From the beginning of Garden of the Gods, a recreational area in Colorado Springs that became a city park in 1909, entrepreneurs found ways to profit from the park. Semi-permanent refreshment stands popped up near the Gateway Rocks and itinerant curio dealers set up tripod stands or tents to sell souvenirs.
A unique form of souvenir evolved from the natural rock formations in the Garden of the Gods. As early as 1879 gypsum, a soft white stone, was mined from the formation called White Rock. A variety of artists carved the gypsum into pocket-sized figures, including books, crosses, and tree stump toothpick holders, as well as larger carved animal figures. The phrase “Garden of the Gods” was carved into the soft stone while the date of purchase was added later.
No one knows exactly when the practice started, but one carver that has been identified is Alva Weeks, who sold gypsum souvenirs in the park between 1904 and 1911. See Poppa and the Petrified Indian, written in 1973 by John Thomas included on a website hosted by Patricia Hennessy Weeks. The “petrified Indian” that Alva Weeks is said to have carved is likely not the one that was on display until 1979 at Garden of the Gods Trading Post.
Beginning at just ten years of age in 1900 Charles Strausenback spent his summers painting western designs on rock slabs and carving figures from gypsum that he found in the area of the Garden of the Gods. These he sold from a tripod stand at the side of the carriage road leading through Gateway rocks.
Upon the opening of the Hidden Inn in the Garden of The Gods in 1915, Strausenback became associated with concessionaire Carl Balcomb and was given a corner of the curio room to display and sell his gypsum carvings. According to the Colorado Springs Gazette on July 11, 1915,
Associated with Mr. Balcomb in the concession of the inn is Charles E. Strausenback, sculptor, who has charge of the gypsum departments. He has been a resident of the Garden of the Gods each year since 1900 and has spent practically all his summers there since he was a mere boy. His art objects are carved from material found near the gateway rocks and are much in demand by tourists.
One of the main attractions for Strausenback’s curio businesses was a “petrified Indian” that was heavily advertised on store signage and business cards. Various signs on a number of tourist attractions that Strausenback was associated with (as early as 1913) proclaimed either, “Free See the Petrified Body Inside” or, “Free See the Petrified Indian Inside.”
A number of curio stores in the Manitou and Colorado Springs area advertised petrified Indians on display (as disrespectful to American Indians as that is, it was not considered to be so at the time), and it appears there were three or four different versions. One was “Princess Moonbeam” who was displayed at the Totem Pole curio shop on Beckers Lane. But, according to the current owners of Garden of the Gods Trading Post, the one Strausenback displayed was not a mummified corpse at all, but a rock carved statue, with a breach cloth covering the private area, which probably was carved by Strausenback himself. It was small, about the size of a baby, and was on display until 1979 when Esther Strausenback, the widow of Charles, retired.
The foregoing was derived from our book Garden of the Gods Trading Post.
Published September 8, 2019.