Broomcorn Express

BY DAVID R. FEINEMAN
TREASURER, BROOMFIELD HISTORICAL SOCIETY

In 2026, we will celebrate the founding of the United States 250 years ago, and 150 years of Colorado statehood. Most people will recognize these as important anniversaries that should be marked with some memorable national and local events (which should be well along in their planning —or maybe not). But having been around for the bicentennial celebrations in 1976, I thought it might be worth a trip in the wayback machine1 to revisit that year and see if there are any lessons for us today.

Life in 1976

In 1976, my wife and I were in Tulsa, Oklahoma: my wife was working as a nurse, and I was in graduate school. There was a great deal of turmoil going on nationally at that time: the war in Vietnam had ended, but the division between groups was still apparent; the investigation into the Watergate break-in that would ultimately end Richard Nixon’s presidency had begun; the rise of OPEC and its market interactions had created an energy crisis that produced long lines at gas station pumps across the USA; and economists puzzled about remedies for stubborn stagflation when we had a recession coupled with high inflation.  

Culturally, things were also quite different. In a conservative state like Oklahoma, people with long hair (men or women) were often labeled as hippies, and people from the East Coast were called “Yankees” in a less than positive way. The 1921 race riots that occurred in Tulsa were just not openly discussed. There was no cable TV: major broadcast networks served up shows like Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, M*A*S*H, and All in the Family, which mined nostalgia for the vision of an earlier, simpler time, but also began to provide some social commentary on the current changes in America.  

If you listened to pop radio, you would hear the disco music craze in full flow, though in between you might hear Elton John & Kiki Dee doing “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” or Wings performing “Silly Love Songs.” But in Oklahoma, I found some of the FM stations were playing progressive country that suited the time better: the song “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother” on the Viva Terlingua album by Jerry Jeff Walker takes me back to that time and place far better than “Disco Duck.”

If you went to the movies, you might have seen Taxi Driver, Rocky, or Network.  The key quote from the last one was, “I want you to go to the window, open it, stick your head out and yell, ‘I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore.’”2   Perhaps that gives you a sense why people yearned for the “happy days” of the past.

Bicentennial Happenings

In the run up to 1976, I can’t say I remember much federal effort to prepare for the bicentennial: given the turmoil, it just didn’t seem like the divisions could be breached or that there was truly anything much to celebrate. But we could see signs of slow change on a local level. The most obvious and ubiquitous of these was driven by individuals and low cost: people put up flags. We saw a proliferation of historic flags, like the Betsy Ross flag, or the Don’t Tread on Me flag.  In more recent years these flags have become more controversial as they’ve been adopted by fringe political groups, but in 1976, people were using them as historic symbols of independence.

The American Freedom Train

A private effort with corporate sponsorship created a memorable element of the bicentennial: the American Freedom Train.3 The idea was to collect key artifacts from 200 years of American history and install them in train cars that were drawn by steam locomotives. The exhibit would reach most cities in the USA over the course of two years. It would be a true multimedia experience (for the time), in which visitors viewed exhibits from a moving walkway—a technological innovation that helped ensure the maximum number of visitors each day. The exhibits spanned sports, the arts, history, historic events, and scientific inventions inside a train painted in patriotic red, white, and blue livery. Tickets were required, and attendees often reported that the moving walkway didn’t give them adequate time with the exhibits, but it was a unique and extraordinary show. Below, you can see the author’s own copy of the American Freedom Train Commemorative Program.4

Even before it arrived, the organizers tried to create a buzz about about the Freedom Train.  I can still remember the advertisements that had Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner singing, “All aboard America! Here comes the Freedom Train.” I’m afraid it was what people would call an “ear worm”—one of those songs that is hard to get out of your brain once you hear it. When the exhibit rolled into Tulsa in April of 1976, we might not have had much money, but we certainly had our tickets. You didn’t need to be a train buff to be impressed by the size of the steam locomotive on the tracks in front of you, at a time when steam locomotives had been out of regular service in the USA for 20 years. I know I left feeling more of a sense of pride about being American and having a better view of our collective accomplishments over the country’s short history.

I found out that Denver wouldn’t put up money for the train to stop there, but the train did make a stop in Colorado Springs, which gained notoriety for being the first place where there was a protest about the train’s visit. A group called the People’s Bicentennial Commission complained that the entire thing was too commercial and a corporate cash grab. But the train continued to roll through the country until the end of 1976, as planned. Along the way, it intersected with a bicentennial wagon train pilgrimage, suggesting the presence of other large-scale, cross-country events occurring at the time.

What About Now?

After 50 years, I still remember the American Freedom Train’s run as a special experience linked to the bicentennial. In retrospect, motivating people to prepare for the 1976 bicentennial might not have been any easier than it is today. Apparently, there were unsuccessful discussions about having the train run again in 2026, but limitations on railroad infrastructure, changes in railroad regulations, and the difficulty in accessing artifacts appear to be more significant hurdles today than fifty years ago. At this point, a rerun of the 1976 experience seems unlikely, and because of the dramatic changes in multimedia and entertainment experiences that we are used to today, everything on the train might seem antiquated to a new audience.

I’d like to think that here in Broomfield, we can create positive and memorable experiences of our country, state, and local history that emphasize our shared values and the best qualities of American life, without hiding from the difficult challenges from our past and present. The Broomfield Historical Society is acting as the local organizing committee for national and state anniversary celebrations under an umbrella called Broomfield 2026! As you can see from the activity calendar, we have been engaging with other groups on history related programs that are running throughout this year, and we look forward to you joining us in attending those 2026 commemoration events.

And if your own feelings about America are complicated right now, you might take some comfort in knowing that this is a common sentiment around many of our country’s significant milestones.

BY DAVID ALLISON
History and Museum Supervisor, City and County of Broomfield

In 1975, Broomfield organized a Centennial/Bicentennial Commission that was tasked with finding ways to celebrate and commemorate the 100th anniversary of Colorado’s statehood and the 200th anniversary of the US becoming a country. 

The Commission focused first on purchasing (in conjunction with the Broomfield Jaycees) the Broomfield Depot from the Colorado and Southern Railroad and moving it to an open site near the Lac Amora development. The Depot building had been a tax burden for the Colorado and Southern since it ceased operation earlier in the 1970s, and the Jaycees were excited to preserve a “landmark” of the recently-passed history of Broomfield. The proposed park where the Depot would be located was described as “Zang Centennial Park.” Today this park is known as Zang Spur Park, with “Centennial” dropped from the name. 

The Centennial/Bicentennial Commission planned a number of events throughout the year 1976, with a big kickoff for the year occurring on Feb. 26, 1976 at Broomfield High School, with patriotic music sung by choirs, speeches, and an official designation of Broomfield as a Centennial-Bicentennial City by the State of Colorado. 

Activities culminated in Broomfield on July 4 with a large parade and the groundbreaking for the new location of the Broomfield Depot. The Honorary Queen of the Community, Viola Crooks, was honored at the parade and the opening of the Broomfield Depot. The day rounded out with a cow pie-throwing contest between the mayors of Lafayette, Louisville and Broomfield and (of course) fireworks.

Emerald Elementary also had a patriotic event at the school and created a large patchwork quilt commemorating the Bicentennial. This quilt is in the Broomfield History Collection, along with numerous other flags, memorabilia, and documents.

As 2026 and the planned activities to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Colorado statehood and the 250th anniversary of the United States round into form, it behooves us to “look back” on what our community was doing in 1976 and to know that the footprints we leave, in the way we choose to remember the past, matters for the future. 

Here are some new links and photos of objects we have in the Broomfield History Collection celebrating the 1776–1976 Bicentennial, and we’ve included some images of when Broomfield became a county in 2001. Digital newspaper clippings are from Colorado Historical Newspapers.

Newspaper articles:

• Bicentennial Ceremony in Broomfield https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=FEE19760211-01.2.6&srpos=7&e=——-en-20–1–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-bicentennial——-0-Broomfield—–
• President Ford Bicentennial message to Broomfield as a designated Colorado Centennial and Bicentennial City https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=FEE19760630-01.2.49&srpos=2&e=——-en-20–1–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-bicentennial——-0-Broomfield—–
• Photos from the Bicentennial Ceremony https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=FEE19760303-01.2.26&srpos=11&e=——-en-20–1–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-bicentennial——-0-Broomfield—–
• Mayor Spader’s Honor America Proclamation https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=FEE19760616-01.2.8&srpos=16&e=——-en-20–1–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-bicentennial——-0-Broomfield—–
• Gifts and ‘Circle of Flags’ at Depot and Zang Spur Centennial Park (Centennial Park) https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=FEE19760804-01.2.30&srpos=17&e=——-en-20–1–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-bicentennial——-0-Broomfield—–
• Mesa Court Bicentennial Play performed by kids https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=FEE19760707-01.2.22&srpos=21&e=——-en-20–21–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-bicentennial——-0-Broomfield—–
• Broomfield Bicentennial Commission plans 1975, Boccard’s ideas, Depot as vanguard of effort https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=FEE19751224-01.2.7&srpos=25&e=——-en-20–21–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-bicentennial——-0-Broomfield—–
• List of 4th of July activities in Broomfield, 1976 (cow chip throwing contest between mayors of Lafayette, Louisville and Broomfield) https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=TCJ19760630-01.2.2&srpos=30&e=——-en-20–21–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-bicentennial——-0-Broomfield—–
• Emerald Elementary celebration https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=FEE19760512-01.2.27&srpos=33&e=——-en-20–21–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-bicentennial——-0-Broomfield—–
• Bicentennial and International Women’s Year event https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=TCJ19750625-01.2.30&srpos=40&e=——-en-20–21–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-bicentennial——-0-Broomfield—–
• Photos of cow chip pitching competition https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=FEE19760707-01.2.2&srpos=52&e=——-en-20–41–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-bicentennial——-0-Broomfield—–
• City Council allocates $700 to save Depot for Centennial commission https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=TCJ19751126-01.2.2&e=——-en-20–41–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-bicentennial——-0-Broomfield—–
• Centennial Commission report—fall events 1976 https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=TCJ19760811-01.2.5&srpos=70&e=——-en-20–61–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-bicentennial——-0-Broomfield—–