Longmont has a history of a ‘wildly celebratory’ Fourth of July
Editor's note: This , published originally in July of 2021, takes a look back at Longmont's celebration of July Fourth through the years. Event details and locations have changed.
With ground-shaking cannon booms capping an orchestra concert in the park, baseball games, three-legged races, carnival rides and a picnic spread of elk steaks, Longmont's 150 years of Fourth of July celebrations have been as colorful as its firework display.
The city's celebration this year, still altered by the coronavirus pandemic, will include a firework show put on by the Skyline Kiwanis Club of Longmont , but the usual Longmont Symphony Orchestra concert in Thompson Park will be virtual — marking the second consecutive year that the concert hasn't been able to take place as usual.
Erik Mason, Longmont Museum curator of research, said that by the late 1970s, as many as 20,000 people would converge at the 53-acre Clark Centennial Park for a Fourth of July carnival, followed by a fireworks show.
"For many years, as far back as the 1920s, and up into at least the 1980s, the Lions Club or other local clubs had a carnival with day events and then usually the fireworks were shot off in the park (Roosevelt in the 1920s and Clark Centennial in the 1970s) at the end of that," Mason said.
And while some traditions, such as a wild animal showcase for the public, have faded into the past, others have prevailed and are still a part of Longmont's celebration of the Fourth of July today.
Picnic perfection
If there's one Fourth of July tradition that comes to mind for many Longmont residents, it's the Longmont Symphony Orchestra's afternoon concert in Thompson Park, which is so much more than a chance to hear symphonic music.
As early as 7 a.m., on the Fourth of July, people stake out their turf in the park with tents and picnic blankets. Once they've selected their spot, they are likely to take part in the head-to-head extravagant picnic contest.
There have been picnic baskets stuffed with elk steaks, home fried chicken wings, sheet cake decorated like American flags, gourmet foods selected for their colors of red, white and blue and bulging bags of fast food hamburgers. No matter their cuisine pick, Carol Minelli, Longmont Symphony Orchestra's current board of directors president and member since the 1990s, said has been up to the judges to decide winners of the picnic contest. Besides victory over their fellow park goers, winners claimed baskets of food, Rockies tickets, wine and coupons.
For Roger Lange, Longmont's mayor from 2007 to 2009, the concert is one of the main traditions that comes to mind when he thinks Fourth of July traditions. Lange said attending the concert is a tradition of roughly 20 years for his family.
"There's something for everybody in this event, whether its older people, younger people, kids," Lange said. "It's got a lot of variety that entertains a lot of people."
The concert, a tradition of more than 30 years, has been a major part of the city's Fourth of July celebrations.
Catherine Beeson, who began leading the orchestra this year as executive director, said one of the first things she heard about in her new role was the legacy of the Fourth of July concert. It is so integral to the city's celebration, she said that when she asked city leaders how long it has run, they couldn't pinpoint a time when it wasn't part of Longmont's Fourth of July.
"Which I think is cute, because Longmont's 150 years old and the symphony is only 56," Beeson said. "It's a huge deal to the Longmont symphony and a way we can instantaneously be connected to the Longmont community."
The concert is perhaps best known for ending with boom, literally. As the musicians perform Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture," Kim Knake sets off a burst of cannons (minus the cannonballs), creating a swell of smoke and resounding booms to finish out the piece.
Knake, a local business owner, said the number of cannons he's brought to the celebration in his near 30 years of participation as "first chair cannoneer" have grown from one to nine. His friend Mike Gallagher, of Fort Collins, and "second chair cannoneer," lends some cannons to the ensemble as well.
"It's been a dream of mine to play in a symphony orchestra all my life, but I'm not musically inclined," Knake said.
He said he explained this when an orchestra member first called him to ask for his participation in the concert. "They said, 'Well can you play bang, bang, bang on the '1812 Overture?'" Knake said.
He could indeed.
Knake, who found his first cannon at a Denver antique show, said that one year one his larger cannons was so loud it set off a car alarm. And, Knake doesn't doubt that if a "shake meter was placed on the ground it would register" activity.
Minelli said people crowd around the fence line where the cannons are sectioned off to listen and watch the finale.
"And, that's the end of our concert," she said.
A look back
The Times Call took a look at the city's celebration over the years in a 2011 written by Tony Kindelspire. Betty Ann Newby, a local historian and Times Call writer, described in the story how the city's 1897 Fourth of July celebration was composed of a parade, patriotic music, baseball and fireworks.
The weekly Longmont Ledger reported in a July 7, 1911, edition that many of the town's roughly 4,300 residents that year headed for the hills and sought shade along the South Fork of the St. Vrain River, with a long procession of "horses and carriages as well as autos moved on to this canyon and camped along the stream, far above the Big Narrows."
Those who stuck around could see a doubleheader played between two teams that were sponsored by the same flour company, with the Longmont Pride of the Rockies claiming victory over the Denver Pride of the Rockies team in both games, led by Oscar Olson, a Loveland resident but "still a Longmont baseball man," according to the Ledger . The games took place at the Driving Park, which today is Roosevelt Park.
Other celebrations were spectacular, but didn't become traditions, the Times-Call reported.
Longmont's four-day Liberty Fest in 1986 saw performances from country singer Lee Greenwood, known for singing "God Bless the U.S.A", and Marie Osmond, known for her remake of the country song "Paper Roses." Greenwood performed July 4, followed by Osmond on July 5. The festivities included a parade and four nights of fireworks.
Then, in 1991, Rocky Mountain Wildlife Center brought in wild animals for the public to view, the 2011 recapped.
Early fireworks throw caution to the wind
"From really the earliest days there are people saying, 'Let's not shoot off fireworks,' and other people saying, 'Fireworks are great,'" Mason said. "That goes back into the early 1900s of people saying 'Is there a better way to celebrate our independence than people blowing stuff up?'"
For people who watched Longmont's fireworks show in 1961, that question was likely on their minds. Following a gathering of 5,000 to 6,000 people in Roosevelt Park and a three-legged sack race involving 400 young competitors, the city capped the celebration with a fireworks show.
"Some people got minor burns from sparks that were caught when the wind changed," the Daily Times-Call reported in its July 5, 1961, edition.
Wind wasn't the only factor some of Longmont's earlier celebrations should have taken into account.
Fire Marshal Jack Spencer himself recovered from firework burns in 1973. A rocket that year fell on the ground, after failing to launch completely. The collision sent a rocket shard underneath Spencer's helmet, burning and cutting his forehead, the 2011 describes.
The following year, Longmont City Council enacted a ban on fireworks at the 23-acre Roosevelt Park. The Lions Club Carnival and the fireworks display in 1975 took place at the 53-acre Clark Centennial Park. At that time, Jim Lynch, a fire marshal, said the fireworks were all hand fired, with only a 100-foot circle separating the launch area from a dense crowd. Lynch said some of the fireworks were as big as 36 inches in diameter and that the mortar tubes went about 3 feet into the ground.
Lynch told the Times Call in 2011 that by today's standards, the set up "wouldn't be considered safe at all." Fortunately, he said, there were no serious injuries.
City leaders, wanting to avoid hazards, moved the show to the Boulder County Fairgrounds the following year.
"I think it's become much more organized," Mason said. "Certainly the fireworks are developed by professional companies and set off by the fire department whereas for a longtime it sounded like it would be the responsibility of the club to shoot them off. Apparently they had ashes dripping down on houses that people were complaining about."
Residents of the Trend Homes, which were adjacent to the Clark Centennial Park, told the Times-Call in a 1978 story that firework debris rained down on their homes and land.
The carnival, a tradition since 1964, saw decreasing attendance after a large portion of it was moved indoors in the late 1970s. After three years of a dip in attendance, Ron Cheyney, owner of Ron's Printing Center, and member of the Lions Club committee, said that at that point the club gave up on the carnival.
Despite its end, the carnival raised thousands of dollars, benefiting the Tiny Tim Center, wading pools at various parks and other charitable causes. After a 90-year stint, the Lions Club folded in 2010, due to a lack of new membership.
Looking ahead, Beeson said she looks forward to the concert and picnic contest's return next year.
"Part of what makes this celebration awesome is that it's not just the Longmont symphony," Beeson said. "With the cannons that Kim brings and the picnic contest that gets so over the top — it's a wildly celebratory event."
