Mike the Headless Chicken is a Colorado celebrity worth clucking about ...Saudi Arabia

On Colorado’s Western Slope, a headless chicken from the 1940s is still a beloved figure celebrated each spring.

In 1945, Mike the Headless Chicken captured the intrigue of locals in his hometown of Fruita and beyond after he lived for about 18 months without a head. Since 1999, the town has commemorated one of its foremost celebrities with his own namesake festival, which marks its 25th anniversary on May 30 and 31.

As the story goes, in September of 1945, Fruita farmers Lloyd and Clara Olsen were processing a batch of chickens they planned to sell at a local market, as they often did. That process starts by removing the animals’ heads before plucking its feathers and cleaning the bird. It is common for chickens’ bodies to continue to move or convulse for a short time after their head has been removed.

That day, though, the Olsens noticed one of the birds seemed to be going about its normal business after decapitation. They left it overnight and the next morning the chicken still seemed alive.

A promoter named Hope Wade caught wind of the miraculous bird and, according to the City of Fruita’s history, convinced the Olsens to take it to the University of Salt Lake to be studied. There, scientists found that “part of one ear, the jugular vein, and the base of the brain that controls motor functions were left intact allowing Mike to continue to live on,” the website states.

Mike’s story isn’t just local lore – “It’s real, it happened,” confirmed Ciara Amann, spokesperson for the city. The headless chicken became a famous sideshow attraction until its death in 1947, and he still earns acclaim today. Mike’s story has been retold dozens of times by publications from the BBC and Life magazine to Ripley’s Believe it Or Not and Encyclopedia Britannica. Even Snopes has fact-checked the story.

Not only that, but Mike’s legacy as a shared point of pride lives on every year at the local festival. As Amann tells it, Mike was responsible for bringing the Fruita community together more than five decades after his passing.

In 1999, Fruita locals were at odds over a rail car and where exactly to station it within the community. Tensions were so high, Amann said, that the local rotary club sought to find a way to bring everyone together and take the community’s mind off such a divisive issue. Someone mentioned Mike the Headless Chicken and it seemed to resonate.

“They said, ‘You know this is kind of quirky. It celebrates some history in Fruita, the will to survive, and (it’s) just something different and unique that everyone can come together and celebrate,’” Amann said.

And just like that a tradition was born. The Mike the Headless Chicken Festival has happened every year since, except for 2020 when it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over that time it’s grown from 200 attendees to 20,000 people who visit from all over the world, Amann said.

The event includes live music, a 5k run, and other fowl-inspired festivities like a chicken dance competition, a poultry show, a wing-eating contest for adults and Peeps-eating contest for kids, and more. Attendees can even take pictures with a Mike the Headless Chicken mascot who runs around like a… well you know.

The 25th Mike the Headless Chicken Festival comes to the Fruita Civic Center and Park, at 325 E. Aspen Ave. on Friday, May 30 and Saturday, May 31. It is free to attend. Find more information at miketheheadlesschicken.org.

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