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Town honors comic-strip hero Steve Canyon
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In Idaho Springs, Colo., there is a statue of Steve Canyon, a comic-strip hero. Why was it placed in Idaho Springs? -- K. Doran, Arvada
Shortly after World War II, Idaho Springs formed a Junior Chamber of Commerce to promote business in the mountain town west of Denver. They came up with the idea of Gold Rush Days, commemorating the town's mining history, said Marjorie Bell, a local historian and curator of the Underhill Museum and the Heritage Museum/Visitor Center.
One of the events at Gold Rush Days was a Steve Canyon look-alike contest. Organizers picked the comic-strip character because the strip, which ran from 1947-88 and portrayed Canyon as an adventurous Air Force officer, was extremely popular and one of the characters was a miner named Happy Easter, Bell said.
The contest became annual, and officials soon invited Milton Caniff, who wrote and drew Steve Canyon, to judge the event. The statue was dedicated in 1950; a plaque on its base reads, "The United States Treasury salutes Steve Canyon and through him, all the American cartoon characters who serve the nation."
Caniff's creation was so popular locally that Squirrel Gulch south of town was renamed Steve Canyon, Bell said.
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Don Allan/Historic Society of Idaho Springs
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