The Shrine of the Miracle Rose Lady

This one's an oddity for certain. I've driven past the Shrine of the Miracle Rose Lady a thousand times (in fact, I used to work in this neighborhood), and yet my curiosity was never piqued enough to investigate. Then last month Pat and I took a little trip to Kansas and Oklahoma, and in planning our trip we consulted Roadside America, a site devoted to the oddities dotting the landscape of the United States. We're especially fascinated by muffler men, so we always try to work a muffler man sighting into any road trips we might be taking. I've never bothered to look into roadside oddities around Colorado Springs though, so I idly decided to just type it in to roadsideamerica.com and see what came up. Lo and behold, the Shrine of the Miracle Rose Lady popped up! I learned a little about it from the site:  apparently it came about when a lady named Rose Arveson died in 1963, and six roses placed on her casket withered and then miraculously came back to life. Her daughters, believing her to be a saint, created a shrine that become somewhat of a pilgrimage for the faithful.

I didn't enter the premises to photograph the actual shrine -- I just parked on the road and shot a picture of this statue from outside the arched gate. The place is rather run down and sad now, but I suppose that just adds to the mystique.

For more about the Shrine of the Miracle Rose Lady, check out Bill Vogrin's post about in on his popular Side Streets blog:  http://www.gazette.com/articles/vogrin-94323-gazette-colorado.html.

January 29, 2013 update:  Sad and disturbing news about the shrine.  Read about it here:  http://www.gazette.com/articles/city-150309-neighbor-condemned.html