"I worked at Baldpate twice. The first was the summer of 1991 after I graduated from high school. I was a rotator so I did every job except front desk. Harold did front desk back then. He was 150 years old but we loved him. My favorite job was laundry, believe it or not. Using the mangler was the best part. My least favorite job is probably housekeeping. I’d do dish dog over housekeeping to this day. The second was the summer of 2003 when I just moved to Colorado. I was much older at this point and worked in many other capacities and Lois was doing me a favor by hiring me part-time on the desk. It was so different the second time around not living at Baldpate and only working part-time and only doing one job. I couldn’t complain because it was still great. It was so different being so old compared to the rest of the staff.
If I tell you the type of music I listened to as Dish Dog it will definitely date me. However, I always listend to hip hop and/or rap to the annoyance of my team. My first year we had several “lifers” that had worked at Baldpate multiple times and knew the drill. That was very helpful. I remember Brad and Barb Martin. Of course there’s MacKenzie and Jen. I miss Duke. He wasn’t an employee but he was part of the staff. As a guard dog he had an important task although most times he was lounging on the porch and people had to step over him to get in. Or, he was running down through town and Lois or Mike had to go retrieve him. I didn’t say he was a very good guard dog!
I remember MacKenzie camping out in the car next to the dumpster to see the bear who kept breaking into the dumpster. He was about 13. I remember the building getting hit by lightning one day during a mid-day thunderstorm. I remember the squirrels running through the dining room; always a hit. Not! I remember a giant grey squirrel sitting behind my customer as I delivered the bill in the near empty dining room late at night. I remember trying not to react as I handed it over and slowly backed away from the table. I remember the second time I worked there a bear was seen at the back of the lodge on the hill. I went outside to see as the bear walked into the building through the second floor door that was always open right by the staff laundry room. I could have done without that.
Many things changed from the first time I worked there to the second. The second time we had the computer system which we didn’t before. Also, we served alcohol which we never did before. Not too much else was different. The cornbread is still a great hit. The Beef Stew is still huge. I still dream about Lois’ pecan pie.
I left the key from my 1999 Red VW Beetle that met a very tragic and untimely end on the I-25 in Denver. I had a love/hate relationship with that car. I loved it in the very beginning and then when stuff starting going wrong I wanted desperately to get rid of the car. However, I didn’t mean for the car to meet such a tragic end. I find sometimes that I long for certain things about that car and forget some of the bad qualities about it. This is just like any ex-relationship. Moreover, I find it quite symbolic of my experiences at Baldpate in that some of the best and worst moments in my personal life occurred there. However, now that I live many thousands of miles away I find myself longing for Baldpate and the memories I had there. It will always have a special place in my heart, kind of like that car. I have found my key since I left it there. I find it every time I come back."
Becky's memories certainly resonate with present and past staff, but for non-staff members the words"Dish Dog" and "Mangle" may be new. To keep our non-staff family in the loop, we can explain those terms.
This August 14th, the Wilhites celebrated their 44th anniversary by coming to visit the bed and breakfast where they spent their honeymoon. After quite a bit of searching through our 95 years worth of guest signatures, we were able to find an unassuming signature of Mr. & Mrs. Q. M. Wilhite, who stayed in room 14. The couple was excited to have finally found their signature after a few unsuccessful attempts in previous years of visiting while the inn was not open. The Wilhites found a priceless token of the beginning of their marriage as part of their celebration.
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| Grace Klein and her artwork |
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| Grace's sketch of the Vatican door key |
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| Sara and the Lobster Lock and Key set from the Chinese Mandarin Palace that depicts the sea and its contents |
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| Grace's drawings of my favorite key, the Key to Knowledge and Sara's favorite, the Lobster Lock and Key. |
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| The Baldpate Inn, October 1989 |
"I first came to Baldpate for a summer job in May 1989. I had just graduated from college and had no idea of what I was doing next or what to expect. I just knew I was moving to Colorado. When I got there I was home!
Brad Martin with the key to Iowa, a corn cob. 2012 This was only the third season the Smiths had owned and operated the Inn. They had purchased the main lodge from a Texas lawyer and developer, Rex Baker. Much of the land that surrounded the main lodge, including most of the cabins and all of Lily Lake was still owned by Mr. Baker. His office building, up the hill from the inn and beside Highway 7, would eventually become the Lily Lake / National Park Visitor Center. Next to his office, there was even an abandoned, rickety old fire watchtower. The “Danger” and “Closed” signs only encouraged a couple of midnight ascents – Don’t tell Lois.
Our staff consisted of Lois, Mike, Jennifer, a very young Mackenzie, some very young cousins or friends of the Smiths, Lois’s dad Sam, Mike’s mom Dot, a retired Smith family friend Harold worked the front desk, a local Estes Park friend Pat, also retired, a just graduated from high school gal from Oklahoma named Shelly, and me. Occasionally, we also got some help from a local high schooler named Reed. The Smiths were loving and generous so anything and everything that needed doing to make the Baldpate work we did. We were small, mighty, and instantly family! I have never worked so hard in all my life as those first couple of summers.
I hope you noted the ages of most of the staff. Many of them were barely teenagers. I had a few friends from college who had gotten jobs in Estes Park and they referred to the Baldpate staff as “the toddlers.” Shelly was the only person remotely close to my age. She was cute, flirty and again close to my age (kind of) – so we started dating. She and I went to Estes Park or Boulder on our days off – doing the typical touristy kinds of things such as mini golf, buying rubber tomahawks and hippie-watching on Pearl Street.
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| Reed, Reed's Brother, and Brad Martin hike Flattop Mountain |
Through my college friends, I met some rock climbers and started to spend more and more time trail running, hiking and climbing. If Colorado hadn’t already roped me in, this was it. When I started really going to the mountains, it was all over baby! Any thoughts of growing up or moving on or a career in the flatlands dropped away like a stone kicked from the top of Longs Peak.
Too soon though, summer ended. Estes Park became a relative ghost town compared to the bustle of summer. Shelly went home, Baldpate closed, all the cool hangouts in town shut down, and every college-aged person went back to their real life.
Not me though.
The Smiths had “adopted” me by this time and helped me out by finding me a winter job and some lodging in their summer cottage next door to their home in town. I practically lived with the Smiths all winter. Jennifer and Mackenzie had become my newest younger brother and sister and I always managed to show up at their home around dinner time. Though I loved the time with them, I was also very lonely and that first winter was pretty tough. Thoughts of summer, climbing, and girls sustained many a long winters day and night.
Young Mackenzie Smith and Innkeeper/Owner Lois Smith, winter 1990
Eventually it was May and we were shoveling away the last remnants of snow and reopening Baldpate for the season. I had worked with Lois during the winter to recruit staff and we had a slightly more mature and certainly larger staff coming on board. Shelly returned. The staff looked to me for direction at work and at play. I led hikes, impromptu camp-outs and conducted staff meetings. I had midnight gab sessions with Lois. I went climbing. Boy was this cool. How could I do anything else??
Seven years after that spring day that little Mackenzie had trailed after me as I unpacked my car and moved into the Wild Wing for the first time, I was still returning. Many things had changed. My sister had come out and worked with me for a season. My father had spent a summer at the Inn as a handy man. Mackenzie and Jennifer were grown up with lives of their own. I had gotten a master’s degree and was now a climbing guide. Later I would become a teacher. Through the Baldpate there had been a wonderful girl named Justine in my life. And a lifelong friendship with a great guy named Greg. College interns in hotel and restaurant management now assisted Lois in smooth operations. Baldpate had new land, cabins and Lily Lake was part of Rocky Mountain National Park and hardly any dining room guest ever asked, “Don’t you just have a steak?”
Brad on Longs Peak summit with Greg and Jim, and backpacking the Southwest with Justine
What had not changed was the homecoming feeling from Lois and the Baldpate. So, long after I was no longer officially an employee, I kept returning. I’d show up after closing time and help unload a rack or two of dishes anticipating a chat with Lois and hoping for some free food and an opportunity to flirt with pretty college girls.
And I met Reneé. She was working at Baldpate for a part of a year-off between graduating from college and the real world. We spent most of the last part of that summer together. We went climbing. I showed off. Somehow I talked her into staying the winter. Lois might have helped. Two years later we held our wedding reception at Baldpate! We’ve made a life and a family just down the road from the Inn. I’d like to think that maybe our kids will one day work at Baldpate too.
If you want to learn more about Brad's mountainous adventures that living at the Baldpate surely fueled, come watch his Summer Enchanted Evening presentation, Mountaineering for the Regular Guy, on Wednesday, August 8th at 7pm in the Key Room. Brad is certainly a fundamental part of the Baldpate family, and we are lucky he chose to share his story with us!Despite all efforts to the contrary, I was growing up. However, no matter the scope and range of my life journeys, Baldpate has always welcomed me back. It is an anchor for me, fixed and equalized. Anytime I walk though the front door, it’s like coming home."
Brad and Reneé Martin celebrate their wedding at the Baldpate Inn
"We lived there for 21 years, raising our children in this happy home. Four years ago we sold our home and bought a truck and fifth wheel trailer. We are now volunteering our time working at National Wildlife Refuges around the country. This way we live and work in an area of the United States, helping where needed, meeting wonderful people and touring. We are hoping we have found the "Key" to retirement happiness through our adventures. Please add this key to your collection. It was always a very special key to us."Our collections are now home to the symbol of an earlier, much loved phase of their lives. These days, the Navilles are continuing with their travels. We can't be happier that they chose to include us on their journey.
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| Your Key Room Museum Staff, Sara and Lauren |
"First the key I left is a key from my Grandmother's Bed and Breakfast in Warrensburg, Missouri. It is a house that was built in the 1900s and has been in our family for as long as I can remember. It meant a lot to leave a key to my favorite place that would remind me of my greatest summer ever."Megan said that her run-in with a black bear was one of the memories she would remember for years to come:
"I was by the wine rack against the wall at the first table when my friend Jessica came in the room and turned sheet white and said, 'Don't move, I have to get my camera.' While she was gone, Gabe came in and said, 'Don't move, you have a bear right by you and the window is open.' I asked him to move the table and I ran away while Jessica took pictures. Clearly she was worried for me!"
Claudia emailed the managers of Bran Castle to ask if they had any keys they would be willing to donate. In response, they sent the key to a secret passageway leading from the well to the Royal Park. Queen Maria used this route in order pass from the inner courtyard to the outside Royal Park.
