Frozen Dead Guy | 100 Wonders | Atlas Obscura

In the hills above Nederland, Colorado is the corpse of a frozen dead guy named Grandpa Bredo where I go and visit him. Subscribe for new videos every Thurs bit.ly/1PcJ14b
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Written and hosted by Dylan Thuras (@dylanthuras)
Graphics by Michelle Enemark (@mjenemark)
Edited by Ryan Thompson
Credits for this episode:
www.frozendeadg...
www.thedenverch...
frozendeadguydays.org

[@kenton6098]

I moved to Nederland in 1994, just about the time they discovered the bodies of Bredo and someone else being kept on dry ice. Now, they had already deported the property owner Trigve and his mother. The guy being paid to deliver the dry ice was not getting paid and either was about to stop or had stopped. Either way, word was that at least some partial thawing had taken place. Not a good thing in a cryogenics project. We had reporters in town from all over the world. This is in a little mountain town 17 miles into the mountains above Boulder, where the University of Colorado is. In addition to the ice crisis, the shed that housed their bodies was being blown apart because the wind howls most winter long in Nederland. Nobody knew what to do and finally Tuff Shed (a Denver company that manufactures storage sheds) offered to donate a tuff shed if they could use the situation for marketing purposes. With no alternative and the owner of the property deported, the town agreed. The town decided that if Tuff Shed could do it so could they, so they picked a Frozen Dead Guy Day date(s) and were off to the races! Greg won the Dead Guy Lookalike contest. Greg had a reputation as having a little too much fondness for alcohol and was more commonly known around Ned as "Toasty". There were coffin races in the snow and a variety of other events. The second year, Toasty lost to one of the owners of the local supermarket (B&F) and angry at his loss, he slammed out of the Pioneer Inn, locally very famous as the local watering hole of 70s rock stars when the Caribou Ranch recording studio outside town was popular. Toasty didn't realize that there was a little girl entering and as he slammed the door open on his way out he hurt her. So that year Toasty lost AND he went to jail. I had a snow removal business in Nederland for 12 years with about 60 customers, and my partner Amy was on the volunteer fire department, so we knew a lot of people. When we split up in 2000 I moved into a subdivision of Ned called Big Springs. Looking out my living room window and up the hillside across the gully I could see Bredo's shed. In March 2003 a storm dumped 10 of snow in Nederland and no Ice could be delivered. My main plow truck stayed buried above the bottoms of the doors in the intersection in front of my house until after less than a week the roads were cleared. Anyway... I haven't mentioned it yet but Amy is a psychic who helps dead people who have trouble moving on... move on. If they want to. We were together for 5 years and she told me numerous stories in detail. Such detail that either Amy was crazy or what she told me was true. Amy was also the police commissioner, the fire department administrator, and a town council member, so not really a crazy new ager. What Amy told me in 2005 was that Bredo, the Frozen Dead Guy, was still around as a ghost, was getting off on all the attention, and was going out into peoples houses, and "he shouldn't be doing that shit!" was how she put it. When you happen to have your finger on the pulse of a little mountain town, well... things can be a little stranger than you expect. And that's just the tip of that iceberg. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pXLRqJeEgM2VipI The Beek sisters made a movie called Grandpa's in the Tuff Shed.

[@recelehberger1603]

I live in Colorado and ever since like 2nd grade me and my friends have known about the frozen dead guy. I used to think back then that he was kept like in a floating tube thing like Luke Skywalker is in at some point in the star wars movies haha.

[@atlasobscura]

That's what I was hoping for until I saw the casket. Which is chained down. Wait. Why is it chained down again?

[@ACN3388]

I remember finding a forgotten pack of pork chops in the freezer from last year recently. Freezer burn all around. I hate to see how this guy is holding up in comparison.

[@atlasobscura]

+ACN3388 Yeah... I can't say I have plans to be interviewing Grandpa Bredo anytime soon.

[@thedoge9590]

Probably looks like the mummies they pulled out of the ice....sadly even with modern cryogenic techniques the issue of yce crystals damaging cells means there's no hope for grandpa but we can believe lol

[@lezzleee]

How had I never heard of this growing up in CO? This is something I would totally have gone to at least once

[@mcgillbot]

I love your videos! Please consider making some a bit longer? I could watch these all day. Thanks for doing this!

[@KissMeImABBW]

matt mcgill I would luv to see longer videos as well! 😊

[@mousetreehouse6833]

@@KissMeImABBW Same here - especially a long video on the Frozen Dead Guy (and) Festival 😀!

[@Got-Moxie]

So, as a Colorado native, I have to ask... Have you heard of Mike the Headless Chicken? That's another super strange story-turned-festival about a live headless chicken. The festival is held in Fruita, Colorado, every summer. Frozen Dead Guy Days and Mike the Headless Chicken Festival are two of the weirdest fun events that happen in Colorado every year. Mike made it onto TIME magazine. :)

[@ArielRyanBautista1313]

i used to live in colorado and every year me and my dad went up there, it is so much fun

[@CalebBlock]

When they cancelled Frozen Dead Guy Days in 2020, I knew shit was getting serious.

[@alejandrocruz1473]

In Mexico they call it the day of the dead great spinoff of the holiday do

[@MattEdie]

First I've heard of it and I'm a CO native. There's also the coffin races in Manitou Springs. Everyone's got a thing.

[@atlasobscura]

+Matt Edie You should go for a visit!

[@MattEdie]

Atlas Obscura​ I just might.

[@thrillhouse_vanhouten]

Awesome video! I'd love to shoot an adventure trip like this with you guys!

[@ApocaIypse666]

I thought cryo is not yet proven to be effective/work scientifically

[@kenton6098]

It's not. Trigve was kinda on a planet of his own.

[@carmensandiego211]

Awesome !!!

[@PrincessHarmonyMoonlight]

"Stay cool" lol

[@texaslonestarrider]

Very Cool! Awesome Video!

[@motorbikemike1937]

I am from the actual netherlands in europe and would love to move here

[@Siverrt]

"Don't know his condition" Isn't he dead? Or does he mean not knowing in like the body is in parts or still whole?

[@atlasobscura]

+Stivenberg He is definitely dead, and definitely whole, it's more of a quality question. Is he still in "mint" condition if you will.

[@Siverrt]

Ok, thank you for the answer!

[@Badzeep]

Wow. I didn't know there was a Nederland in the US. That's pretty weird... seeing as I'm from the country Nederland (Netherlands).

[@danidzs]

+Badzeep then you might also find interesting that the 8th President of the United States was Maarten van Buren, born in Kinderhook (USA) and is the only President who spoke English as his second language (Dutch being 1st). You have to remember that the USA is a land of immigrants (from EU) so there are many towns and people with Dutch names.

[@Badzeep]

Daniel Zarate Quite fascinating! I also found out that the Roosevelt family were from my province, Zeeland. It explains why we have an international university in the province capital Middelburg named 'The Roosevelt Academy.'

[@danidzs]

Badzeep I didn't know that! you learn something new every day. Thank you for the info! I study in NL so that's why I got very interested when I learned of this stuff.

[@kenton6098]

I lived there for 12 years. The name played havoc with international mail. I ordered something from Australia and it wound up making a side trip to Holland first.

[@stangeric1]

Nice. On the road again!

[@atlasobscura]

+Eric Frayre Yeah it was fun to actually go and visit even if the coffin might be full of bananas for all I know!

[@stangeric1]

Atlas Obscura I agree... Old frozen Bananas, or a grandpa popsicle. Seems to attract allot of people.

[@Tirpitz-lv2kt]

Nederland, Holland, Nederland🇳🇱🇳🇱🇳🇱

[@michaelmuller9724]

Do they speak Nederlands (Dutch )in Nederland Colorado?😂

[@m_drunk]

that's a party I'm going to have to attend.

[@atlasobscura]

+mdrunk Agreed, I was sad to be there in the wrong season!

[@CalebBlock]

Do it, it's a great time.

[@CalebBlock]

Nederland is destroying their namesake :(

[@WatercatGaming]

DIY cryo storage. suprised they let them do that.

[@atlasobscura]

+MCRxICP It was against the law in the town and they actually made an exception specifically for Grandpa!

[@WatercatGaming]

Atlas Obscura Thats cool Thanks for replying with that info :)

[@robertspratford4907]

Nederland native here to say, he thawed 2 too many times for this to have any bearing in reality. Stay away from from this place if you value the lives of your children. Meth and heroin are the go to recreational activities cause there really isn't anything else here. The leaves in fall used to be cool before public roads failed to function because of over use. But I'm just a person who lives there. Who cares how I feel.

[@ericsilberstein667]

Waking up in this time will kill him. Leave the salmon alone.

[@AraRaven]

Nederland, or Nedville as some of us fondly call it, is a pretty darn weird place. How weird, you might ask? Well, just keep in mind that Trey Parker and Matt Stone based South Park off of Nedville (as opposed to the actual South Park, Colorado).

[@atlasobscura]

Ha! I didn't know that! But that makes sense. I met some super colorful characters there and I was there for two hours tops.

[@CalebBlock]

I didn't know south park was based on Ned, but it makes complete sense.

[@mullaneywt]

Nobody that I've ever heard of calls it Nedville (usually just Ned if it's something short), and South Park is based on Fairplay Colorado, South of Breckenridge in Park County.

[@innerpull]

never heard nedville either and ive spent a whole helluva lotta time there every weekday since 2015. just ned. sort of like people saying 'frisco' or 'san fran' for san francisco. nobody really calls it that who actually lives there.

[@crazycrosby929]

I've been in ned for a while and I never new that

[@maxxlindley9425]

you don't even show the guy....click bait

[@flyingfox707b]

i might have to pss, to morbid...