Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado
AA-2026-185747
On the image
Six people arrange themselves around a bronze bust the way vacationing families arranged themselves around anything scenic in the 1950s: as if the monument existed primarily to give them somewhere to sit. The plaque behind them names the shrine and the man it honors, but nobody in the group is looking at either. They are looking at the camera, because the point of the stop was never really Will Rogers.
The outfits do the dating for us — the man's shirt worn loose over trousers, the women's cotton prints, the boy hovering at the edge in a white shirt too good for climbing rocks — all assembled for a single family trip up Cheyenne Mountain that someone considered worth the film. Spencer Penrose built this tower as a monument to a folksy humorist and aviation booster, and by mid-century it had become exactly what such shrines become: a scenic overlook with a bronze excuse.
Every face wears the same patient half-smile of people who have been told to hold still for one more picture before getting back in the car. The view of the Colorado plains behind them, the actual reason for the drive, is entirely obscured by their own shoulders.
The historian's note
The Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun stands on Cheyenne Mountain near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Built in 1937 by Spencer Penrose, the tower was dedicated as a memorial to humorist and aviator Will Rogers, who died in a 1935 plane crash, and it also serves as the resting place of Penrose and his wife.
By the 1950s the shrine had become a standard stop for motor tourists exploring the Pikes Peak region, part of a broader postwar boom in automobile-based sightseeing across the American West. The bronze bust of Rogers, visible here, sits atop the stone tower along with an interior mural and observation platform overlooking Colorado Springs.
Such roadside monuments combined civic memory with tourist infrastructure, offering visitors a named landmark, a parking area, and a photo opportunity in a single stop — a pattern that shaped mid-century American travel culture.
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Family at the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun, Cheyenne Mountain, 1950s. 1950–1959. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-185747. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/family-at-the-will-rogers-shrine-of-the-sun-cheyenne-mountain-1950s.
@misc{aaAA2026185747,
title = {Family at the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun, Cheyenne Mountain, 1950s},
year = {1950–1959},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-185747},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/family-at-the-will-rogers-shrine-of-the-sun-cheyenne-mountain-1950s}
}TY - ART TI - Family at the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun, Cheyenne Mountain, 1950s PY - 1950–1959 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-185747 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/family-at-the-will-rogers-shrine-of-the-sun-cheyenne-mountain-1950s ER -
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