New management will pull an all-nighter to make sure Royal Gorge opens Sunday on time

CAÑON CITY — When the Royal Gorge Bridge & Park closes at 5 p.m. Saturday, one operating company will move out, and at 12:01 a.m. Sunday another will move in after a rocky transition that jeopardizes the opening of the 365-day-a-year park later that morning.

As negotiations continued late in the week between the two companies and the city, which owns the park and nets about $3 million a year from it for its coffers, nobody was quite sure what the overnight transition might look like — rows of trucks hauling furniture and computers and T-shirts in and out? — or they weren’t talking.

Employees, too, were anxious as they switched bosses because they weren’t allowed to have direct contact with their new employer, according to one employee. They got offer letters and could respond in writing but no phone calls or personal contact.

Indeed, there was little cooperation between the parties as they fought over intellectual property, raced to file trademarks on long-established park names, and denied access to the incoming operator in the weeks leading up to the transition.

The Royal Gorge Company of Colorado, the long-time park operator that lost its bid to continue running the park for the city, in August demanded that Cañon City pay $500,000 for intellectual property including the park name, internet domain names and social media accounts associated with the tourist attraction.

There’s also a dispute over who will pay for needed maintenance in the park, particularly repairs to the Royal Rush Skycoaster, which was shut down in September after an inspection. The disputes have spread to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, where competing applications to trademark Royal Gorge Bridge & Park are pending.

Negotiations were ongoing as of Thursday, City Manager Ryan Stevens said.

While he declined to say much about the negotiations, Stevens expressed confidence in the plan the new operator, CMBH Partners LLC, has to keep the park running with as little — “if any” — down time as possible.

The players include the city administration, City Council and legal team, the Royal Gorge Company of Colorado, formed in 1966, and the newly formed CMBH Partners, started by a former Royal Gorge Company employee.  

At an Oct. 19 City Council meeting, several members of the public spoke about the transition and questioned why a management consultant was not brought in to help with such a significant and complex change.

Brent Hargrave of CMBH also spoke briefly during the meeting, saying his company would get the park open as soon as possible but didn’t rule out a closure of a week or two. Speaking to a handful of residents after the meeting, he said it was frustrating that his company could not get access to the site before the start of its contract.

In an email Thursday, Hargrave said GMBH’s goal is to open the park Sunday, but said it had developed several contingency plans. Hargrave was the chief operating officer for the Royal Gorge Company until April 2025, when he left to start his own company.

“I’m very familiar with the park and its operations and we’re excited about the opportunity to lead it into its next chapter,” he said in the email.

Stevens confirmed that the Royal Gorge Company of Colorado has exclusive use of the park until its contract expires at midnight Saturday and does not have to grant access. Company president Michael Smith did not return email and voicemail requests for comment.

“The age of the (old) contract and how technology has evolved over the years does have an impact on the negotiations,” Stevens said in an interview. “And we have rectified that in the new contract.”

The park came first

More than 5,000 acres of land in and around the Royal Gorge was deeded by Congress to Cãnon City in 1906 — the land grant bill was signed by President Theodore Roosevelt. The park is about 360 acres.

In 1929, the city leased a portion of the land to Texan Lon Piper to build a suspension bridge across the gorge, nearly 1,000 feet above the Arkansas River. It was completed in December 1929 and its life as a tourist attraction began. 

But the Great Depression and World War II cut into tourism, and Piper sold the bridge franchise to Clint Murchison, whose family created the company that has operated it ever since. Lease agreements were turned into a more formal contract in 1969, after the city solicited bids to operate the park and bridge in 1967.

The city faced big monetary claim in 1999 after it rejected a bid from William Fehr, a gravel pit operator who bought the railroad tracks running through the gorge. 

Railroads have “air rights” above their tracks, and that includes the bridge. The city had a deal dating to 1929 that paid railroad companies $200 per year to allow the bridge above the tracks, according to a 1999 Westword article.

When Fehr’s bid to take over the park concessions was ignored, he increased the air rights fee to $750,000 a year. The city sought legal remedies and ended up paying Fehr $99,000 for a permanent easement. 

Meanwhile, there were renewals and amendments to the concession contract over the years, but none addressed the technology advancements of the last couple of decades, Stevens said.

The Royal Gorge Company of Colorado maintained and improved the park over the years and rebuilt most of the park facilities after the June 2013 fire destroyed 48 of 52 structures. There was minimal damage to the bridge. The park was closed for a little over a year after the fire.

Trademark war

The Royal Gorge Company dubbed the bridge “America’s Bridge” in logos first appearing in 2018, and subsequently trademarked the name in 2019. It renewed the trademark in December 2025 — a few months after it lost its bid to continue as the park operator. 

In June, it tried to trademark “Royal Gorge Bridge” but that has been preliminarily  rejected by the U.S. Trademark office because it is a geographical location. 

It also filed an application to trademark the Royal Gorge Bridge & Park name as used on its website. That application, which says the first use was “as early as” Nov. 18, 2003, is pending.

The city filed a trademark application Oct. 14 for the name Royal Gorge Bridge & Park, claiming it was first used by the city as early as 1999. It paid $350 for the application, which is pending.

Most of the transition disputes and negotiations have played out behind closed doors, but some details emerged in letters from the two companies to city officials that were released under an open records request by The Sun.

On Oct. 8, Hargrave sent a letter to council, the mayor and Stevens saying he had serious concerns about the transition and did not believe the city was addressing them appropriately.

In an Oct. 9 letter, Smith, Royal Gorge Company president, outlined the offers he made to the city in August and reiterating the price of “$500,000, adjusted by an agreed amount for any repairs that remain incomplete as the end of the lease” for intellectual property.

Any payment must be approved by the City Council, which held an executive session Monday to discuss legal matters regarding the transition. The agenda for Monday’s council meeting has not been posted.

While Hargrave said the Royal Gorge Company bore responsibility for many of the issues, including a backlog maintenance and repairs, he said the city had not addressed the issues with urgency or effectiveness.

“CMBH has worked diligently to fulfill its responsibilities,” he wrote. “We have committed substantial financial resources, engaged vendors, secured operational systems, begun transitioning employees, and undertaken the considerable work necessary to assume operations on November 1.”

Hargrave said he was particularly concerned about the structural deficiencies discovered in the Skycoaster foundation. The ride, described as the scariest in the park, was shut down Sept. 8 after an inspection that was required as part of the transition. It needs foundation work, but the work has not started, Stevens said.

Up to 15,000 people a year ride the Skycoaster at $44 a pop, according to a park spokesperson.

Hargrave said in his letter that a yearlong closure would mean the loss of $600,000 in revenue.

Stevens said it was unclear how long the repairs, which mostly involved structural concrete work, would take and it would depend on whether they are able to be done before winter weather sets in.

Still, he’s optimistic that the issues will be resolved and that within a few months CMBH will have the park running smoothly and moving forward with new ideas. 

The new 25-year lease agreement, with the option for two 10-year extensions, calls for CMBH to make $3 million in capital improvements within 10 years.