The cannon at Smuggler Mine is prepared to be fired on July 4, 2016.

Aspen Times File

Each year in memory of a miner past, a large boom comes from Smuggler Mountain and echoes down the valley to start the Fourth of July. You’ll know when it’s 6 a.m.

A tradition started by miner Stefan Albouy and carried on in his memory, Jay Parker is planning to shoot off the four-barrel steel cannon, perhaps more than once.

Aspen Times reader Denice Volk wrote a poem that encompasses Stephan Albouy’s memory:

Aspen’s miner remembered

His fire burned within

Mining his DNA

He became Aspen’s folklore

The EPA and city broke his spirit and tore

Until Stephan Albouy was no more

We hear him as the dynamite drops

Every July 4th six am from the smuggler hilltops