Brief by Central Staff
Rural life – April 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
At Boom Days in August, Leadville holds an outhouse race, with crews pushing privies on wheels down Harrison Avenue. It’s the only such race we know of in Colorado, although they are held elsewhere.
But there’s a new twist in Trenary, a small town on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. There they hold the race in the winter, with the outhouses on skis.
The course is 500 feet long, and the winning time this year was 36.44 seconds. Racing privies can be built from almost anything, from traditional wood to plastic-covered PVC pipe, as well as cheap cardboard, but they must be intact at the end of the race.
The rules also require a 3-foot by 4-foot base, and a height of six feet; the interior must contain a toilet seat and a roll of toilet paper. Contestants race in pairs, and prizes are awarded for humor and originality, as well as the fastest time in an age category. Judges wear jackets that say “All bribes accepted.”
The Trenary Outhouse Classic began in 1994, and now attracts about 40 contestants and more than 2,000 visitors. Entry fees go toward community projects; this year’s race raised $7,000.
Leadville does hold winter ski-joring races, with skiers being pulled by horses, and in the summer, there’s the pack-burro race as well as the outhouse race.
One year, somebody attempted to combine all of that in Trenary: an outhouse on skis pulled by two mules. It was disqualified because the race organizer feared that the mules would ruin the track — so there’s still an opening for a unique winter race.