Gilded
Colorado
By Tony
Perrottet – Smithsonian Magazine
A century ago,
when city clickers went looking for adventure in Colorado, they invented a new
kind of American vacation. You can still find some of those
adventures.
1870 – The
Gilded Age
Samuel Bowles
wrote a guidebook to Colorado, The Switzerland of America, which
set off a stampede of visitors traveling the new railway lines opening across
the country heading to Colorado. Wealthy people from the big cities loved
this book and rushed to ride the walnut-paneled Pullman train coaches from East
Coast cities to Colorado. Here are some of the adventures recommended by
Samuel Bowles, and some are still there for you to explore.
Denver
Visit
the raucous saloons of Denver and rub shoulders with gold miners, trappers, and
Ute Indians.
Colorado
Springs
Stay
in Swiss-style hotels in resort towns such as Colorado Springs and “take the
waters.”
Stay
at the Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs and go coyote hunting on
horseback.
Don’t
go to Europe and climb the Matterhorn when you can climb America’s
Matterhorn, Pikes Peak.
Visit
the turreted Cliff House in nearby Manitou Spring.
No
need to go to the spas of Europe when you can go to the chic spas of Manitou
Springs near Colorado Springs.
Boulder
Visit
Boulder, the “Athens of Colorado,” which is northwest of Denver.
Take
high tea at Hotel Boulderado in Boulder with its canopied atrium
of stained glass evoking an American cathedral.
Ride
the mining train (now gone but you can still hike and mountain bike) on the
14-mile former rail bed of the Switzerland Trail that zigzags for 14
miles west of Boulder along sheer cliffs and past streams littered with rusting
tools.
Estes Park
Visit “America’s
Garden of Eden” which is the most spectacular spot west of the Mississippi
according to Samuel Bowles book on Colorado. (Now, 3 million
people a year visit this small mountain town.)
Visit Lord Dunraven’s luxury hotel. Sorry,
it is now under the 10 green of the golf course.
Don’t go to Europe to climb Mont Blanc when you can climb Longs Peak.
Stay
in the luxurious Stanley Hotel (and now you can consult the psychic
after going on the ghost tour).
Walk
the trails in Rocky Mountain National Park and find a nice spot to read A
Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabelle Bird.
Visit
Muggins Gulch to visit the cabin where Isabell Bird met Rocky Mountain Jim.
Sorry, the ruins are now in a private subdivision.
Hike
the Lion’s Gulch Trail to Homestead Meadows to visit the remote Boren
Homestead which caught fire in 1914, housed a hotel in the 1920-s, was
popular in the prohibition years, but is now in ruins. Sorry, it is closed due to flooding.
Glenwood
Springs
Why go to Rome when you can swim in the thermal pools of Glenwood
Springs overlooking the Hotel Colorado which is modeled on the Villa
Medici in Rome.
Telluride
Visit
Telluride and the former bank which contained the safe robbed in 1889 by Butch
Cassidy which is now a sunglass shop.
Just
across the mountain from Telluride is Dunton Hot Springs which is a
romantic ghost town set 22-miles in on a dirt road to an extraordinary alpine
valley with hot springs and caters to an ultra-rich clientele.
Visit
the Dunton Saloon with the names “Butch and Sundance” carved into the
bar which may have been etched by the infamous duo or maybe from tourists
visiting this once abandoned town.
Durango
Stay at the Strater Hotel where Louis L’Amour wrote several of
his western novels.
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