Most People Don't Know About This Abandoned Tourist Attraction In Colorado
By Christy Articola|Published May 04, 2023
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Christy Articola
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Christy Articola has lived in Colorado since 2013 and considers herself a Centennial State enthusiast and expert through and through. She's based in Denver metro, but over the past decade, she has traveled to every corner, river, village, park, town, and city in the state and continues to explore it deeper and further whenever she can. Christy simply can't get enough of Colorado, and loves sharing all her adventures with you through Only In Your State! She graduated with a degree in journalism from Fordham University and is thrilled to be working as a full time travel writer for this and other sites - she finally found her perfect niche - and is so grateful for that.
Abandoned places are so interesting! Colorado is full of them, and our dry environment means many of them last a lot longer than they might in other parts of the country. If you’ve ever driven on I-70 between Kansas and Limon, there’s a good chance that you’ve seen World’s Wonder View Tower in Genoa, Colorado. This abandoned tourist attraction thrilled bored travelers for almost 100 years starting in the 1920s. Today, it’s empty and is left to decay, but there’s still some hope for it yet. Read on to learn more.
If you've ever driven across I-70 in eastern Colorado, then you know that there's not a whole lot to look at out the window most of the way.
Charles W. Gregory, a man known to some as Colorado's P.T. Barnum, realized this too, and decided to take advantage of one spot along this route. There's a hill in Genoa, Colorado, that is the highest point between New York and Denver, believe it or not.
Visitors climbed six flights of stairs to look out across the vast prairie.
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C.W. Gregory claimed that from the top of the tower, visitors could see six states - Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming, New Mexico, and South Dakota.
It's said that he stood at the top of the tower with a megaphone, spotting cars as they approached and calling to people to come check it out. Of course, this was before I-70 was even there. At that time, people were traveling along US 24, which runs parallel to the interstate today.
C.W. Gregory died in 1943. The tower passed through several hands before it was purchased by Ester and Jerry Chubbuck in 1967.
During their ownership, they added a museum of oddities including an eight-footed pig, a one-eyed pig, a two-headed calf, artifacts, fossils, various other unusual items, and more.
They also amassed a collection of over 50,000 glass bottles which were on display there as well.
Unfortunately, Jerry died in 2013. Most of the contents of the museum were auctioned off in 2014. World's Wonder View Tower has sat abandoned ever since.
But there's hope! This place is so special - even if it's abandoned right now. Progress is happening!
Colorado Preservation, Inc., works to rescue historically important places in Colorado. In 2016, a group of artists and residents purchased the property with plans to rehabilitate and reopen the site. In 2017, Colorado Preservation officially listed it as one of Colorado's most endangered places .
And, in 2022, the site received a $1.5 million grant from Major Creative Industries.
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Thanks to the hard work of dedicated people who love it, there's a good chance that this place will rise again and that people will be able to enjoy a restored version of World's Wonder View Tower in the future.
World’s Wonder View Tower in Genoa, Colorado, may not look like much now, but it’s an important piece of Colorado history. Imagine how many millions of people not only saw this tower over the decades, but also how many climbed to the top! This is a piece of roadside America that should not be forgotten. We hope it will be restored to its former glory soon so it can be enjoyed by future generations.
