Sit back youngun and let me tell ya the story about
Mike the Headless Chicken.
Now the story began in the small town of Fruita, Colorado on September 10th, 1945. That’s when we find the strapping
old rooster pecking through the dust. Farmer Lloyd Olsen (no relation) done took one of his roosters to the chopping
block in preparation for supper. He decapitated the chicken, the way farmers will, but somehow thisun’ was different.
And for 18 months that headless chicken walked around as if nothin’ had happened. The farmer fed him with an
eyedropper, and that rooster done grown from two and a half to five pounds.
Well to celebrate Mike’s tenacity, not to mention keepin’ his head after he lost it, the town holds a festival every
year. This year’s celebration runs from May 20 and 21 and will include live music, an auto show and a five-kilometer
Run Like a Headless Chicken race. Attendees, why they come dressed as chickens, sometimes with head, sometimes, as the
French put it, sans head.
Anyhow, if you don’t take my word for it, check out the
site dedicated to everything Mike.