Hotels and High Wire: 100 Years of the Eldorado Spring Story

Imagine a time in 1908 when you a could board a train at Denver’s Union Station on Saturday morning, ride the rocking cars and, clicking rails for 45 minutes to a small but elegant community of Eldorado Springs cloistered in high cliffs south of the flatirons near Boulder, Colorado. Once you arrived you could dine in splendor, spend a cool night in the mountain air at one of its lavish hotels, and dance into the early morning hours to the musical strains of CU student Glenn Miller and his very first orchestra. The following day, after breakfast on the sunlit veranda, you could walk, hike or ride a horse on a pleasant trail west toward the Rockies, come back in time for a refreshing swim, and then stand in awe next to Jack Dempsey, the prize fighter, as circus daredevil Ivy Baldwin walked a 635 long high wire between soaring cliffs and across a roaring Colorado stream 582 feet in the air with no net. As the weekend came to a close, it was back on the train for the short ride back to Denver before the Sunday evening sunset.
It was the Coney Island of the west. Eldorado Springs, Colorado. For 20 years it catered to the populations of Denver and Boulder, reaching out to include the very famous of the time. Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower in 1916, spent their honeymoon in Eldorado Springs. Celebrities visited Eldorado Springs during these years. Walter Winchell, Damon Runyon, Jimmy Durante, John Barrymore, Douglas Fairbanks all spent time at the Eldorado Springs Resort.

The year was 1906. Hotels and business suddenly sprang up: The Crags Hotel, in a stunning location high above the canyon. The Eldorado Hotel, with forty rooms on four floors. On all sides, a veranda with spectacular views west into the rock walled canyon. A huge rock fireplace and a solid oak stairway led to a balcony that over looked the red-carpeted lobby. A huge swimming pool dance hall, and roller rink were amenities just a short walk away. By 1908, houses and cabins were being built as summer or weekend residences. For a short time, a local newspaper flourished. During its heyday, 1906 to 1929, as many as 2000 visitors a day were coming up to Eldorado Springs on weekends.

Three days after Christmas, 1929, the resort suffered the first of several natural disasters from which it was never able to recover fully. The first was a fire that swept through the canyon on that late December day, destroying the pool, many cabins, the dance hall, and roller rink. Fires hit again in 1933, and then in 1936. Fires were not the only disasters that plagued Eldorado Springs Resort. Heavy rains had battered Colorado all of August 1938, causing widespread damage all across the Front Range. Then on September 2, a massive wall of water roared through Eldorado Canyon, destroying everything in its path. Summerhouses, the pavilion, bathhouse, railroad bridges, and the dance hall were swept away. The flood raged all night, forcing residents to seek high ground and to spend a terrifying night in the open. The final nail in the coffin was a fire in the summer of 1939 that destroyed the beautiful Eldorado Hotel. The resort was never the same after that loss.

During the 1940’s the Fowler Family continued to operate the swimming pool and surprising that during 1950s and into the 1960s it hosted their biggest years. They also operated the new dance hall; ice skating rink, and restaurant. The Fowlers extended free usage of the area to returning veterans of the Second World War - over 9000 strong. In the 1960s they formed a club, The Eldorado Canyon Club, and kept it going until 1964.

The 1970s saw big changes in the canyon. Bill Fowler, the third generation to run the resort was faced with county zoning laws, liability concerns, and maintenance of aging buildings. Citizen interest was sparked when the public thought the canyon was about to be sold as a rock quarry. Supporters wanted the area saved. In 1978, the State of Colorado purchased 272 acres, known as the inner canyon, became one of the many Colorado State Parks. The area was now divided. Ownership of the artesian springs, the pool, and the resort buildings were still owned by the Fowler family and the upper canyon now a state park. In 1983, the Fowlers sold the springs and pool to a group who founded the Eldorado Artisan Springs Inc, a water bottling company with sales throughout the state.

Today Eldorado State Park is the home to hundreds of rock climbers from all over the world. As the popularity of rock climbing increases with each year, visitors who do not climb can watch the climbers tackle international known rock routes as the Naked Edge, Psycho, Red Garden Wall, Genesis, Yellow Spur, and the Bastille.

Eldorado Canyon remains as popular as ever. Several internationally famous books on mountaineering and climbing feature the numerous climbs of “Eldo,” as the many climbers know it. Along with rock climbing the park provides, mountain biking, snowshoeing, hiking, family picnicking, fishing, wildlife viewing, geological studies, still photography possibilities. All within a 30-mile driving distance from Denver. The Eldorado State Park provides a variety outreach programs .The Boy and Girl Scouting associations are frequent users of the park. Public and group environmental awareness classes are taught on a regular basis. Classes for blind climbers and wheelchair access to the park. The 2003 season will feature a photo contest with participant’s work being shown in the new visitor center and to be judged by the parks visitors.

Cine Design Films, with producer Jon Husband, is working in conjunction with the Colorado State Parks and the staff at Eldorado State Park to produce a one-hour corporate or individually sponsored documentary on the history, geology, scenic, and recreational uses and benefits of this unique Colorado State Park and the surrounding area. The production will also include the editing of a shorter (10 to 15 minute) version from the one-hour film for guests who frequent the new visitor center at the State Park. The shorter version will look at the area from an educational, recreational, scenic, and geological point of view. Plans currently call for a new up-to-date DVD /video projection system to be installed in the visitor center to help facilitate with the park’s many on going educational programs, or for the simple enjoyment of groups, families and the individual viewer.

The one-hour version is being produced with a definite television release in mind. PBS, Discovery, The History Channel, A&E, HD Net, ESPN, The Outdoor Channel are media outlets that find value this type of program. Marketing and advertising plans call for DVD and Video sales of the one-hour program to local and national outdoor groups, recreational organizations that also see the program as valuable to their audiences. The production will be for sale through the Eldorado State Park visitor center, and The Colorado State Parks in general.

DVD and video copies combined with advertising and promotion will be made available to recreational retail outlets. These include REI, EMS, North Face, Galyans, Orvis, Gart Sports, Neptune Mountaineering, along with other local and nationally recognized climbing stores. The Colorado Historical Society, local, state, and national outdoor educational organizations as the American Alpine Club, Colorado Mountain Club, Colorado Tourism Offices, and state and local public libraries, will help boost the visitor use and awareness of Colorado’s State Parks and the value they provide to both the local user and tourist population.