Have you ever driven on Mineral Avenue near Santa Fe and done a double take when you saw a street sign?
Does that really say Jackass Hill?
Yep, and there’s a story behind it. An urban legend, if you will.
“The story is mostly word of mouth, so it can’t be corroborated or contradicted,” said Terri White, curator of collections at the Littleton Museum.
“It started in World War I, right around 1917, 1918,” White said. “There was an enterprising man who decided he wanted to raise mules and sell them to the Army.”
According to White, that man allegedly pastured the mules along the side of the road. But the war ended before he could sell them to the Army.
As the story goes, he just abandoned them and left them to starve. Perhaps those mules are still buried here today.
Obviously, there is a difference between mules and jackasses. But it wouldn’t have made the story harder to tell.
“Jackass Hill was just kind of a nickname,” White said. “Then in 1985, there was a petition that went before city council and city council then officially named it Jackass Hill.”
So there you go. Jackass Hill was born.
