Colorado’s ‘Frozen Dead Guy Days’ To Continue Even if Frozen Dead Guy Is Moved

For the last 18 years, the body of Bredo Morstoel has been kept on ice just outside of Nederland, Colorado; that body has led to the creation of the Frozen Dead Guy Days festival, an event that might soon lose its frozen dead guy.

The removal of the body may occur because of a financial dispute between Morstoel’s grandson, Tryve Gauge, and the man who has been hired to replenish the dry ice that houses Morstoel’s body.

For the last 18 years, Bo Shaffer has hauled 1,700 pounds of carbon dioxide in solid form each month to the remote Nederland area where the corpse is housed, ensuring that the body stays at a cool minus-24 degrees Fahrenheit. This month, however, Shaffer quit the job because he wasn’t being compensated at a higher rate for the rising cost in both fuel and ice.

Shaffer tells Reuters:

“It takes two of us to make the four-hour roundtrip. My quitting is the only way to get his (Bauge’s) attention.”

Bauge, a resident of Norway, is now considering moving the body to the Cryonic Institute in Michigan.

Morstoel actually died in 1989 at which time his body was frozen and transported to a cryonics facility in California. Eventually the body was moved to Nederland, Colorado where it fell under the care of Bauge. After his visa expired and he was deported, Bauge hired Shaffer, who has since watched after the frozen body that has inspired the Frozen Dead Guy Days.

The festival has grown to include coffin races, a hearse parade, and plenty of reverence for the frozen body that is celebrated by the town’s people and visitors.

Frozen Dead Guy Days is celebrated in the middle of the frigid Colorado winter and includes a tour to the site of Morstoel’s sarcophagus.

With more than 10,000 people flocking to the festival every single year, the town plans to continue the tradition even if the frozen dead guy they celebrate is no longer housed in their town.