La Junta

Kenneth Elton "Ken" Kesey was an American author, best known for his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , and as a counter-cultural figure who... considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. "I was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a hippie," Kesey said in a 1999 interview with Robert K. Elder. Ken Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado, to dairy farmers Frederick A. Kesey and Geneva Smith. In 1946, the family moved to Springfield, Oregon. Kesey was a champion wrestler in both high school and college in the 174 pound weight division, and he almost qualified to be on the Olympic team until a serious shoulder injury stopped his wrestling career. He graduated from Springfield High School in 1953. An avid reader and filmgoer, the young Kesey took John Wayne, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Zane Grey as his models and toyed with magic, ventriloquism, and hypnotism. In 1956, while attending college at the University of Oregon in neighboring Eugene, Kesey eloped with his high-school sweetheart, Norma "Faye" Haxby, whom he had met in seventh grade.
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The State of Colorado is a state in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States of America. Colorado may also be considered to be a part of the Mountain, Southwestern, Midwestern, and Central regions of the United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the state population was 4,753,377 in 2006, a 10.49% increase since U.S. Census 2000. Denver is the capital and the most populous city of Colorado. Citizens of Colorado are known as Coloradans.