Fear and Loathing: Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson's farm to be museum

Wild and wacky gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thomson will live on in a soon-to-be-museum at his Colorado farm.

The rooms at the Owl Farm in Woody Creek are just the way Thompson left them before he killed himself with one of the guns he loved so well. The rooms look as if he just went into town to grab a six-pack of beer.

The legendary drug-taker and father of Gonzo journalism who penned often-crazed but insightful articles, many for the Rolling Stone, on the Hells Angels, presidential campaigns and the Kentucky Derby lived at the farm from 1969 until his death in 2005. His widow, Anita Thompson, still lives there and has been working for years to raise funds to turn the site into a museum, reports the Cannabist.

Honouring the king of Gonzo's legacy

"Our work's focus is to promote political activism, American literature and journalism through honouring Hunter's legacy," said Thompson, who has no definite date yet for the museum opening. "We also have an endowment to a few universities to support young writers and activists who want to change and take control of their environment."

She also runs The Gonzo Foundation, where she hosts writing workshops and fundraising events at the Woody Creek Community Center next door to what was Hunter's favourite watering hole, the Woody Creek Tavern, which has also become a kind of shrine to Thompson and magnet for his fans.

One friend hanging out recently at the bar remembered Thompson storming through the tavern doors one night, levelling a gun at the petrified bartender and pulling the trigger. Fortunately, he was shooting blanks, the pal, Mike, tells the Los Angeles Times. Another night Thompson emptied the place by igniting a smoke bomb.

When the journalist died, his ashes were blasted from a cannon.

"That's why the fishing was so good in the river afterwards," Mike said.