a beloved local resident, Emma Crawford. What began as a tribute has grown into a signature Manitou Springs tradition—which has inspired other coffin races across the country!

The story dates back to 1889, when Emma Crawford arrived in Manitou Springs seeking relief from tuberculosis in the town’s famed mineral springs, fresh mountain air, and sunshine. Defying those who said she was too ill, she summited Red Mountain and tied her red scarf at the peak—later asking to be laid to rest there, forever overlooking the charming mountain community she had come to love. After her passing in 1891, her fiancé, Wilhelm Hildenbrand—a civil engineer with the Pikes Peak Cog Railway—fulfilled her final wish. Joined by 11 townspeople, he carried her coffin up the 7,200-foot slope to a gravesite near the summit.

Decades later, in 1929, years of severe winters and heavy spring rains sent Emma’s coffin sliding down the mountainside. When local children discovered the remains, only the casket handles, a nameplate, and a few bones remained—cementing a legend that continues to inspire the annual races today.

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