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Mike the Headless Chicken Festival

Festivals! They’re everywhere! There are film festivals, food festivals, music festivals, and beer festivals. There is a cheese festival in Wisconsin, a lumberjack festival in Northern California, and a tomato-hurling festival in Spain. But even a search on festivals.com couldn’t find anything more bizarre than the two-day celebration dedicated to a headless rooster named Mike held right here in Fruita, Colorado.

Mike’s odyssey began September 10, 1945, when his owners, Clara and Lloyd Olsen of Fruita, selected Mike, a five-and-a-half-month-old Wyandotte rooster, as the entrée for their evening meal. Lloyd went out and chopped off Mike’s head with an axe, but received quite a surprise when the chicken recovered from the blow and went about its business as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. The next morning upon discovering that Mike was still alive and seemingly well, the Olsens decided to find out how long Mike could survive without a head.

An examination of Mike revealed that although most of the head had been removed, the brain stem and one of the ears were still intact. The blow had missed the jugular vein and a blood clot had formed, preventing the chicken from bleeding to death. The Olsens began feeding Mike a mixture of grain and water with an eyedropper directly into his esophagus. Mike thrived and grew.

Mike’s fame grew as well, and soon the chicken, now known as Miracle Mike, gained a promoter and began touring the country. People paid twenty-five cents each to take a look at Mike. At the height of his popularity, Mike was bringing in over $4000 a month, and was featured in several publications, including Life and Time magazines.

Mike’s career ended in March 1947, when in a motel room in Arizona, he choked on his own mucus. This had happened before, and the Olsens had always used a syringe to suck the mucus out. On this occasion, however, they were unable to locate their syringe. Miracle Mike, the rooster that survived beheading, was no more.

Over the next fifty years, the story of Mike the Headless Chicken languished and was nearly forgotten. The saga of Miracle Mike would have ended in that lonely motel room in the Arizona desert if the Historic Preservation Board in Fruita had not decided to hold an event to commemorate Colorado History Week in 1999. During the board’s discussions, a member recalled the story of the headless chicken, and a festival was born.

The Mike the Headless Chicken Festival celebrates the spirit of the bird who managed to survive in spite of impossible odds. According to Yvonne Piquette, Human Resource Director for the city of Fruita: “This is a positive, upbeat festival. We don’t dwell on the beheading, but rather on the celebration of Mike’s life. The festival is a family event full of lighthearted fun.”

Sponsored in part by the City of Fruita, the Historic Preservation Board, and by donations from many local businesses and organizations, the Mike the Headless Chicken Festival will feature more than thirty foods, crafts, and games vendors, a golf tournament, a 5K race, music by Timothy P. & The Rural Route Three, and numerous egg- and chicken-themed games.

Just like it did in the 1940s, the story of Miracle Mike has gained national recognition. The first Mike the Headless Chicken Festival in 1999 attracted about 200 attendees, but by some quirk of fate, on April 1, 2000, an AP wire story about Lyle Nichols’ metal sculpture inspired by the tale was picked up by news media of all types. The April Fools’ Day timing seemed too good to be true, and public interest exploded. Since that time, the official Mike the Headless Chicken Web site has recorded nearly 700,000 visits, and by 2001, in its third year, festival attendance reached over 4000. Many of the attendees were from out-of-state or from other parts of Colorado. Attendance is expected to be even higher this year.

Mike’s media celebrity continues to grow: The Discovery Channel and Lighthouse Productions will both be sending crews to this year’s event to film documentaries about the famous rooster and his namesake festival.

This year’s Mike the Headless Chicken Festival takes place Friday and Saturday, May 17 and 18, in Fruita, and promises to feature lots of fun events for the whole family. For more information, call Yvonne Piquette or Karen Leonhart at (970) 858-3663, or visit the official Mike the Headless Chicken Web site at www.miketheheadlesschicken.org.