COLORADO -- FLUSH WITH OUTHOUSES by Pam North A further exploration of Colorado's outhouses yields more fascinating privies. Extra-tall ones can be seen in Wapiti; Camp Cree, near Monarch Pass, has an outhouse constructed of massive logs. In Victor, an elaborate outhouse, with center stairs leading to a small porch, is decorated with pressed tin siding, and has tiny adjacent rooms for coal and firewood storage. The Hartsel schoolhouse privy has an unusual triangular window in its door, and a Breckenridge outhouse has a Dutch door. Fairplay has one that leans at a dramatic angle. An architect-designed outhouse in Fulford has a forest-facing door with a periscope aimed toward the house and the town's main street. A disadvantage of this one is that the occupant is invisible from the eyes of town residents only when the interior is relatively dark; the sun at high noon can make him a spectator sport. One of the most interesting historical outhouses is the two-story version behind the Masonic Hall in Crested Butte. The two levels are offset from each other, putting the "business" sides back-to-back so that one pit can service both levels. Winter snowdrifts prevent access to the lower section for several months of the year, but this privy is still functional. Another smaller two-story outhouse in the town also still exists, and there may have been others as well. Besides the structures themselves, outhouses present themselves in fun themes for a tour and a race in Colorado. Funding for the Jackson County Library is the focus for a lively celebration in Walden. A tour of local barns and outhouses is followed by a barbeque and live music by an all-female, seven-piece jug band. Songs about outhouses and chamber pots are featured, and one of the musical instruments is a gilded toilet seat with string-suspended tuned washers that create a windchime sound. One stop in the tour is a pair of oversize outhouses, rescued from an area business, that have interiors decorated with items such as a bed, stove and a stuffed moose. The Friends of the Jackson County Library even issued a booklet called "From the Throne: Outhouse Stories of North Park" as an additional fundraiser. One of the highlights of Leadville's Boom Days is an event called "The Mosey" where familes stroll down the main street in 19th-century-period clothing, followed by an outhouse race. Two teams,each using the same caster-equipped outhouse (made street-legal with a Colorado license plate), compete. One team member must ride inside the outhouse, and two team members pull the structure using ropes while another two push. When the starting gun fires, the outhouse is propelled down the street, maneuvered around a set of cones, and returned to the start/finish line. An earlier event of the day, a 21-mile-long burro race that began on the same street, often has left a few souvenirs that shouldn't be stepped in, adding a little tricky footing to the outhouse race. Guffey, a small town that defied tradition by electing as its mayor a golden retriever (which was defeated in the next election by a black cat), has a local resident who builds imaginative outhouses. Bill Soux enjoys incorporating amusing touches such as a large crack in the boards of the partition between the men's and women's sides of one "his-and hers" outhouse; the crack, while seeming to be a perfect space for a secret peep into the women's side, ends up mirroring only the would-be voyeur's own face. Soux also likes using polished horseshoes for seat brackets and toilet paper holders. While his outhouses have a rustic appearance,they meet sanitary specifications, and are clean and odor-free. The outhouse - from primitive to elaborate, historic to recreated, it's an American institution that should be preserved. Resource: Out the Back, Down the Path, by Kenneth Jessen. Caption for accompanying photograph: Crested Butte has a still-functioning two-story outhouse.