The Skull and Wings Logo
It's common knowledge that every Harley-Davidson dealership has a shop logo, a design that says something about the dealership and which sets it apart from every other dealership in the world.
Unlike most dealerships, Rocky Mountain Harley-Davidson has two logos: the classic Skull and Wings logo and the more modern Mountainscape logo. How Rocky Mountain Harley-Davidson came to have two logos is a strange tale filled with greed and lust and murder. Okay, okay, that last part isn't true, but it is a strange story just the same.
In 1983, only two short years after Harley-Davidson management bought the company back from AMF, corporate officials began to stress the need to have conservative dealership logos so as to appeal to a larger number of buyers, namely people who had been alienated by the "outlaw biker" stereotype. Since Rocky Mountain Harley-Davidson's original logo can hardly be called conservative, Harley-Davidson corporate began to push the idea that perhaps this original logo should be retired.
Fight the Power
Unwilling to give up the Skull and Wings logo, and in order to comply with the parent company's wishes, 1983 saw the introduction of Rocky Mountain Harley-Davidson's second official logo and first conservative logo. This logo was redesigned in 1997 to incorporate more of the Colorado skyline and again in 2000 to commemorate the opening of our new dealership.
In 2005, the Skull and Wings design was also incorporated into the logo for our satellite store in Castle Rock.
Although Harley-Davidson has officially frowned upon our classic Skull and Wings logo for years, we have been allowed to keep using it due to the fact that it has been our logo for more than 25 years and because it is one of the most popular and widely recognized dealership logos of all time.
Rocky Mountain Harley-Davidson is currently one of only four dealerships in the world with a skull in their logo, and it is the only dealership with a human skull in its logo (the other three dealerships having animal skulls as the focal point).
Ironically, despite Harley-Davidson's official disapproval of our Skull and Wings logo, it has recently begun offering clothing and accessories with human skulls on them, some of which are remarkably similar to our Skull and Wings logo. It's true what they say … imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
History … It’s Not Just For Boring People Anymore
The history of the skull and wings design is much, much older than our use of it in our shop logo. The design itself dates back to at least the Puritanical period in American history (about 1690). The design was originally used on tombstones and was referred to as the "death's head". In these early carvings, the skull is often grinning, an indication that death is the release from all earthly troubles and the passing on to a better place. The skull and wings was a symbol of good luck. Today, for thousands of bikers around the world, the skull and wings is still a symbol of good luck and happy journeys.
If you would like to learn more about the history of the skull and wings design (how diabolical, a history lesson on a Harley-Davidson site!), the following links provide lots of useful information and interesting photographs: Old Burial Hill.org, National Public Radio, Stones That Speak, OldBones.net, The Plymouth Colony Archive Project, West Tisbury Village Cemetary. If you'd like, you can even download a copy of our skull and wings logo for use as a desktop background on your own computer.