25. The John Denver Shrine (Aspen Mountain)

The John Denver Shrine at Ajax was created by locals Maddy Lieb and Lisa Bolerjack during the 1997-98 ski season, just a few months after his death in October 1997.

John Denver was born on December 31, 1943 and died on October 12, 1997.  He was a well known and well loved American folk singer-songwriter and folk rock musician who was one of the biggest selling artists of the 1970s.  He was especially well loved in Aspen. 

In his lifetime, he recorded and released some 300 songs, about half of which he wrote himself.  His songs were suffused with a deep and abiding kinship with the natural world.  Songs such as "Take Me Home, Country Roads", "Leaving on a Jet Plane", "Thank God I'm A Country Boy", and "Rocky Mountain High" are popular all over the world.  Often singing and writing folk songs about the western lifestyle, the human condition, and planet Earth, he was named the Poet Laureate of his home state of Colorado in 1977.

He was killed on October 12, 1997 when the Long-EZ aircraft he was piloting ran out of fuel just off the coast of California at Pacific Grove.
 
The Story of the Plane Crash:  The Long-EZ that Denver was flying is a two-place experimental aircraft, designed in the 1970s by Burt Rutan. Denver's particular plane, bought used, had been changed from Rutan's specs: The fuel tank change switch had been moved to the back from the front. Featuring tandem seats, when being flown solo it was to be flown from the rear seat. Denver, like many EZ pilots, was flying solo from the front.
 
Denver apparently lost control of the aircraft while attempting to manipulate the fuel selector handle, located in the rear cockpit in his plane, after running out of fuel in one tank.  Witnesses stated that the plane made a sudden pitch-down plunge into the water, leading to speculation that, in reaching around to the rear, Denver bumped or kicked the side-stick control.  The official investigation decided that he had likely inadvertently pushed the right rudder pedal trying to gain leverage to turn.
 
Denver had recently purchased the aircraft and had only had about a half-hour orientation flight the day before the accident.  The NTSB cited Denver's unfamiliarity with the aircraft and his failure to have the aircraft refueled as causal factors in the accident. Denver was the sole occupant of the aircraft.  Prior to the accident, the FAA found that he did not meet the medical standards prescribed in Part 67 of the Federal Aviation Regulations due to his ongoing drinking problem, and a determination was made that he was not qualified for any class of medical at the time.  At least a third-class medical was required to exercise the privileges of his pilot certificate.  Reports state that there was little wreckage as it had mostly been destroyed, and that dental records were needed to identify the pilot as Denver.
 
Upon announcement of his death, Governor Roy Romer of Colorado ordered all Colorado flags to be lowered to half-staff to honor Denver.

(Much of the above information is from the Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia.)

The Story of the Golf Ball in the Middle of Ocean Avenue:  On the day John Denver died, October 12, 1997, he played golf earlier that day at Spyglass Hill near Carmel.  Here is an article that appeared in the Monterey County Herald newspaper on September 26, 2007 that tells the story:

A way to honor memory of John Denver
Montery Herald, 2007-09-26
By JERRY STEWART - Herald Correspondent

Novato resident Neal Rogin remembers it like it was yesterday.  On Oct. 12, 1997, Rogin and friends Bill Twist and Jim Linan and musician John Denver spent the afternoon playing golf at Spyglass Hill Golf Course.  It was the first day of a planned two-day golf outing.

Afterward, the group all agreed that they would meet later for dinner in Carmel.  "John had said that he was going to take his new experimental airplane (a Long EZ) up for a spin before sunset," Rogin said. "He said he wanted to buzz Clint Eastwood's house to show off his new toy."  Later that evening, Rogin, Twist and Linan all had dinner, but Denver didn't show up. During Denver's flight, the engine had failed, causing his plane to crash just off the coast of Monterey Bay.  "I remember that on our way back to the car after dinner that night, something rather strange happened," Rogin said. "As we were walking across Ocean Avenue, we noticed a golf ball sitting in the very middle of the street.  "Bill, who was one of John's closest friends, picked it up.  It was a brand new Titleist 100, the kind of ball that John always used. We thought it was strange and wondered where it came from, but thought little more about it at the time.  "We found out the tragic news when we were watching the news later that night.  To this day, I still don't know if that golf ball meant anything." 

Ten years later, Rogin, Twist and Linan are returning to Spyglass Hill.  On Sunday, Oct. 14, the trio and 17 others will play the course in honor of Denver, who prior to his death had become a regular at events such as the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and the Bob Hope Celebrity Classic.

Each year since Denver's death, Rogin, Twist, Linan and other friends have informally gathered at various venues in Northern California for what has become the John Denver Memorial Tournament. Because it is the tenth anniversary, the group decided to return to one of Denver's favorite spots.

"It's a way to keep his memory alive," Rogin said. "Playing golf amid the beauty of nature is one of the things he most loved, and he really loved the Monterey Peninsula."

"Bill Twist tells the story more like this:  We came out of the restaurant and Bill found the golf ball, a Titleist 100, the kind that Bill was using that day at Spyglass with John and I and Jim Linan.  All that day, it became a kind of  joke that John would find Bill's ball in the rough, out of bounds, in the trees. And each time John would yell out "Here it is Bill, Titleist 100"!  So when he found that ball, Bill picked it and looked around.  Was John there playing a joke?  We did not know at the time what had happened.  Only that night on the midnight news did we find out."

The shrine includes many photos of John Denver and also several sets of wind chimes.  One photo says “Though the singer is silent…there is still the truth of the song.”  Another says, “My spirit will never be broken or caught; I am flying again.”  Another one says, “We are one when singing with the wind.”  There is a John Denver Peace Rock there, in a glass bottle.  The rock says "Peace" on one side and "Larry & Peggie, Seminole Florida, October 2002" on the other side.  In December 2009 Snowmass Mountain Manager Steve Sewell told the author that years ago the ski patrol help to hang one of Denver's gold records high up in one of the trees there.  The gold record is not there any more; apparently stolen by someone.

The “Peace Poem” that Denver wrote in 1982 is posted on a tree there.  These are the words of the Peace Poem:

John Denver - The Peace Poem
 
"There's a name for war and killing

there's a name for giving in

when you know another answer

for me the name is sin

but there's still time to turn around

and make all hatred cease

and give another name to living

and we could call it peace

And peace would be the road we walk

each step along the way

and peace would be the way we work

and peace the way we play

And in all we see that's different

and in all the things we know

peace would be the way we look

and peace the way we grow

There's a name for separation

there's a name for first and last

when it's all for us or nothing

for me the name is past

but there's still time to turn around

and make all hatred cease

and give a name to all the future

and we could call it peace

And if peace is what we pray for

and peace is what we give

then peace will be the way we are

and peace the way we live

Yes there still is the time to turn around

and make all hatred cease

and give another name to living

and we can call it PEACE."

In an undated article by Rob Story on SkiNet (see http://www.skinet.com/travel/2005-12/dropping-john-denvers-moral-victory) the following is stated about the John Denver Shrine: 

"Denver's shrine--the single Aspen temple dedicated to someone who actually skied--decorates a sublime, woodsy clearing.  Photos of Denver skiing--pretty fast, by the looks of things--are tacked to fir bark.  Laminated newspaper clippings shower him with generous eulogies.  Pictures of his blond head and trademark round, wire-frame granny glasses beam down on visitors.  Wind chimes clink and bells ring. There's an old jacket for his 1971 album Poems, Prayers and Promises.  Denver's gold record for 'Country Roads' dangles from a branch."

In March, 2007 Denver’s song “Rocky Mountain High” was designated as Colorado’s second state song.

For a panoramic view of the shrine taken in 2009 see:  http://www.aspenportrait.com/jerry-garcia-shrine/john-denver-ski-shrine.html

For two PLUM TV Tim Mooney shrine tours which includes this shrine, see this video:   http://pdam.plumtv.com/public/marketing_player/2954 and this video:  http://pdam.plumtv.com/public/marketing_player/15330

See this Aspen Daily News article of February 4, 2001 by Rick Carroll, concerning a collision between two skiers near the John Denver Shrine, which lead to lawsuits:  "Skier lawsuits dropped."   http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/skier-lawsuits-dropp

The John Denver Shrine is located near the Bellissimo run on Aspen Mountain.  (There is also a John Denver Shrine on Buttermilk, and a John Denver Plaque on Snowmass, both of which are covered on this site.  See http://www.aspensnowmassshrines.com/index.php?id=1,13,0,0,1,0 for the Buttermilk shrine and http://www.aspensnowmassshrines.com/index.php?id=2,44,0,0,1,0) for the Snowmass plaque.

Photos of the John Denver Shrine on Aspen Mountain are below.  The last photo was taken in the summer of 2008 and shows the large number of items that had fallen to the ground.

If you have any photos of or information about this item that you would like to share, please send to AspenShrines@aol.com.

This shrine is covered in the book, "Sanctuaries in the Snow--The Shrines and Memorials of Aspen/Snowmass."  The book may be purchased on this page on this site:  http://www.aspensnowmassshrines.com/index.php?The-Book

Click on images to enlarge.

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