The Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun is a commemorative tower and chapel on Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is named after Will Rogers, the American humorist, who died in a plane crash in Alaska in 1935 during construction of the shrine.
Every hour for 85 years now, a soft, sweet chime has serenaded the hills and meadows of southwest Colorado Springs — for many, a familiar melody from an unfamiliar source.
From his post high on the side of Cheyenne Mountain, Dakota Hurst commonly greets surprised, longtime locals.
“It’s the No. 1 thing we hear,” he says. “’I’ve lived here all my life, and I’ve never been up here.’ Or ‘I never even knew this was up here.’”
The Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun. Wednesday, June 21, 2023. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
This is the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun, the granite tower seen rising amid evergreens of the city’s backdrop. That’s if you know where to look.
Hurst is the latest in a long, proud line of caretakers dating to the shrine’s construction in 1937. From the high, winding road past the gates of Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, he is tasked with the upkeep of one of the region’s most important, most elaborate and unusual burial grounds.
Like caretakers before him, Hurst speaks in reverence. He refers to the dead here as Mr. and Mrs. Penrose.
“It’s a privilege working here,” Hurst says. “To take care of someone’s final resting place, it’s an honor. And the fact that it’s the Penroses really adds to that.”
Spencer and Julie Penrose are interred in the ornate chapel beside the tower. Here, Hurst might be seen polishing the wooden benches from a French monastery or brushing cobwebs from marble corners, before moving on to the subterranean home of the sound system originally built to carry chimes 5 miles across the land below.
The Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun musical instrument chimes every quarter hour and on the hour and plays a musical program every day at 10:00am, 12:00pm and 5:00pm. It has been playing since 1937. Shrine caretaker Dakota Hurst talks about the instrument. Monday, June 12, 2023. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
Benches from a 15th-century French monastery in the tomb of Spencer and Julie Penrose.
Anyone familiar with Pikes Peak region history knows the name: From his arrival in 1892, Spencer Penrose went on to make his fortune from Colorado’s last, great gold rush and leave a legacy with some of the region’s most iconic attractions. Those include The Broadmoor, Pikes Peak Highway and Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.
Historical photos of Will Rogers can be seen on each floor of the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun, including this photo with fellow superstar Shirley Temple.
Anyone familiar might be less familiar with where the man ended up. After all, the name Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun makes no indication. Rather, the name is for another leading man of the day.
Before dying in a plane crash in 1935, Will Rogers was the nation’s adored “Cowboy Philosopher,” a humorous, kindred spirit who maintained the humility of his Oklahoma farm boyhood as he moved across the stage and big screen. His words on peace and love were cherished across radios and newspapers everywhere.
He was the Mr. Rogers before “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” He was a Democrat who spoke at the Republican National Convention. He might best be explained by the quote on his bust outside the Shrine of the Sun: “I never met a man I didn’t like.”
Simply put, he “captured the imagination and the affection of the American people,” Colorado College’s president, Thurston Davies, said on Sept. 6, 1937, during the dedication of the shrine.
Davies opened with a prediction for the edifice: “It will remain forever a monument to the public spirit of Mr. Spencer Penrose and the affection which he bears for America, for the West, and for the man who typified the spirit which has made this country great.”
The 114-foot tower is the castlelike promontory Penrose envisioned as his tomb, inspired by old architecture he envied on his world travels. In 1934, the vision became the mission of a task force and endowment Penrose established: the End of the Trail Association.
Historic photos of the Shrine while in construction.
Penrose was facing a terminal diagnosis as Civilian Conservation Corps hands starting cutting granite from the mountain. In 1937, as construction was wrapping up, he died from throat cancer at the age of 74.
Along with the shrine, Penrose would leave behind a foundation to continue his philanthropy, the El Pomar Foundation.
“Mr. Penrose had always intended to call it the Shrine of the Sun,” says Sarah Woods, who oversees curation and archives for El Pomar.
When Rogers suddenly died during the shrine’s construction, Penrose joined the nation in christening landmarks for the fallen hero. There was no sunnier name than Will Rogers.
He reportedly visited Penrose on his stops through Colorado Springs. Though, “there was never any intimate friendship between the two men,” according to a 1943 letter from Julie Penrose’s secretary. “Mr. Penrose was one of the millions of admirers of Will Rogers.”
And so the rooms along the tower’s spiral staircase are dedicated to Rogers.
Pictures depict his horseback childhood before his celebrity rise. Here he is, shaking hands with people in high places and low places. Here he is, with his kids. Here he is, beside the plane that crashed in Alaska, killing him and aviator Wiley Post, his last picture.
The last photo taken of Will Rogers hangs in the staircase of the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun. This photo was taken right before Rogers died in a plane crash, sending the nation into mourning. Rogers is on the far left. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
The funeral was said to be America’s most-attended since Abraham Lincoln’s. As for Penrose’s, a reported 4,000 mourners made their way up the old Cheyenne Mountain Highway to the shrine.
The Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun was built from granite quarried by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.
Nowadays, the caretaking Hurst says 150 might drive up on a summer day. In the shrine, they start in a cathedral-like room and view the wide-ranging mural Penrose commissioned: frescoed figures railroading, mining, gambling and fighting for their West. The terrazzo stairs lead up to a sweeping view of the plains where those pioneers rode.
At the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun, caretaker Dakota Hurst talks about the beautiful murals that depict the history of Colorado Springs.
This series of murals on the first floor at the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun were painted in 1937 by Santa Fe artist Randall Davey.
Back at the pavilion, a staircase leads down to the room for the old and newer chime system. Yellowed pages of music notes remain: “Home on the Range,” which played at Spencer Penrose’s funeral, and “Ave Maria,” recalled as Julie Penrose’s favorite.
It’s some of the soundtrack to Hurst’s scenic, idyllic days up here. “Every day is a good day here,” he says.
And yet, many are unaware — many Springs residents telling him they never knew about the shrine.
Here, they might reflect on the times that Davies reflected upon during his dedication speech in 1937. Those were times of economic depression and a world at the brink of war, “troubled” and “complicated” times, Davies said.
“Will’s sudden and tragic death took something from us that we need today,” he said.
Will had a “rare ability to see through the confusing picture of the present,” Davies said, an “ability to get back to plain, simple, fundamental truths” and “qualities to counteract political bitterness and animosity.” As “increasing threats to our own national structure darken our horizon,” Will saw the light, Davies suggested.
There before the lasting gift of Penrose, he implored his audience: “Turn once more to this shrine beside us here in the sun.”
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High in Colorado Springs mountains, melodious shrine represents lasting gift - Colorado Springs Gazette
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