Rocket Drive-In
The Rocket Drive-In in Durango, Colorado, was a single-screen theater on U.S. Highway 160, about three miles south of town. It was built by the Scales family. Leonard Scales is credited as the builder, and a Cinema Treasures account names his brother Jack as the first manager. A Durango Herald-News announcement from March 1957 is the source for the opening date of March 10, 1957, with Audie Murphy in To Hell and Back on the bill. Fort Lewis College gives a March 1956 opening instead, so the exact first night is not settled.
The screen held about 300 cars. Fort Lewis College says the family ran it for 48 years across three generations, and that an early double feature cost adults 50 cents while children under 12 got in free. The snack bar sold cheeseburgers, popcorn and candy. By 2004 it was one of about a dozen drive-in screens still operating in Colorado.
The Rocket closed in October 2004. The 10-acre property had been listed for sale, and the theater was torn down, with the site later redeveloped as the Rocket Pointe Apartments, which opened in early 2019. The neon Rocket sign was saved and restored. It now hangs in the Rocket Grill in the Fort Lewis College Student Union.
