Elk are known to be social animals. They live in herds for much of the year. During spring, summer, and winter, elk generally split into separate herds. Cows and calves, and sometimes adolescent bulls, make up one herd. Mature bulls (males) make up the second herd.

Elk are of ecological importance, providing indicators of how well habitats function via herbivory and seed dispersal, creating wallows, and serving as prey and carrion for predator wildlife species.

In the Rocky Mountains, it’s common to see elk herds grazing and traveling across mountain towns, at state parks, and sometimes, in cities.

But on New Year’s Eve, a different kind of Elk took central stage in Central City.

On Sunday, December 31, 2023, New Year’s Eve festivities took over the Central City Elks home base.

By 7:30 p.m., Elks and their supporters began arriving for a night of live music, party favors, laughs, drinks, community chatter, and memories. Local business owners, families, friends, and neighbors united to welcome 2024.

The theme for the evening? The Roaring Twenties or come as you’d like. This Jazz Age was a decade of prosperity and dissipation, filled with jazz bands, bootleggers, raccoon coats, bathtub gin, flappers, flagpole sitters, bootleggers, and marathon dancers, and they all showed up on Sunday night at the Elks Lodge in Central City.

The Central City Elks may not provide ecological indicators needed for environmental research, but they do a great deal to help their community, including assisting in developing programs serving local youth, veterans, and others in need.

The Elks also know how to gather their community and host a party. Happy New Year, Elks!

The Central City Elks Lodge No. 557 is located at 113 Main Street, Central City. You can find them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ELK557/, or you can call them at 303-582-5181.