We moved to the beautiful Sun Outdoors Rocky Mountain RV Park. This park is like brand new! Two restaurants, pool, 3 hot tubs, huge fitness center, event center, arcade & bowling alley, putting green, bocce ball, pickle ball, basketball, playgrounds, a lake, and hiking trails, several dog parks, concrete pad and parking, fire pit and clean picnic table, etc...I would highly recommend this park to anyone!
On the way...We passed through the Routt National Forest and the Arapaho National Forest.
We stopped here on the way to our RV Park. It was a mini Super Walmart inside! They had a little bit of everything.
The Story of Agnes Lowe
Just a few years after the park opened, college student Agnes Lowe wanted to get closer to Mother Earth. Lowe’s stated goal was to “escape for a time from the shams and artificialities of modern city life.” She planned on living in the park for a week, completely off grid. And without any modern supplies. As word of her brave endeavor spread, newspapers dubbed her the Modern Eve. Lowe spent a night at an inn and prepared to spend a week alone in the backcountry of Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park.
Outside the lodge that Sunday in August 1917, Lowe was greeted by Rocky Mountain luminaries, throngs of photographers and nearly 2,000 people. “The immense crowd — the equal of which never has been seen in this resort — cheered her wildly and shouted all manner of wishes for the success of her strange adventure,” wrote A.G. Birch, a journalist and publicist for The Denver Post.
On July 29,
1917, Agnes Lowe was introduced to the readers of the Denver Post Al Birch and
Enos Mills.
Dressed in a
primitive leopard skin robe and barefoot, she was sent off into Wild Basin by
Enos Mills and other park officials. People followed her adventure closely in
the Denver Post newspaper. There were reports of sightings and notes written on pieces of aspen bark in
charcoal that were discovered by tourists. “Eve” reported that she nearly
froze, but was able to build a fire.
After a week, she returned to civilization, sunburned, healthy, and a local celebrity. Awaiting her was a crowd as large as that on the first day, as well as a mail sack containing no fewer than 64 marriage proposals. “Eve” was treated to dinner at the Stanley Hotel, a dance at another lodge and a welcome ceremony that included the mayor of Estes Park. It sounds like an early version of one of those off the grid reality shows, right? Like Survivor or Naked and Afraid. However, suspicion spread like wildfire, and people began to see the forest through the trees.
Lowe gave some talks in Denver about her experience and penned her own account in the Post in which she bemoaned having to return to civilization. Then she disappeared from the public eye.
What do you think really happened? (See the end of this post)
In January
of 1915 President Woodrow Wilson signed the 360 square mile park
into law. The official dedication of Rocky Mountain National Park took place
later that year in Horseshoe Park on the afternoon of September 4, 1915. Since
then, the park has slowly grown to around 415 square miles through
property acquisitions.
Video (ABOVE) of Al's LuLu City, Colorado Headwaters and
We've followed the Colorado River across Arizona, Utah and Colorado so far. Maybe we should follow it through Nevada, California and Mexico to the Gulf of California now?
At the age
of 14, John Holzwarth left his home in Germany in 1879 and boarded a ship for
America. He was to become an apprentice to a baker in St. Louis, Missouri.
After being treated poorly he ran away and took several different jobs around
the West, including working in a saloon, on ranches, as a cook for sheep
herders, and even with the Texas Rangers. He homesteaded the Stillwater Ranch
near Granby in 1882, but with the silver panic of 1893, he left the ranch and
moved to Denver where he worked at the Tivoli Brewing Company as a bottling
foreman. The change of lifestyle proved to work in John’s favor; he met Sophia
Lebfromm, who also immigrated to America from Germany. They were married the
next year in Denver, growing their family and businesses. While operating a
saloon and boarding house they had five children: Christina, Julia, Maria Anna,
Sophia, and John Jr. (Johnnie). Julia, Sophia, and Johnnie survived into
adulthood. Their successful life would drastically change between 1914 and 1916
as World War I began and prohibition came to Colorado. Suddenly, the Holzwarth
family had to face the reality of a changing world.
Throughout
the 1920s the Holzwarth’s built additional cabins, sheds, and a barn. The
opening of Fall River Road brought visitors from the east side to the west side
of the Continental Divide, increasing the tourism in the area. After many
occasions of Papa’s friends staying at the lodge for free, Sophia, also known
as Mama, suggested they charge guests in a German-style inn on the property.
They began to change their home into a “dude ranch” which would become known as
the Holzwarth Trout Lodge. For $2 a day or $11 a week, visitors enjoyed the
splendor of Rocky Mountain National Park while staying in rustic mountain
cabins. On "Admiral Blue", the kitchen range that was purchased in
1923 for $40 and freighted to the ranch, Mama cooked three meals a day for
guests and served them in the dining room. A typical meal that cost $1.50
included freshly caught trout, soup stock, wilted dandelion greens (bacon,
vinegar, and sugar), deer roast, biscuits, and boiled potatoes. The Holzwarth
Trout Lodge was officially in business!
Built in
1917, the Mama Cabin has been well used and loved. Named after Sophia “Mama”
Holzwarth, the matriarch of the Holzwarth family, this is the oldest remaining cabins at this site.
The heritage of the Holzwarth family’s success, perseverance, and their beautiful dude ranch high in the Rocky Mountains is preserved through the stories and buildings of Holzwarth Historic Site.
The cabins had porches on the backside overlooking the Colorado River.
Al Birch, assistant city editor at the Denver Post,
carefully planned an elaborate scheme. The idea was to send an attractive young
woman into the wilderness to live off the land for a week. By doing this, Birch
could generate headlines for his newspaper by reporting on the young woman’s
progress in a series of stories. It would also give readers some comic relief
from the events in Europe leading up to World War I.
Birch discovered a young woman by the name of Hazel Eighmy (pronounced “Amy”) working as a receptionist at a Denver photographer’s studio. She assumed the fictitious role of Agnes Lowe, a student on vacation from the University of Michigan.
Of course, citizens were angry about the deceit, but did readers of the Denver Post increase? Yes. Did attendance at the Rocky Mountain Park increase? Yes. Visitation to Rocky Mountain did more than double in 1917. Did Birch accomplish his goal with his scheme? Yes.
HUGE COOKIES!
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2 comments:
I love my history lessons! Especially when they include historical building pictures. 😊
Such beautiful landscapes, too bad about the haziness of the fires. Is there no hunting of Elk or Moose this time of year? They look like they don't have a care in the world!
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