Historic Site Tour Old Time Touring Then & Now: Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park
10th Annual Historic Tour
Saturday, June 29 – “Then” Presentation
Saturday, September 14 – “Now” Tour
This year we decided to try something entirely different; a new and exciting experiment. Instead of historic buildings, the Museum Friends will present an interpretive tour of historic sites. Over the years many lodges and other structures have disappeared, and the tour will bring them back, at least in your imagination, so that you can appreciate history in a new way. We are fortunate to have Estes Park Historian Laureate, Jim Pickering to take us on this journey to “Then” & “Now”.
On Saturday, June 29th, at 2:00 p.m. at the Estes Park Museum, Pickering will guide us on an exploration of sites through images on old postcards and photographs, and describe what happened in these places. Deer Ridge Chalet, Fall River Lodge, Cascade Lodge, the convict cabins on Fall River Road and the Horseshoe Inn, to name a few, will be examined. This presentation is free and open to the public. Tickets for the September “now” tour will go on sale that afternoon, available after the presentation. Beginning June 30th, visit the Friends’ website at www.estesparkmuseumfriends.org (MC/Visa) or mail your check to EPMF&F. Tickets will not be available at the Museum.
On Saturday, September 14th, we will return to the past to experience Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park just the way tourist visitors did nearly a century ago, in the two decades after the 1915 Park dedication. After an illustrated talk by Pickering we will board “touring” buses and begin our day of historic exploration, visiting six sites with stops at a dozen more.
That is the “now” portion of this two-part event. Since many of the sites are in Rocky Mountain National Park, the actual tour is being held after the roadwork is finished and buses are available. The September tour will be limited to 120 people due to the logistics of this undertaking. Participants will meet at the Museum at 9:00 a.m. for the slide show and informative talk by Jim Pickering who will prepare the viewers for what they will see on the bus tour. Included are refreshments, admission to Rocky Mountain National Park, transportation, a copy of the booklet This Was Estes Park and a catered box lunch, with ticket prices set at $75 for non-members and $65 for members of the Friends.
We thank our major sponsor Judy Nystrom and Julia Daley of First Colorado Realty.
Put these two important dates on your calendar and be prepared to enjoy history from an entirely different perspective. Thank you in advance for supporting the Tenth Annual Historic Tour! This tour is one of the Friends’ most important fundraisers and benefits the Estes Park Museum