Celebrating the Workforce that Gave Us 85 Years of Red Rocks Park & Ampitheatre
Red Rocks Amphitheatre is one of the most celebrated concert venues in the world, but the story of how it came to be is rooted in economic hardship, federal ambition, and the labor of thousands of young men who had very little to begin with. Shannon Dennis, Director of Denver Mountain Parks, recently shared the history of this iconic Colorado landmark as part of the venue’s 85th anniversary celebrations.
Before Red Rocks was an amphitheater, it served the traditional lands of the Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho peoples, along with 48 other tribes historically tied to the landscape. Later developer JB Walker transformed the area into a recreational destination where visitors could take mule rides, climb the rocks, and ascend a carved staircase on Creation Rock to reach a sweeping overlook tower.
The City and County of Denver purchased the land around the time of the Great Depression for roughly $50,000 when Colorado faced a 30% unemployment rate during that period. At the time, the need for a large, organized workforce was urgent, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal produced a solution in the form of the Civilian Conservation Corps, founded in 1933. The program targeted men between 18 and 25 years old and within its first three months had enlisted 250,000 workers, one of the largest mobilizations of manpower in United States history.
Those workers earned a dollar a day and were permitted to keep only five dollars per month. The rest was sent home to support their families.
Construction at Red Rocks ran from 1936 to 1941. Architect Burnham Hoyt guided the project with a philosophy centered on preserving the natural rock formations rather than building over or removing them. Workers blasted with dynamite, laid stonework, cut timber, and cored stone almost entirely by hand using local materials. The project concluded just as the Civilian Conservation Corps began winding down. Many of those same young men went on to serve in World War II.
Today, both Red Rocks Amphitheatre and the original CCC camp carry National Historic Landmark status. The camp remains one of the last intact Civilian Conservation Corps facilities in the country and continues to serve as the Denver Mountain Parks headquarters.
To celebrate the 85th anniversary of Red Rocks’ grand opening on June 15th, 1941, the site is inviting the public to share their own stories through the park website here. They’ll continue to share stories, memories, and highlights from the venue, artists who’ve performed there, and the fans themselves leading up to the anniversary.
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