Elementary, My Dear Watson

"Elementary, My Dear Watson"

Although the phrase is never actually found together in the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, it has become the chatchphrase attributed to Sherlock Holmes, the famous fictional resident of 221-B Baker Street, which is the topic of the today’s blog from the Baldpate Inn Key Room.  

Sherlock Holmes is definitely one the most prominent fictional characters in literature, or at least he is in my mind. The uniqueness of his character is seemingly unparalleled, with his astute logical reasoning, ability to adopt a variety of disguises, and his forensic skills to help with his consulting detective service. Not only were his abilities unique, he was also considered a “bohemian” by his counterpart, Dr. Watson. Having an extreme expectation for personal hygiene, he then complimented it with his rather disdain for tidiness or any sort of organization. To add to the uniqueness of Mr. Holmes, he also was considered to be rather arrogant and enjoyed baffling the police inspectors with the deductions he was able to make that they were unable to see.

In the four novels and fifty-six short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that give us the basis for Sherlock Holmes, he is able to help the police inspectors solve many crimes and also interact with some uncommon villains as well including Professor James Moriarty, Charles Augustus Magnussen, and Dr. Robert Frankland.

221-B Baker Street became the setting and residence for this rare setting and characters, and while it was considered to be rather ordinary, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson made this place into a bustling, crime-solving center where people could bring their issues and mysteries, and if unique or adventurous Sherlock Holmes would take their case. Yet at the time Doyle wrote the Sherlock stories, Baker Street did not actually have address numbers into the 200s and it is believed that Doyle created 221-B to avoid using an actual person’s residence.

While being a fictional character, Sherlock Holmes’ residential address is an actual place and we are blessed to have the key to 221-B Baker Street, donated to us by Dr. Watson’s Neglected Patients, a scion society of the Baker Street Irregulars. This key may seem as one that is rather ordinary of the time period, but to those that enjoy literature and even the more recent visual adaptations like Robert Downing Jr. as Sherlock Holmes in two films, or Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes in the BBC TV series, it is more about the legacy of the character Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created.  

Already we as the three curators have been able to give you a brief background to almost a half dozen keys here in our collection. I would personally like to invite all of you in the Estes Park area at some point this summer to come and see the many other thousands of keys we have here in our collection. We hope to continue to inform and enlighten our readers through this blog the rest of the summer.

For now I am off,

Jacob

Key Room Museum Curator

Clarence Darrow Key

Hello, everybody!

Today, I'm going to talk a little about one of my favorite keys in our collection here at the Baldpate. The key that was donated by Clarence Darrow in 1923 has the honor of being considered the "First key to Baldpate." It is possible that other keys were donated before Darrow made his donation, but Darrow's key will always be considered the first. Our key collection began after World War I when the original owners, the Maces, could no longer afford to give each of their guests individual keys to the Inn. Part of the story tells that Clarence Darrow actually made the suggestion that guests bring keys back to the Inn. It is safe to say, that if it wasn't for Darrow, I may not have this job today. 

Let me tell you a little bit about Clarence Darrow, a well-known attorney. His father was an atheist (Well, that seems like a strange way to start this, right? It's relevant, though.). "The fact that my father was a heretic always put him on the defensive," Darrow wrote. "We children thought it was only right and loyal that we should defend his cause." Darrow's way of thinking led him participate in the famous Scopes "monkey trial."

In the last decade of the 1800s, Darrow worked to defend strikers, labor leaders, and anarchists. He became a celebrity of the radical left. Darrow experienced a rough patch after taking on a case that nearly destroyed his career. He made a bit of a career change and became a criminal defense lawyer. In the 1920s, Darrow was the most famous trial lawyer in America. He longed for a public debate with William Jennings Bryan over religion and science because he disagreed with Bryan's religious views. He got his opportunity with the Scopes trial.

The trial took place after John Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution in a public Tennessee high school. Darrow faced a real struggle trying to convince the judge and jury that Scopes was innocent and the anti-evolution law should be overturned. On the seventh day of the trial, Darrow called Bryan to the stand as an expert on the Bible. This move led to a furious argument between the two men. Many believed that Darrow made a fool out of Bryan, but some believed it to be cruel, especially when Bryan died five days after the trial. Bryan did win the case, but Darrow made progress by publicizing scientific evidence for evolution.

As Clarence Darrow remains a significant figure in our country's history, we are honored that he is such an important part of The Baldpate's history as well!

Margie
Key Room Museum Curator

The Master Key to the Situation

Hello all you key enthusiasts!

Our doors are open once again here at the Baldpate Inn Key Room and I’ve been having a lot of fun exploring and getting to know the wide variety of keys and stories that hang on our walls. My name is Rachel and I will be one of your Key Room Curators for the 2014 season. I am a senior in college originally from Clifton Park, New York and I’m so happy I decided to leave sea level for the summer to be in a place like the Baldpate where the history is as rich as the landscape.

The great thing about a collection as big as ours is its variety. Whether it be a collection of keys or toasters, you get to see a wide range of items from the most basic and plain to the most elaborate, strange, and baffling. I love the individuality and creativity found in some of the keys we have here, so for my first Key Room blog post I’d like to highlight one key whose story is full of creativity. It is called “the master key to the situation,” and takes up about 20 inches on our left side wall.

by the looks of it, this key does not unlock any door or chest, but included on its frame are six key blades, a knob, a couple of other unknown gadgets, and a large screw. It was donated to the collection in 1930 by a man named Gus Miller of Lincoln, Nebraska and its tag tells us that it was crafted in the early 20^th century by workers in a Nebraska boys’ reformatory.

 

So what did this group of boys in Nebraska’s reformatory (much like a modern day correctional facility) working as key makers do with their free time? They used their knowledge of key making and their own imagination and humor to put together a “key” that would, in theory, fix whatever problem might come their way. The key is signed, or engraved, with the name “Engler the Locksmith” who presumably is the craftsman behind this interesting project. A project not of obligation, but of recreation.
 



Well Engler, the Baldpate Inn thanks you for your handiwork and Gus Miller for his generous donation. The "Master Key" is certainly a key unlike any other and one of my personal favorites in the key room, at least so far. If you come visit us here at the Baldpate Key Room, I would be happy to show you this fascinating key in person and the thousands of others worth sharing, so plan a visit! You’ll be sure to find a favorite key of your own and plenty of other key history to peak your interest.

Until next time,

Rachel

Key Room Museum Curator

Good Afternoon,

On this lovely Sunday afternoon I would like to present my first post on this blog as one of the Key Room Curators for this summer. My name is Jake and I am from Illinois. I just graduated from college with two bachelor’s degrees in History and Political Science. This summer I and my fellow curators will be bringing you a look into some of the unique keys that we have here in our collection.

My first key I would like to present as my portion of this blog is the Edith Rockefeller-McCormick Key. This family of course has a long history and I would like to take a moment to give a brief background of them. As many may know the Rockefeller family was very wealthy, due to the founding of Standard Oil by Edith’s father, John Davidson Rockefeller. She was born the fifth child and the fourth daughter of John Davidson Rockefeller and a schoolteacher named Laura Spelman. There is rumor for there to have been some tension between Edith and her father due to her extravagance and her father’s desire to be frugal with the money he earned. She then married the heir to the mechanical reaper fortune, Harold Fowler McCormick at the age of 23. After this marriage, she then began to spend money even more freely in her new home of Chicago without the watchful eye of her father. While this marriage was not to last (ending in 1921), it threw Edith even more so into the public spotlight as a philanthropist and also an activist.

This particular key was given to us after her death in 1932 by Gertrude M. Moore, the manager of a women’s club that Edith Rockefeller-McCormick was a member of during her time in Chicago. Gertrude M. Moore had originally intended to send us this key directly after the death of Edith Rockefeller- McCormick but unfortunately it was misplaced for nearly fourteen years until it was sent with a letter explaining the situation on October 19^th, 1946.

This key is one of many here at the Baldpate Inn that has a very rich history and I and my fellow curators will be expanding upon many others this summer. Until next time my fellow historians, may you continue to grow in your knowledge of history as I hope to do.

Jake
Key Room Museum Curator

Hello, everybody!

I have some exciting news to share in today’s Key Room blog, but I would first like to introduce myself. My name is Margie, and I’ve travelled all the way from Pennsylvania to experience the beauty of Colorado and the magic of the Baldpate Inn for the summer. I will be going into my second year of college at Penn State University, and I plan to double major in Arts Administration and Communications. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to intern in our museum, which has such an interesting collection, and be part of the Baldpate family!

                Now that we have that out of the way, I’ll tell you the great news. I had the privilege the other day of meeting the granddaughter and great granddaughter of Clarence Ison, who built the Keystone for our fireplace in the Key Room. Reverend Jean Waldron and Shannon Trigg, Clarence’s granddaughter and great granddaughter, were able to give me some information and told me to call Clarence’s daughter, Nancy Weatherbie, for the rest of the story. Well, I had a very nice conversation with Ms. Weatherbie over the phone, and she provided me with a great deal of information about Clarence’s life.

                Clarence Ison was born in Missouri and lived in Platner, Colorado. Before he started a family, he moved to California and worked as a Deputy Sherriff.  He moved back to Colorado and was married. He and his wife later had three children. He was a stonemason and worked for a monument company in Longmont, Colorado. Ms. Weatherbie informed me, though, that he started as a farmer, and she describes him as a “jack of all trades.” As I mentioned, Clarence built the Keystone for the fireplace in the Baldpate’s Key Room. He also worked with Coalie Coleman, a relative by marriage, to build St. Catherine’s Church. The church is a gorgeous stone structure on Highway 7, a few miles away from the Baldpate. Clarence moved with his family to San Diego in May of 1941, where he again worked as a stonemason. After the war broke out, he worked in two aircraft factories. Ms. Weatherbie says that her father took so much pride in all of his work.

We, here at the Baldpate, are so thankful for his work on our Keystone, and we are thankful to his family for sharing this piece of history with us.

We hope you come by the Baldpate soon to experience more of our rich history!

 

Margie

Key Room Museum Curator  

 

 

New Season, New Team

Welcome to the Baldpate Inn Key Room Blog! We are excited for another season of sharing our collection and the history of the historic Baldpate Inn with all of you. Our collection of over 30,000 keys is full of endless stories to be shared and appreciated, and we cannot wait to display the fascinating history that our key room has to offer. Our names are Margie, Rachel, and Jake, and we will be your museum team for this 2014 season. We can’t wait to unlock our collection for you!

 

It's a small world

Couldn't help but share this incredible story written from one of our esteemed guests!   

http://saturdaybriefing.outrigger.com/featured-post/the-rest-of-the-story

The Rest of the Story

BY DR. RICHARD KELLEY 

In today’s universe of almost instant communications facilitated by the Internet, we often find surprising links between people, places and things. That happened to me this week in Colorado, and the heartwarming story unexpectedly connects a current, front-page news item with bit of the history of an old family-operated inn near Estes Park, Colorado, with a more modern family-operated hotel company in the Pacific, and with a Colorado state trooper injured this week while trying to stop a bizarre serial carjacking.

Stories like this were the specialty of veteran ABC radio broadcaster Paul Harvey, who, for many decades, connected apparently widely separated people, places and events with a final bit of information. When adding that last, culminating fact, Harvey would proudly announce, “And now you know the rest of the story.”

Today’s story started last year when I visited Estes Park, Colorado, the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park, and had lunch at the historic Baldpate Inn. There I learned that Ethel and Gordon Mace along with Gordon’s brothers, Charles and Stuart Mace, homesteaded this beautiful piece of property in 1911. They built a cabin and grew rhubarb to comply with the provisions of the Homestead Act. To supplement their income, they added tourist cabins and, by 1917, added the Baldpate Inn with several bedrooms and a dining room. They used natural, local resources such as hand-hewn timber for beams for the structure and local stones from the riverbed to line their fireplace. They boasted about the inn’s hot running water, electric lights and indoor plumbing, which were unusual amenities in that area in those days.

The name Baldpate came from the mystery novel, Seven Keys to Baldpate by Earl Derr Biggers, which, also in 1917, became a silent-film mystery thriller. The author created seven visitors who traveled to a closed-in-winter hotel, each possessing a key that they believed was the only key to the property.

In keeping with the novel’s storyline, the Mace Family began giving all visitors their own key, which they could keep as a souvenir. However, the shortage and cost of metal during World War I soon forced them to stop that practice. Disappointed guests turned the tradition around and began bringing their own keys, and a competition began to see who could bring the most exotic or unusual key. The Maces encouraged this by dedicating a room to display the keys. A few years went by and they had to add another room. Now, with over 20,000 keys, “including examples from the Pentagon, Westminster Abby, Mozart’s Wine Cellar, and even Frankenstein’s castle, to name a few, the Baldpate is working with American History Savers to preserve and catalogue” the collection.

While having lunch, my wife Linda and I had a chance to speak with current owner, Lois Hoke Smith, a dynamic person who is dedicated to keeping the Baldpate Inn as the best country inn in Colorado.

We asked her if the Baldpate key collection might contain any keys from one of the hotels operated by Outrigger Enterprises, its predecessors or even Roy and Estelle Kelley in their young, entrepreneurial years. She personally took us to the key rooms. Keys were everywhere – on the walls, on the columns, on the beams, on the ceilings! We looked and looked and then, VOILA!!! We found a well-preserved key and bright key tag for

The Islander Hotel, of course, is where Outrigger Enterprises began when Roy and Estelle welcomed the first guest to their just-completed building in 1947. Serving pineapple juice on the patio and folding towels in Housekeeping were Richard, Jean and Patricia Kelley, who had not quite turned 14, 12 and 10 years old.

Finding that key at Baldpate was very emotional for me, particularly because one of my early duties was to cut replacement keys when they were lost or not returned by guests.

Now flash forward at “warp speed” to this past Wednesday, March 13. Allan Rodriguez, age 4, sat alone in a Ford Edge SUV at a Bradley service station in Longmont, Colorado, about 30 miles from the Baldpate Inn while his mother went inside to pick up a cup of coffee. In a flash, a stranger hijacked the vehicle with Allan inside. Police and a news helicopter were almost immediately on the hijacker’s tail and a wild, 60-mile chase ensued during which the hijacker took over two more vehicles and ran over and seriously injured a Colorado State Trooper by the last name of Hee

At that point, I received an email from my daughter, Linda Jane Kelley, telling me that Trooper Hee’s full name was Bellamann Hee, Junior, her classmate at Punahou School in Honolulu. His father, Bellamann Hee, Senior, was born in Shanghai, China. In Hawai‘i, Bellamann Senior founded Bellamann Services, Inc., a company that sold signs and other promotional products. Mr. Hee, Senior, passed away on May 17, 2013.

I remember Bellamann Senior as a kind, gentle and loving man who provided our growing companies with engraved plastic signs that we used all around our hotels. We also bought other plastic products from Bellamann Services including, guess what, plastic room key tags!

Once again, we discovered what a “small world” we inhabit.

State Trooper Hee who was injured in this week’s triple hijacking in Colorado, grew up in Hawai‘i. It is highly likely that his father was the person who sold the room key tags to our Islander Hotel in Waikīkī many years ago. One of those key tags ended up in the Baldpate Inn, Estes Park, just over 30 miles from where the first carjacking occurred.

“And now you know the rest of the story!”

P.S.: Trooper Hee is currently hospitalized with serious injuries but is reported to be doing well and on what may prove to be a long road to recovery. And young Allan Rodriguez was returned safe and sound to his mother.