Stephen King's Colorado connections

The “king” of horror - Stephen King - based his parasocial thriller novel Misery in Colorado. Annie Wilkes lives in the fictional mountain town of “Silver Creek” in the novel (and stage play, coming to the Center in September!) 

Though often associated with his home state of Maine, King has a long history with Colorado - particularly Boulder. He lived there in 1974, and that brief residency heavily influenced his writing and the settings for many of his famous stories. The novels The Shining, The Stand, Misery and The Colorado Kid all have plots taking place in our state.

How many of these Colorado King references did you know?

• Estes Park: King and his wife Tabitha stayed at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park in October 1974, right before the hotel closed up for the winter. They stayed in room 217 - which plays a pivotal role in the terrifying tale. He was inspired by the empty hallways and dining rooms, remote location and a terrifying nightmare about his son running through the hotel - and went on to write The Shining.
• Today, you can go on a Stephen King tour at the Stanley (though none of the scenes in Stanley Kubrick’s movie were actually filmed there). 
• One of the final scenes in the sequel novel Doctor Sleep takes place in the ruins of the Overlook Hotel - published 36 years after The Shining.

• Boulder, Colorado: Boulder gets mentioned a lot in King tales, because his family lived on 42nd Street in South Boulder in ‘74. He even applied to be a film critic at the Boulder Daily Camera (which didn’t have openings at the time). In The Stand, Boulder becomes the sanctuary city for survivors of the “Captain Trips” superplague. 
• The kernels of the terrifying tale IT also began in Boulder in the 70's. King was walking alone across an old wooden bridge which made him recall the story of "Three Billy Goats Gruff", and the idea of transplanting the tale's scenario into a real-life context inspired him.

• Mountain towns: Sinister superfan Annie Wilkes rescues Paul Sheldon from a mountain car crash and brings him to the fictional town of “Silver Creek” in the novel Misery. Though the town itself is imaginary, you can picture Paul driving his car off of I-70 in a winter blizzard easily.