Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
A Dallas woman looked out at the wide open land below Mount Elbert back in 1982 and basically called it worthless. Undeveloped. Nothing there. And that one dismissive comment is the reason more than 2,000 pounds of tomatoes are about to go airborne in Buena Vista this Saturday.
That is not a joke. That is the origin story.
The guy who heard it was Taylor Adams, owner of the Inn of the Black Wolf up at Twin Lakes. He was already a character. He was breeding black wolves and needed money to do it. So when the Texan insulted his slice of Colorado, he did what any reasonable mountain innkeeper would do. He started a war. A tomato war. Coloradans against Texans, flags as targets, produce as ammunition.
The original run went about 12 years. At its peak it pulled in as many as 500 people chucking ripe tomatoes at each other, and it fizzled out around 1991. Then it came back. First revival in 2011, another one in 2020, and now here we are at the fifth renewal.
This is the part people miss. It sounds like pure chaos, and honestly it is, but it is chaos with a purpose. The whole thing is run by the Buena Vista Optimist Club, currently under president Dr. Eric Gibb, and the money goes to more than 30 youth organizations and activities across Chaffee County. Kids programs. Real stuff.
And the money is not small anymore. The 2025 war raised more than
Here is the plan. Gates open at 1 p.m. The battle itself runs 2 to 6 p.m. It all goes down at The Meadows, 14998 County Road 350 in Buena Vista, on farmland donated by Jed Selby.
Coloradans traditionally overrun a straw-bale fort called the Alamo, and yes, everybody calls it the Tomalamo. A smaller Texas side defends it, outnumbered, and each state's flag hangs there waiting to get pelted. The tomatoes, by the way, come by the box from Pueblo. Well-ripened, which is a polite way of saying they are going to make a mess of you.
Safety glasses or approved eye protection are required. Not optional. And the kids 10 and under get their own separate battle, so nobody is launching a Pueblo tomato at a six-year-old at full speed.
If throwing produce is not your thing, there is a whole day around it. Salida Circus performing. Mini Blessings mini horses, which Hayley would abandon me for in about four seconds. Balloon animals, face painting, food trucks, live music. A beer garden with Bloody Marys, which feels thematically correct for a tomato war if you ask me. There is even a helicopter fly-in.
Event coordinator Seth Williams calls the whole thing a bucket-list experience. He also joked that the war still needs more Texans, which, I mean, that is the eternal problem here. Colorado always shows up ready to fight. Texas is a little harder to recruit.
Look, the Colorado versus Texas rivalry is a real thing and everybody in this state knows it. This event is where one of the most famous pieces of it came from. That bumper sticker you have seen a hundred times, "Keep Colorado beautiful: put a Texan on a bus." Credit goes right back to this tomato war. So the next time you see one stuck on a Subaru at a trailhead, now you know the lineage.
And here is the thing. The whole feud is mostly a bit. It is neighbors giving neighbors a hard time. The Texans who show up and get pelted are in on it. They drove up here on purpose to stand behind a straw fort and take tomatoes to the chest for charity. That is the joke and the point at the same time.
There is a real Colorado truth buried in the origin story, too. That Dallas woman thought the land below Mount Elbert was nothing. Empty. Worthless. Forty-plus years later, land in Chaffee County is anything but. Buena Vista and Salida have been two of the hottest small mountain markets in the state, and the open valley floor that used to be "nothing" is exactly what people are paying a premium to live near now. Funny how that works. The insult aged worse than the tomatoes.
So if you are anywhere near the Arkansas Valley this Saturday, this is your afternoon. Grab your eye protection, pick a side, and go get gloriously ruined for a good cause. Gates at 1. War at 2. Buckle up.
The only real question left is which flag you are aiming for.