Rock and Roll History Is for Sale at the Caribou Ranch and Studio Memorabilia Auction

Caribou Ranch belongs on a very short list of Colorado's musical treasures. Artists ranging from Michael Jackson to Frank Zappa to the Beach Boys worked at the recording studio north of Nederland. It hasn't been in use since 1985, and the family of former owner James Guercio is auctioning a...

By Kiernan Maletsky

January 20, 2015

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Caribou Ranch belongs on a very short list of Colorado's musical treasures. Artists ranging from Michael Jackson to Frank Zappa to the Beach Boys worked at the recording studio north of Nederland. It hasn't been in use since 1985, and the family of former owner James Guercio is auctioning a huge array of memorabilia from the facility. You can buy everything from the dishes Elton John is using in the photo above to a baby grand piano used by Carl Wilson on a couple of his solo albums.

The actual auction is this Saturday, January 24, but you can preview the selection online or in person at the Denver Design Center East Building from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day this week. Much more information is available through Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, which is running the sale.

See also: A Photo Tour of Caribou Ranch

You can find a full listing of the items available on the auction site, but here are a few highlights (basically at random -- depending on your taste any of this stuff could be of interest):

-The 1973 Hotel Registration Book, which includes the signatures of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Chicago, Dick Clark and Steve Martin.

-A full, 65-inch taxidermy mountain lion. (There's actually quite a bit of taxidermy available, if that's your thing.)

-A Burton acoustic guitar left at the ranch after Willie Nelson visited in the early '70s.

-Plenty of equipment from the recording studio, including amplifiers, keyboards, random percussion instruments and more.

-The jacket Michael Jackson is wearing in this photo:

There's so much more. Go look through the catalog, if nothing else, because it's fascinating.

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