The Kingdom of Breckenridge and No Man's Land

Here is a tale the locals love to tell, and it is worth telling honestly. For years people said that because of a gap between old treaty boundaries, the land around Breckenridge had been accidentally left off official government maps, never formally made part of the United States. In nineteen thirty-six, the town decided to have some fun with this idea.

The women's club planned a grand celebration, and on a summer day at the Summit County Courthouse, the Governor of Colorado, Ed Johnson, ceremonially raised the American flag and welcomed Breckenridge into the nation and the state. There were brass bands and even naval guns fired in salute. Now, the honest part.

Before the ceremony, a Colorado state historian looked into the claim and found that the land had in fact been covered all along by a treaty signed back in eighteen nineteen. In other words, Breckenridge had never really been left out. The town knew this and threw the party anyway, and the organizers were careful to say only that the land was missing from certain government maps.

Out of that cheerful bit of make-believe grew the town's identity as Colorado's Kingdom, and to this day Breckenridge celebrates its heritage each summer with a festival called Kingdom Days.