<br />6 Fort Collins Coloradoan
<br />
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<br />
<br />August 1976
<br />
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<br />
<br />Big Thompson Canyon more
<br />than passageway to Estes Park
<br />
<br />Big 1llOmpson Canyon - untll the night
<br />Of July 31, 1976 - was a scenic, often rock.
<br />walled route which thousands of
<br />Cbloradans and toortsts traveled each
<br />summer to the mountain re~rt of Estes
<br />Park.
<br />The canyon, of course, has been much
<br />more than a spectacular passageway to
<br />Estes Park. It has been dotted with homes
<br />some of them sturdy, winterized bulldlnp
<br />and some merely cabtns for weekend use.
<br />Many people have fished In the sparkling
<br />waters of the Big Thompson River. Places
<br />of business aJong the canyon have offered
<br />food, lodglng and souvenirs.
<br />
<br />II some buildings were too close to the
<br />river, 'owners probably thought seeing and
<br />hearing the rushing water was worth the
<br />risk of flooding.
<br />No story of the river is complete without
<br />a mention of the Colorado-Blg Thompson
<br />Project, which brings water for power and
<br />irrigation from the Western to the Eastern
<br />Slope. (Another article in this ectitlon gives
<br />detailed facts about the project.) Bob
<br />Berling, project manager for the Bureau of
<br />Reclamation at Loveland, said plans began
<br />in the late 1930s and construction started in
<br />the 1940s. The first water diversion came at
<br />about the end of World War II.
<br />
<br />nm LAST minor parts of the project
<br />were flnished about 1967 or 1958 Berling
<br />said. Even with the building of Olympus
<br />Dam at Estes Park and a diversion dam at
<br />the Narrows, the course of the Big
<br />Thompson River was not reaJly changed,
<br />he said. The total cost of the Colorado-Big
<br />Thompson Project was $162 million.
<br />The road aJong the Big Thompson River
<br />- U.S. Highway 34 - was an excellent two-
<br />Jane paved highway with a number of
<br />three-lane passing sections.
<br />But the road was not aJways an excellent
<br />two or three-lane highway.
<br />
<br />Ruth Stauffer says in her book, This Was
<br />Estes Park, "a hundrro years ago there
<br />was no road up the Big 'Thompson Canyon.
<br />Not unW 1903 was a track blasted through
<br />the Narrows. There was, however, a trail
<br />which later became a road for the early'
<br />homesteaders from Loveland to Estes Park
<br />by way of Rattlesnake Park. ThIs rough
<br />and rugged route lay about four mlles SOllth
<br />of the Big Thompson. It skirted Bald
<br />Mountain and Pole Hill and then descended
<br />to the Park by the vaJley now knoYm as the
<br />Crocker Ranch."
<br />Ruth Stauffer, a native of this state, 15 a
<br />retired college and university EngUsh
<br />teacher. Her 1976 paperback book is
<br />available from the Estes Park Area
<br />Historical Museum (and probably
<br />elsewhere ).
<br />A toll road to Estes Park from Lyons had
<br />been opened in 18715 and 15 described by Ms.
<br />Stauffer as the first road to the park.
<br />
<br />A FORT COLLINS resident who
<br />remembers traveling up the Big Thompson
<br />Canyon road the year after It was opened Is
<br />Gertrude Randleman of 1090 Elizabeth
<br />Street. It isn't strange that the outing
<br />stands out in her mind. The trip was made
<br />with a horse and buggy a.'ld took two days.
<br />Mrs. Randlemansald, "When we went up
<br />In 1904 we stayed overnight at the Forks
<br />Hotel at the present Drake. I remember
<br />there were mostly corduroy bridges with
<br />poles that rattled and the horses hated
<br />them. From the hotel, we went up the North
<br />Fork (Devil's Gulch Road) to the Lester
<br />Hotel, which was on a plateau above what
<br />beeame Glen Haven. The Lester Hotel
<br />. bumed after a few years."
<br />From the hotel, Mrs. Randleman
<br />recalled, travelers went over a hl11 and
<br />were in Estes Park. However, the hill
<br />didn't have the switchbacks that the later
<br />[)evil's Gulch Road has had. After two
<br />nlghts at the Lester, the party made the
<br />trip home entirely by the Big Thompson
<br />road and again broke the journey with a
<br />night at tile Forks.
<br />She added that the Forks, or Drake, Hotel
<br />was located against a hill with Ole road
<br />between It and the river. The hotel included
<br />a store, as a place of lodglng in a mountain
<br />canyon often does.
<br />Mrs. Randleman remembers the Hal!.
<br />way House, a dance hall in the canyon
<br />below the Forks Hotel. She had meals there '
<br />sometimes.
<br />
<br />AN01HER PERSON who mentioned tile
<br />Halfway House was Martha Trimble of 1909
<br />Stover Street. a professor of English at
<br />Q:llorado State University. As a girl at Fort
<br />Q:llllns High School, she looked forward to
<br />attencting dances at the hall after she en.
<br />tered college, because fraternities and
<br />sororities held some of their parties at the
<br />popular Haftway House. However, she said
<br />it burned in the early 1930s and she never
<br />got there.
<br />Mrs. Randleman spoke about Grandpa's
<br />and Grandma's Retreat (a cottage and
<br />outhouse) in the canyon. The property
<br />belonged to the late Olive Ludlow and
<br />earlier to her parents.
<br />Mrs. Randleman said, "\\'hen the fancy,
<br />paved road was bullt, that bend in the high-
<br />way was cut off, but they left an access
<br />road to the cottage. It was there before the
<br />recent flood; I don't know if It Is there
<br />now."
<br />She added, "There weren't very many
<br />cottages in the earUer days when I went UP
<br />
<br />Sidelights
<br />
<br />By Betty
<br />Woodworth
<br />
<br />
<br />ONE PERSON who recaJls the Big
<br />Thompson Road as It was before It was
<br />paved or widened 15 Catherine Kob of 201
<br />South Meldrum Street. She saId, "I cer-
<br />tainly can remember when you had to turn
<br />out to let a car going the other direction go
<br />past. In those days - probably 1918 or 1920
<br />- It was a one.car road with turnouts and
<br />you had to toot the horn at blind corners.
<br />You needed someone to watch lor on.
<br />coming cars."
<br />She added, "Rock slides used to come
<br />down after heavy rains. I remember the
<br />late Willard M. Bermett saying, 'I don't
<br />know just what you'd do If you saw a big
<br />rock coming.' "
<br />
<br />Another woman who has memories of
<br />travel over the Big 1llompson Road in the
<br />early part of th1s century is Mrs. Howard
<br />G. Colwell of Loveland. She has a cabin on
<br />the North Fork near Drake wtrlch was bullt
<br />in 1909 by her parents, D. T. and Lillian B.
<br />Pulliam. They had bought two acres in 1908
<br />overlooking the North Fork where It joins
<br />the Big 'Thompson. Because the Pulllams
<br />had found a big log washed onto the flat
<br />land where they originally planned to build
<br />their cottage, North Pines, they picked a
<br />hill for the site of the cabin. The hillside
<br />cabin w~ not damaged in the recent flood.
<br />THE FAMILY'S first car was a Reo and
<br />when they drove it up the canyon from
<br />Loveland, there were turnouts to allow cars
<br />going in opposite directions to pass. Mrs.
<br />Colwell said horses always had the inside
<br />right of way, with cars relegated to the
<br />outside of the road.
<br />Mrs. Colwell said, "When we were
<br />children, we had to waJk ahead to warn
<br />people with horse-drawn vetrlcles that a car
<br />was coming."
<br />Another Loveland woman. Mrs. J. R.
<br />Miner, said the Big Thompson road had
<br />only a gravel surface until a paved road
<br />was built in the 1930s. Her Blg Thompson
<br />memories go back many years because her
<br />father, Frend Neville, bought Sylvandale
<br />Ranch in 1916 from a Denver lawyer, who,
<br />had nam~ the property. Neville turned It
<br />into a dude ranch.
<br />
<br />A story told by Kathryn Shipley of 1500
<br />West Oak Street about a 1921 or '22 visit by
<br />Nebraska relatives gives some Idea ot the
<br />impression out-of.state people had of Big
<br />Thompson Canyon. When one of the visitors
<br />didn't return promptly from a hike, his
<br />family stopped someone coming do'W1l the
<br />canyon and asked the driver to find out
<br />whether bears had gotten thehlker.
<br />ActuaJly, Mrs. Shipley said, there were
<br />quite a few bears in the canyon area until
<br />dynamJting was started to w1{\en tile road.
<br />Then the bears took off for safer - or
<br />anyway quieter - country.
<br />
<br />MOST ESTIMA1ES of canyon residents
<br />In the past are not spec1flc. Warren
<br />Wolaver, a natlve of Loveland who has
<br />been a lArlmerCounty commtssloner since
<br />1961, said the Big Thompson Canyon was
<br />pretty well developed in the'l920s with IIttie
<br />development during the depression years
<br />of the '308.
<br />A Big Thompson Canyon residents'
<br />association wtrlch met In 1971i to protest
<br />trash at plcrtlc sites along U.S. 34 and in the
<br />river represented about 60 families, a May
<br />12, 19715, O:lloradoan article said. The
<br />association members said then that there
<br />were over 1M families in the canyon.
<br />Raymon Hayden of Johnstown, whose
<br />Big 1bUmpson property, the Flying Y, was
<br />largely destroyed in the July 31 flood. had
<br />additional information about the canyon in
<br />thel93Oll.
<br />He said, "The Big ThompllOn Canyon
<br />Association was organized about 1936, the
<br />same year the present highway went
<br />through. TIle association met first by
<br />candlelight or lampl1ght in the old Forks
<br />Hotel (the Drake in recent years). 'The
<br />association Is now more a social
<br />organization, wtrlch includes people outside
<br />the canyon who want to join, but at first It
<br />was a group of business people of the
<br />canyon. The canyon got electricity a few
<br />years after the .11ght plant went In in
<br />Loveland, probably in the late 19308. Two
<br />l1ght plants at the Ha~en property had
<br />been nm by gasoline and had storage
<br />batteries.
<br />
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<br />
<br />Unpaved Big Thompson Canvpn Road at start of Narrows, late 19205
<br />
<br />Reminder of the past
<br />
<br />The road being conslnicted
<br />In Big Thompson Canyon to
<br />temporarily replace the one
<br />washed out In the July 31
<br />flood may remind old. timers
<br />of the dirt road that ran
<br />through the canyon In the
<br />first two decades of this
<br />century.
<br />
<br />Bert Nelson of 1~ North
<br />Taft HIll Road has loaned the
<br />Coloradoan the ac.
<br />companying picture of the
<br />
<br />.
<br />"There was a wreck once in
<br />awhile when someone forgot
<br />tohonk,"beadded.
<br />
<br />the canyon, but several were pretty close to
<br />the road (and the river). You could rent
<br />cabins in the Estes area, at course, and I
<br />think maybe there were a few aJong the
<br />canyon that you could rent. Stanley
<br />Steamers, owned by the Stanley Hotel
<br />people, took any passengers who wanted to
<br />ride up the canyon, as I remember. I rode
<br />lnthesteamers." .
<br />For a short time there was talk of electric
<br />railroad service in Big Thompson Canyon.
<br />
<br />AN ARTICLE in the Jan. 13, 1904, Weekly
<br />O>urIer said, "Denver capltaUsts will
<br />spend about $300,000 In the construction of
<br />an electric railway between Loveland and
<br />Estes Park, says the Denver Times."
<br />However, the horse and automobile road
<br />left lIttle room for raiJroad tracks and the
<br />project was dropped.
<br />
<br />Ansel Watrous, whose H1swlYof Larimer
<br />Cbunty was published in 1911, refers to the
<br />steam-powered automobiles in his book. He
<br />wrote, "the populatlon of Estes Park
<br />gradually increased until 1903, when the
<br />Big Thompson Canyon Road from
<br />Loveland to the Park was completed. . .A
<br />daily line of automobile steamers, carrying
<br />the U.S. mall, now COMect Loveland, the
<br />nearest point on the Colorado and Southern
<br />(Railroad) with Estes Park and make the
<br />roo in 2~ hours."
<br />
<br />Watrous said that 173 votes were cast in
<br />the Park in the presidential election of 1908
<br />and more than 4,(0) visitors spent from a
<br />few weeks to a few months there during the
<br />summer of 1909.
<br />A stage route had been establ1shed
<br />between the Park and Longmont in 1874,
<br />according to Watrous. Fourteen years
<br />earlier, Joel Estes and his family had
<br />become the first white settlers in what was
<br />to become Estes Park. As more people
<br />began settling in the Park, it was only a
<br />question of time before a road would be
<br />bunt up Big Thompson Canyon.
<br />Isabella A. Bird. an Englishwoman who
<br />recorded her impressions of the Estes
<br />Park area In A Lady's We in the Rocky
<br />Mountams. commented on the beauties of
<br />the Big 'Thompson in 1873. A new edition of
<br />the adventurous Miss 8lrd's book was
<br />copyrighted In 1960 and in 1973 a second
<br />printing of that edltion was made.
<br />There are plenty of narrow backroads In
<br />the mountains today, but It's hard for those
<br />who travel only the broad superhighways to
<br />realize the challenge of driving on the early
<br />mountain roads.
<br />
<br />Big 1lIompson Road in the
<br />late 19205 at the start of the
<br />Narrows.
<br />Nelson, who then lived on a
<br />farm south of Hygiene,
<br />remembers travellnj" the
<br />early canyon road. He said
<br />the single-car road with
<br />tumouts was \l.1dened In the
<br />late 1930s. In the 19208, he
<br />said, travelers had to honk
<br />car horns to navtgate turns
<br />safely.
<br />
<br />AccordIng to his
<br />recollections, paving was
<br />started wh~n the road waa
<br />widened. He remembers the
<br />old. road as being at the
<br />river's edge. When the road
<br />was widened, many of the
<br />sharp curves were
<br />elbninated.
<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />The same area, a half.century later
<br />
<br />Early floods were minor compared to Big Thompson
<br />
<br />Flood! That haa been a dreaded word for northern
<br />Colorado mountain resldenll Itnce they began aettllng
<br />in the area in the laat century.
<br />The word lounded even more OminOUI to travelers on
<br />mountaln roada, where a rampaging Iltream could waah
<br />away a horae and buggy or II. car. Even "dry" creekl
<br />could become II. danger after a cloudburst.
<br />
<br />However, unW 1976 floods along the Btg ThomplOn
<br />River had done only comparatively minor damage. The
<br />damage dIdn't seem minor, of course, to thoae whose
<br />property was destroyed.
<br />
<br />County CommIsllloner Warren Wolaver, a natlve of
<br />Loveland, gave dates of three floods he remember.. He
<br />also 88.1d, "There 18 some floodIng periodIcally &long
<br />the rooUUlJs area; It ~ IOm",l:l'lln€ fill! .IN*.tw: "
<br />He recalled a 1938 flood in Big Thompson Canyon
<br />which took out a small aecUon of the road below Cedar
<br />Cove, but caused no big damage. According to hi.
<br />recoUectlonB, the road W8IJ sun pauable after the flood
<br />and there was no losl of life.
<br />
<br />lost in the area of the present Sunny Jlm's candy store.
<br />He recalled that some local reUef funda were put
<br />together by neighbors. but he didn't remember any
<br />acUon by the state government.
<br />The next flood date he remembered waa 1961i (he had
<br />become a commla8loner In 1961) when "there was high
<br />water all over the cwntry here." One flaah flood that
<br />came out of Indlan Creek dId some damage to roada. He
<br />thought that the flood that ruined the U.S. G)'plIum
<br />plaster mill al80 occurred in 1961i.
<br />Bob Berling, project manager for the U.S. Bureau of
<br />Reclamation at Loveland recalled 1~ all the year of
<br />the worst flooding prior to 1976. There was a flow ot
<br />7,600cublc feet of water per second then at the mouth d
<br />the canyon, or about a f1lth of the July 31 flow.
<br />Mrs. Howard G. Colwell of Loveland, a summer
<br />resident of the Drake area stnce 1900, recalled pall
<br />cloudbursbl on the North Fork, but remembered lJ)
<br />other noods wtth 10811 of Ufe in Big ThompllOn CanyO.D.
<br />
<br />cloudburst!. She added that 1I0me bridges were waahed
<br />out in the Blg Thompson Canyon, probably in the 1920s.
<br />The wooden bridges of the put went out more eaaUy,
<br />she pointed out.
<br />
<br />Raymon Hayden of John.etown, whose Flytng Y
<br />property in BIg Thompson Canyon Wall virtually
<br />destroyed in the recent flood, rememben only one past
<br />flood when. water got into a cabin on the Hayden
<br />property. That flood wu caulled by a c10udbunt on
<br />CroeIer Mountain.
<br />
<br />Hayden fonnerly Wall princlpal of Dunn, Washington
<br />and Rocky Ridge IIchools In the Fort Collinll area. Hi8
<br />parenll, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Hayden, operated the
<br />Flying Y before he and h1a wi1e JOined them in the
<br />business. HIs hopes for the canyon now are that "things
<br />wW go back the way they were."
<br />
<br />Mra. Randleman aatd there wa.s no road going up
<br />Poudre Canyon as far as the Narrows then, althOllgh
<br />there wall a wagon road about aa far u the present
<br />waterworkll.
<br />A Coloradoan article of Aug. Ii, 1976, baaed Oil an
<br />interview with Catherine (Mn. J. Evan) RobeN of
<br />L1vennore, included a reference to the floodl of 1~.
<br />The high water then waahed away the Llvennore Hall
<br />and bridgee all the way to Greeley, accordtng to
<br />memories of old.Umers.
<br />
<br />A."'iD .JUST last year, the July 10, 197t5, laaue c:t the
<br />Coloradoan reported, "Flooding near Welllllgton
<br />caulled extenBlve crop damage and It look8 llke It's
<br />going to cut lOOlle agaln," WeU1ngton Pollce ChIef
<br />Gordon Lowe aatd.
<br />Boxelder and Rawhide creeks had flooded follDwing
<br />heavy ra1nll and about 20 homell north and IIOJth of
<br />WelUngton were evacuated. The WeU1ngton lIewer plant
<br />had been nooded and wall being repa1red. County roalJ
<br />and bridge crews were allsesaing damage to leveral
<br />county roads caused by the flooding. Water 'MLI ,till
<br />standing on some of the roads and there waa dirt and
<br />debris from the flood on all of them.
<br />Helen Day of 2024 Northeast Frontage Road, Ii retired
<br />Larimer County Department of Sodal Servlrell staft
<br />member, had a comment to add on WeWngbn area
<br />floods. She &ald, "I recall fluh floods on Boxelder
<br />Creek near Wellington - 1I0me real good onts."
<br />
<br />WOLAVER SAID that in 1901 Buckhorn Reservoir on
<br />Buckhorn Creek, a tributary of the Big Thompeon, gave
<br />way caulling high water in the creek and the Big
<br />Thompson. The old dam had become fUled with aUt. He
<br />remembered thata famUy waa caught at the JuncUon of
<br />U.S. HIghway 34 and Glade Road and about three lives
<br />were lost.
<br />He thought there wu no officIal total eaUrnate on the
<br />fairly limited 1901 property damage. Some houies were
<br />
<br />"mERE HAVE been many floods In the canyon aJKI
<br />the Big Thompson Road haa been clo.eed, maybe for 24
<br />hours," Catherine Kob of 201 South Meldrom Street
<br />recalled. A ret1red member of the Colorado State
<br />Unlvenlty chemistry faculty, IIhe has been making
<br />trips on the canyon road for about six dee&dell.
<br />"Even during big anowlI," she old, "the canyon road
<br />has been closed only a few houn."
<br />Mn. Joe R. Miner of Loveland, whOlle father bought
<br />Sylvandale Ranch on the Big Thompson River In 1916,
<br />recalled theIrhavlng a bridge go out once or twice from
<br />
<br />HE SAID at a recent meeting of canyon tellldent.ll,
<br />"We're not jUllt interuted in organizing tor our own
<br />seUlah interests. We should Ulle thL8 d1sa.IIter to rebuUd
<br />for the best lntereBtII of all."
<br />Th'ere have been northern Colorado floods In other
<br />areaa bealde. the Big Thompllon, of coune.
<br />Gertrude Randleman of 1090 Eaat Elh.abeth Street
<br />aatd of one of them, "I remember when Chamben Lake
<br />went over Its banks In 1004. I looked from the top of a hill
<br />across the area from Hannony Road near Fort Collins.
<br />The Cache la Poudre River Walll a mile wide. George R.
<br />StraUSI died from exposure atter cllng1ng to a fence in
<br />the flood water all nlght near Ttmna.th."
<br />
<br />-
<br />
<br />-
<br />
<br />- RETrY WOODWORTH
<br />
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