Colorado-Texas Tomato Wars
30,000 Pounds of Tomatoes. 2 States. 1 Bizarre Battle.
Ever get the urge to throw a tomato at a Texan? In 1982, a Twin Lakes hotel owner answered that question by inaugurating the annual Colorado-Texas Tomato War. Each September, Coloradans and Texans sweated out years of interstate tensions by throwing ripe tomatoes at each other. Colorado’s tomato warriors usually prevailed, as Texans failed to defend their straw-bale “Alamo.” The attitude of Coloradans against their Texan rivals may be best expressed by the bumper sticker "Keep Colorado beautiful: put a Texan on a bus." (all in jest, of course!) The battles ceased in the early 1990s, but were resurrected in 2011.
Photo courtesy Colorado Mountain History Collection, Lake County Public Library, Leadville
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