Editing Fairplay, Colorado (section)

==Arts and culture==
[[File:NMHFM-361.gif|thumb|left|Fairplay dredge, 1940s, the largest [[gold dredge]] in Colorado]]

=== Burro Days ===
The Burro Days festival is held on the last weekend of July.<ref>{{cite web|title=Burro Days|url=http://www.burrodays.com/index.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060707035310/http://www.burrodays.com/index.htm|url-status=usurped|archive-date=July 7, 2006|access-date=June 2, 2011}}</ref>  The event celebrates the town's mining heritage. The main feature of the festival is a 29-mile (46.7&nbsp;km) burro race over rough terrain and approximately 3,000-ft (914 m) elevation gain from downtown Fairplay to the 13,185-ft (4019 m) summit of [[Mosquito Pass]]. Teams consist of one person and one [[Donkey|burro]].  The race takes about five hours to complete; first prize is $1,000. Previously, the first prize included an ounce of gold. There are several other [[burro racing|burro races]] in Colorado; the most notable takes place in [[Leadville, Colorado|Leadville]].

The Fairplay event is the World Championship of Burro Racing, an [[ultra-marathon]] and the longest burro race in the state.<ref>{{cite web|title=Western Pack Burro Ass-ociation|url=http://www.packburroracing.com/#RULES|access-date=June 2, 2011}}</ref>  For many years (in the 1960s and early 1970s) the Burro race took place from Leadville to Fairplay, or vice versa, crossing over Mosquito Pass. This followed the route that Father [[John Lewis Dyer]] of the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]] used for [[Circuit rider (religious)|circuit riding]] and for carrying mail. With time, the rivalry between the two cities ended this cooperative endeavor.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}