An Architectural Evening with Baldpate

Thank you to all those who came to see the Key Room Summer Enchanted Evening presentation on August 22! Sara and I were so happy and honored to see such an attentive and enthusiastic audience; you came with fantastic questions and we couldn't have been more pleased to give you a deeper knowledge of our collections and history.

For those of you who missed our Key Room presentation but wanted to learn more about the Baldpate's rich history, you're in luck! This coming Wednesday, September 5, the Baldpate Key Room staff will yet again lead a discussion of the hidden wealth of information that lies within the Baldpate's walls. Or better yet, a discussion about those walls. 

This Wednesday evening come to learn about our building's origins, traits, and why the Baldpate is a fantastic example of Rustic architecture. Not only will the presentation cover facts and stories from the live-in museum staff, but will feature a special contribution from the second and current owner of the Baldpate Inn, Lois Smith.

The lecture is free and snacks will be provided. To secure a spot for dinner before the 7pm event, call us for reservations at 970.586.KEYS.

Hope to see you there!
Lauren
Key Room Curator

P. S. Curious why this post is tagged, "News from the desk of Miss Evelyn Rhodes?" Flip to Chapter 21 of Earl Derr Biggers' novel, Seven Keys to Baldpate to unlock the mystery!

Getting Sketchy

Today, while documenting some of our keys in preparation for our upcoming Summer Enchanted Evening, Sara, our museum manager, and I were introduced to a spectacular 16 year-old from San Diego.

Grace Klein and her artwork

Grace Klein was enjoying the Key Room in a way I have never seen before; each key she found interesting provided a subject for her sketchbook. In seconds, Grace would draw an incredibly accurate sketch of our Collections.

Grace's sketch of the Vatican door key

As we spoke with Grace, she kindly offered to draw our favorite keys and leave them for Sara and I to enjoy.

Sara and the Lobster Lock and Key set from the Chinese Mandarin Palace that depicts the sea and its contents

Grace's drawings of my favorite key, the Key to Knowledge and Sara's favorite, the Lobster Lock and Key.

We welcome all aspiring artists to come and take in the intricacies of our Key Collection. You never know what inspiration you will find here!

Lauren
Key Room Museum Curator

Growing Up With Baldpate

The Baldpate Inn, October 1989

In anticipation for his Summer Enchanted Evening presentation this Wednesday, one of our earliest former employees, Brad Martin, recorded his Baldpate memories for us.  It is my pleasure to provide his story here for a blast back to the early years of the Baldpate's second ownership.

"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.

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. 

Young Mackenzie Smith and Innkeeper/Owner Lois Smith, winter 1990

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.

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.

Brad and Reneé Martin celebrate their wedding at the Baldpate Inn

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."

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! 

Lauren
Key Room Museum Curator

Home on the Road

A special package arrived with the Baldpate Inn mail this year from Kurt and Virginia Naville.

They donated what, at first glance, appears to be a humble house key with two translucent red dots on either side of  the bow, or top part of the key.

When you read the Navilles' story though, you realize that this donation was truly heartfelt. The Baldpate is now the keeper of the key to their former residence in Fairview, Texas. They told us:

"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.

If you would like to donate a key to our key room, but are no longer in the Estes Park area, feel free to mail your donation to:

PO Box 700
4900 South Highway 7
Estes Park, CO 80517

It would be our pleasure to transcribe your story onto a tag and include it in our collections. Likewise, if you do visit us and have a key at home you would like to donate, please take a tag home with you. Mail-in donations are truly a treat here at the Baldpate!

We'll be looking for your correspondence!
Lauren
Key Room Museum Curator
The Baldpate Inn

Swimming through the Ocean of Keys

No need for a compass; our Key Room is easier to navigate than ever before! We updated our map to improve your chances of finding the key you are looking for, and in conjunction with our updated database, you can easily search a key and find where it is located in the room.

For example, if you were looking for the key to Sam Houston's Law Office from Huntsville, TX, instead of spending hours searching the 3 Texas beams, you can search "Houston" on our database computer. The database will show you that it is located on the bottom shelf of Case 5.  Consult the Wall and Case Map, and finding the Sam Houston key is simpler than getting Texas to join the United States!


Come use the new and improved map, and see what you can find!

Lauren

Baldpate Inn Key Room Curator

The Key to Knowledge

Chances are, since you're reading this blog, you are an  investigative person who realizes that learning is a perpetual and rewarding part of life. Hopefully, you find this key as inspiring as I do.

One of the more inconspicuous keys hanging in the Missouri section caught my eye because of its background and claim to what it unlocks.

“A key to knowledge am I” 
For many years I unlocked the doors of the public library at Kansas City, MO until they decided to remodel all of my locks and then I was discarded.

Such reads the donation tag written by Edith Humphrey on July 28, 1937.  At the time, the Kansas City Public Library existed at 9^th and Locust streets and served as an integral institution in establishing the city as the thriving municipality that it is today. 

Since 1898, the key provided access to a wealth of information for the benefit of the public, regardless of socioeconomic status. In 1901, William Rockhill Nelson donated a collection of pictures to the library. This collection became the foundation for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, which was established in the 1930s. The library continued to expand throughout first half of the century; when the library outgrew its building in the 1960s, the architects remained loyal to the mission of keeping the Kansas City Public Library devoted to connecting its patrons to the modern era. A new "space age" building was built to house the community's literature and notify the public that knowledge was a commodity that every contemporary member of Kansas City society should attempt to attain.

The key's symbolic ability to unlock humanity's collective understanding through the writings of others will forever remain one of the more valuable donations to the Baldpate Key Room.

If you get the chance to stop by the Baldpate, ask to see the Kansas City Public Library key. We would be happy to point you toward the key to knowledge, humbly hanging from our rafters.

Until next time,

Lauren
Baldpate Inn Key Room Curator

The Key to a Summer Enchanted Evening

Have you ever wondered how the Baldpate Inn got its somewhat unglamorous name? Ever been curious why and how we ended up collecting over 30,000 keys? The time is approaching to wonder no longer!

Your Key Room Museum Staff, Sara and Lauren

I am proud to announce that on Wednesday, August 22nd and Wednesday, September 5th, the Key Room will be hosting a Summer Enchanted Evening. Sara, the Museum Manager, and I will be conducting a presentation which focuses on the history of the Baldpate Inn and some of the fascinating keys we have in our collection. Mark your calendar to come learn more about the history the Baldpate can unlock!

Our Summer Enchanted Evenings are free to all, and take place every Wednesday night through September 12th. If you would like to make a dinner reservation before the lecture, please call us at 970.586.KEYS. Be sure to check what we will be serving that day with our Baldpate Inn Blog.

Hope to see you at our presentation next month!

Lauren

Baldpate Inn Key Room Curator