30 years of IMOA 2021 Show

The Rocky Mountains and the Denver area welcome the IMOA for its annual 2021 show, to be held June 23-27.

This year’s show was cancelled due to the Covid-19 crisis and it was decided to keep the Denver area as the show site.

The dates include visits to the Clive Cussler Auto Museum, Coors Brewery and Colorado Railroad Museum. Attendees can also take part in the All-Ford Car Show and Picnic on Sunday, June 27, in Golden, Colo.

Of course, there is also the beautiful mountain scenery in the area.

The host hotel is the Denver Marriott Hotel in Westminster, Colo., which will also be the site of the actual IMOA car show on Saturday, June 26.

The Marriott is located at 7000 Church Ranch Blvd, Westminster, CO. 80021; phone (720) 887-1177 .

Registration forms for the IMOA and All-Ford shows follow this article.

Colorado Railroad Musuem
The Colorado Railroad Museum (coloradorailroadmuseum.org) has its origins in the late 1940s when Colorado’s narrow-gauge railroad companies started going out of business.

Robert W. Richardson began collecting rolling stock, railway records and other pieces of equipment in an effort to preserve Colorado history.

Bob’s collection quickly outgrew the available space at his museum in Alamosa and in 1958, with the help of his friend Cornelius Hauck, moved the museum to Golden.

Many Colorado railroad companies closed down in the late 1940s and ’50s, when falling ore prices and increasing operating expenses made business unprofitable.

The Uintah Railway Company closed in 1939, the Silverton Northern in 1942, the Rio Grande Junction in 1941, the Midland Terminal in 1949 and the Rio Grande Southern in 1951.

Once in Golden, Richardson built a replica narrow-gauge railroad station to serve as the main museum building.

With the help of volunteers, he started laying track for 50 pieces of equipment and built a motel to help fund the museum. The Iron Horse Motel was originally located where the roundhouse now sits.

Clive Cussler Auto Museum
The Clive Cussler Auto Museum in Arvada, Colo., features the vintage car collection of the late Cussler, the multi-million selling author of a series of books, with the most famous featuring Dirk Pitt, marine engineer, government agent and adventurer.

Cussler was also an underwater explorer, discovering more than 60 shipwrecks and founder of the National Underwater and Marine Agency.

Cussler was born in Aurora, Ill. He served in the United States Air Force during the Korean War, achieving the rank of sergeant and working as an aircraft mechanic and flight engineer for the Military Air Transport Service.

After his discharge from the military, Cussler went to work in the advertising industry, first as a copywriter and later as a creative director for two of the nation’s most successful advertising agencies.

He began writing in 1965, with the Pitt novels catching on with a format of sunken ships, lost treasures, exotic locations, dastardly villains and vintage cars.
Cussler established his car museum to preserve rare and vintage automobiles from 1906 to 1965.

Coors Brewery
In 1873, German immigrants Adolph Coors and Jacob Schueler emigrated to the United States and established a brewery in Golden, Colo.

Coors was a penniless brewer’s apprentice who stowed away on a ship from Germany and arrived in the U.S. in 1868 before making his way to Golden.

In 1880, Coors bought out his partner and became sole owner of the brewery.

Coors was one of the few breweries to survive Prohibition. The brewery itself was converted into a malted milk and near beer production facility. Coors sold much of the malted milk to the Mars candy company.

However, the company relied heavily on its porcelain, cement and real estate companies to keep the brewery operating.

The company sold it beer mainly in the western U.S., but reached nationwide distribution in the mid 1980s.

It introduced Coors Light in 1978, known as the “Silver Bullet,” and it remains one of the most popular beers in America. Other Coors brands include Blue Moon, Icehouse, Keystone Light, Molson’s, Hamm’s Henry’s Hard Soda and Crispin ciders.