Unnamed drag strip (Denver)

In summer 1956 the Denver area Safety Council met with the local hot rod clubs and told them that if they gathered enough signatures on a petition and gave it to the mayor, the city would pay for a drag strip. The Sabers, one of 25 local clubs, collected 3,000 signatures on their own. The petitions went in, and then months went by with no word. Discouraged, the Sabers wrote to the governor for help. Club member Bruce Tawson said they felt they were up against a brick wall, fighting alone, with nobody understanding what they were trying to do. Newspapers picked up the story in February 1957, and the coverage got things moving. Of three sites considered, one near Cherry Creek Dam was chosen, and in March 1957 newspapers reported the county commission was building a publicly funded strip near Denver. On June 1, 1957 the Rocky Mountain Daily News reported that the Chevruns car club was holding a benefit dance at the Rainbow Ballroom to buy equipment for the new strip. Little else appeared in print. With Bandimere and Continental Divide being built at the same time, the small club strip at the dam may simply have gotten lost in the news.