Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun, also known as Will Rogers Shrine or 5EP2175, is the tomb which holds the ashes of Spencer Penrose (1865–1939), a philanthropist who contributed many of the most prominent landmarks in Colorado Springs, including the neighboring Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and the Broadmoor Hotel. Completed by Penrose in 1937, it takes the form of an 80-foot observation tower on the side of Cheyenne Mountain. It overlooks the Broadmoor Hotel, and from the tower one can see the entire Colorado Springs metropolitan area and Garden of the Gods.
Persuaded not to name the structure after himself, Penrose instead named it in honor of his friend, Will Rogers, the American humorist who died in a plane crash in Alaska in 1935, during construction of the tomb.
The shrine is open, weather permitting, every day of the year except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. The price of admission is included in the cost of tickets to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
Read more about Will Rogers Shrine Of The Sun: History, See Also
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“For myself I found that the occupation of a day-laborer was the most independent of any, especially as it required only thirty or forty days in a year to support one. The laborer’s day ends with the going down of the sun, and he is then free to devote himself to his chosen pursuit, independent of his labor; but his employer, who speculates from month to month, has no respite from one end of the year to the other.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Most childhood problems don’t result from “bad” parenting, but are the inevitable result of the growing that parents and children do together. The point isn’t to head off these problems or find ways around them, but rather to work through them together and in doing so to develop a relationship of mutual trust to rely on when the next problem comes along.”
—Fred Rogers (20th century)
“The United Nations cannot do anything, and never could; it is not an animate entity or agent. It is a place, a stage, a forum and a shrine ... a place to which powerful people can repair when they are fearful about the course on which their own rhetoric seems to be propelling them.”
—Conor Cruise O’Brien (b. 1917)
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—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)