Steve Mitchell - Legendary Locals of Estes Park

LEGENDARY LOCALS

OF

ESTES PARK

COLORADO

The Kitchen of the Old Plantation Restaurant
C. Warren Chappy Chapman and Bob Burgess pose at the rear of the kitchen of the Old Plantation, a popular restaurant for locals and visitors from 1931 to 1992. (Courtesy of Debbie Burgess Richardson.)

: Phil Casey Martin Sells Tickets
Phil Casey Martin sells children tickets for his Silver Streak train, a popular attraction for summer visitors that ran in downtown Estes Park from 1947 to 1972. (Courtesy of Estes Park Museum.)

LEGENDARY LOCALS

OF

ESTES PARK

COLORADO

STEVE MITCHELL

Copyright 2016 by Steve Mitchell
ISBN 978-1-4671-0230-8
Ebook ISBN 9781439655955

Legendary Locals is an imprint of Arcadia Publishing
Charleston, South Carolina

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015943992

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Dedication

To those dedicated people who preserve the local history of Estes Park.

On the Front Cover: Clockwise from top left:

Lisa Foster, climber, author, and dedicated mother (courtesy of Lisa Foster; see ).

On the Back Cover: From left to right:
Amy Hamrick and her coffee shop Kind Coffee (photograph by Tony Bielat; see ).

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am thankful to those who preserve local history, especially local history librarian Lennie Bemiss, who walked into the Estes Park Library in 1972 and asked my aunt, librarian Ruth Deffenbaugh, if she could volunteer. Without Lennies pioneering local history work, I would not have access to a treasure trove of oral histories and a partial index to the Estes Park Trail-Gazette. Also, a big thanks goes to author James Pickering, who wrote so many excellent local histories, and Ted Schmidt for his ColoradoBig Thompson Project slide show and Ray Fitch video.

This book would not be possible without area museums and the Estes Valley Library. At the Estes Park Museum, thank you Derek Fortini for looking over my list and Bryon Hoerner, Alicia Mittleman, and Naomi Gerakios for digging out all those photographs. Carie Essig at the YMCA of the Rockies Lula W. Dorsey Museum and Kelly Cahill at the Rocky Mountain National Park Museum Storage Facility were super in responding to my relentless requests for pictures. Kathleen Kase, Mark Riffle, and Keturah Young at the Estes Valley Library were very patient with my endless requests to see the archives. Thank you to Shannon Clark at MacGregor Ranch for the great MacGregor photographs.

Many generous people shared their Estes Park stories and pictures. Thank you to all who I interviewed and featured in the book, as well as Diane Rayburn, Jackie Hutchins, Kurtis Kelly, Debbie Richardson, Teddie Haines, Pat Washburn, Kim Stevens, Rosa Thomson, Rita Mayhew, Katie Webermeier, Jack Melton, Sybil Barnes, Brian Brown, John Meissner, Fran and Jay Grooters, Howell Wright, Kerrie Hill, Dave Tanton, Elah Bethel, Bonnie Watson, Ken Springsteen, Ann Neering, Gerald Mayo, Scott and Julie Roederer, John Cordsen, and Lois Smith.

I want to thank photographers James Frank, Tony Bielat, Heidi Wagner, Emily Rogers, and Kris and Gary Hazelton for sharing their work. And a special thanks to my wife, Lori Mitchell, who seems to know everyone in town and how they are related to each other.

INTRODUCTION

Writing this book has been a fascinating journey into the history of Estes Park and the lives of many interesting peoplesome whom I knew about and many whom I discovered along the way.

I learned more about well-known figures such as Enos and Joe Mills, F.O. Stanley, William Allen White, and the MacGregors from James Pickerings excellent books on Estes Park history. Oral histories, old newspaper articles, and personal interviews provided a peek into the rich lives of people who might not appear in most history books, like Albin Griffith and his sawmills, editor Tim Asbury at the award-winning Estes Park Trail-Gazette, teacher Casey Martin and his train, animal lover Carolyn Fairbanks, and philanthropist Katie Speer.

Well-known landmarks have stories of their own. Most everyone knows the connection between the Stanley Hotel and Stephen Kings The Shining, but few know of Ralph Gwynn and the personal reason he built the tower on the Historic Park Theater. Many watch the Aerial Tramway glide up the side of Prospect Mountain, but few know about the engineer who designed it. At the YMCA of the Rockies, the Sweet Memorial Building, Ruesch Auditorium, and Hyde Chapel are named after men who made a difference.

The town often called on its hardworking citizens to become leaders. Henry and Bernie Dannels built houses, Henry Tregent pumped gas, Clarence Graves owned a gas company, and Ron Brodie sold groceries.

What was amazing were the connections. I would talk to one person and they would say, Have you talked to so-and-so. She must be in the book! Longtime resident Diane Rayburn suggested I talk to Bill Watson, so I learned about his father, Pop, and his ice delivery business in the early 1900s. When I stopped by Glenna Dannelss house to look at photographs of her husband, Bernie, and his father, Henry, we talked about the Spectrum, a true artists enclave on Elkhorn Avenue. While I looked at photographs of Bob Haines, his wife, Teddie, suggested I learn more about artist Herb Thomson and doctors Sam and Julie Luce. While picking up track photographs from Wendy Koenig Schuett, she suggested I learn more about Paul Van Horn and his work with the ColoradoBig Thompson Project.

Many of the connections are personal, and this book gave me an opportunity to connect with people I had not talked to in years. When I first arrived in Estes Park in 1979, EPURA director Art Anderson gave me my first job at his solar newspaper. My wife, Lori, worked at MacGregor Ranch, where she helped preserve the MacGregor family history, learned all about the MacGregors, and worked with Eric Adams and modern-day mountain man Tim Mayhew. During many summers, our son Jeff worked for the Colemans at Ride-A-Kart. And if you walked Elkhorn Avenue, you knew Crazy Ed Kelsch. I played basketball with history teacher Jeff Arnold and softball with football coach Perry Black, while our son Jeff learned how to play the trombone from band director Chuck Varilek.

Many Estes Park residents live and breathe its history. Debbie Burgess Richardson brought the Old Plantation Restaurant alive when she talked about her father, Bill Burgess, and his brother Bob. After I talked to downtown merchant Ernie Petrocine, I discovered that his father, Pep, established a year-round catalog and opened the first computer store in town. When I bought a box of taffy at the Taffy Shop, I learned how new owner Mark Igel is continuing the tradition of this 80-year-old business. While working on a profile of George Hix, his daughter Kim Stevens sent me articles and photographs of his father, Charles, one of the founding fathers of Estes Park.