By early June, flyers had shown up in shop windows along Manitou Avenue asking people to save the coffin races. That is not a sentence anyone in this town expected to write about an event that has run every October since 1995. But for a few weeks this spring, the 32nd Annual Emma Crawford Coffin Races were genuinely on the table for cancellation, not because anyone stopped loving them, but because the town had outgrown its own ability to police them safely, and nobody had a clean answer for who should pay to fix that.
The race is still happening. Saturday, October 24, 2026, same as it always does the weekend before Halloween. What's worth understanding, if you live here, isn't the parade route or the coffin specs. It's what the town just spent four months arguing about, because the compromise that saved this year's race is also a preview of how the city plans to handle every big Manitou event from here forward.
The gap nobody wanted to say out loud
The trouble started in May, when Manitou Springs Police Chief Bill Otto told City Council his department could not safely staff the coffin races anymore. The event draws over 10,000 people into a small mountain town, and Otto's own staffing math put that in stark terms: a typical large-event ratio is about one officer per 100 attendees, and Manitou had ten. He asked for ten more, borrowed from the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, just to get closer to adequate.
Some councilmembers thought even that wasn't enough. Councilmember Julie Wolfe said it was "unacceptable for us to be going into an event knowing darn well we are severely understaffed by more than fifty percent." Others floated pausing the race outright for a year, or capping how many people could come in from outside town.
That did not sit well with the people who run businesses on Manitou Avenue. Jason, an owner at Armadillo Ranch, pointed out that the $5,600 the city was fighting over "represents just 1% of the sales tax generated in the month that the event occurs." Jonathan, who owns Colorado Custard Company, put it more bluntly, asking why a police budget of more than $2 million couldn't absorb that same number, and noting the race has run "for 33 years or so" without incident. Eric Wilks, owner of Manitou Winery, called it "one of the weird things that makes this place fantastical."
None of that is exaggeration for a town whose whole economy tilts toward summer. Josephine, who works in Manitou's service industry, described the race as the town's last big push before the slow season: "Manitou is a summer tourist town. After that, things slow down dramatically." For businesses on the wrong side of that seasonal curve, one Saturday in late October carries real weight.
What the city actually landed on
City Council didn't cancel anything. Over a June 9 workshop and a follow-up meeting the next day, they approved 25 total officers for this year's race, ten from Manitou's own department plus fifteen additional Colorado Rangers, the statewide reserve police force. Otto had originally floated other numbers before landing there after checking in with comparably sized Colorado towns and the Colorado Intergovernmental Risk Sharing Agency. He told council he wouldn't have recommended 25 if he didn't think it was enough.
The bigger question was who pays for it. The added staffing runs close to $10,000, and the city settled on splitting that three ways: city funds, Visit Manitou Springs, and a community fundraiser the Penny Arcade hosted in mid-June. That third leg matters. It means part of this year's race is quite literally being paid for by people who walked into a Manitou Avenue arcade and put money toward keeping their own Halloween tradition intact.
There's a second change that's easy to miss because it isn't a dollar figure. The city is piloting a new Manitou Event Ambassador program at this year's race, volunteers who serve as what the police department calls a "friendly, visible presence" to welcome attendees, keep an eye on the crowd, and flag concerns to staff or officers rather than acting as security themselves. It's being tested specifically at the coffin races with an eye toward using it at other city events going forward, which tells you the city sees this fight repeating with events beyond just this one.
What actually shows up for you on race day
If you've been to the coffin races before, most of this will be familiar, but a few things are worth reconfirming for this year rather than relying on what you remember from 2023.
- The event runs in the 900 block of Manitou Avenue, with the Fan Zone in the 700 block opening at 10 a.m.
- The parade of hearses and coffins steps off at noon, with racing following at roughly 1 to 2 p.m.
- There is no parking available in town on race day. The free option is the Citizens Service Center and DMV parking structure at 1675 Garden of the Gods Road, with continuous shuttles running to a drop point near downtown for $5 cash round trip, kids 12 and under free.
- PikeRide is running a free bike valet at Memorial Park if you'd rather pedal in.
- If you're catching a rideshare, the designated drop off and pickup spot is at the Chase Bank on Manitou Avenue.
- The after party, with live music and an awards ceremony, runs at Soda Springs Park through the afternoon.
None of that is new information dressed up. It's the same shuttle and parking system Manitou has used for years, confirmed for an event whose staffing plan changed enough this year that it was fair to wonder whether any of the rest would too.
The conversation that isn't over
City Council was clear that capping attendance or screening who comes in from outside Manitou is off the table for this specific race in 2026, but only for this race, only this year. Councilmember Gloria Latimer said during the debate that "there's a bigger discussion about how big our events should be," and Councilwoman Judith Chandler raised a question at the June 9 workshop that's really about the whole town, not just one Saturday in October: whether there's a point past which Manitou's footprint simply can't absorb more visitors, no matter how much security money is on the table. Otto agreed to produce an after action report from this year's race to help shape a broader event safety plan, and council said explicitly it plans to keep discussing event guidelines later this fall.
That's the part worth watching if you live here. This year's coffin races got saved by a specific compromise, more officers, a three way funding split, a volunteer ambassador program being road tested in real time. But the underlying question the council raised, about how big Manitou's signature events are allowed to get before the town's own geography says no, didn't get answered. It got postponed to a meeting that hasn't happened yet.
For now, the coffins are still racing down Manitou Avenue this October 24, the parade still steps off at noon, and Soda Springs Park will still fill up for the after party. What's different is that a lot more people in this town now understand exactly what it costs, in dollars and in staffing, to keep that tradition running every year, and that the answer this fall might not be the same answer next fall.
Whether you've lived in Manitou Springs for one coffin race or for thirty two of them, the town's ability to keep having these conversations in public, in front of the people who actually run its restaurants and shops, is part of what makes it worth paying attention to. If you're ever curious what a home in a town like this is actually worth, Colorado Springs Collective is a call away. Request Your Home Valuation whenever you're ready.
