​Walking the Streets of Estes Park

by Sybil Barnes

​Sitting in my house wondering when this “social distancing” will end and there will be entertainment venues and gathering places open and restaurant or bar tables around which to gather, I remember when ... Won’t you return with me to “those thrilling days of yesteryear” as I look back on a simpler time when we wanted to mingle with other people?

In the 1960s in Estes Park, there was not much tv reception - maybe one or two of the networks being broadcast from Cheyenne and we didn’t have a tv anyway. Our days were spent hiking or reading or going to some activity sponsored by the Rec District while my father was working.

In the evening, we usually went to a program at the Y camp. Sunday was the hymn sing. Other nights were movie screenings or talent shows or lectures about world events. And then there were dances at the Teen Barn or hanging out playing spades or ranking passers-by on the Ad Building steps or watching the local boys who came out to play basketball. At least once a week, we went downtown. My father loved to eat and talk to people. My brother and I went along for the ride.

We usually drove to the Dark Horse parking lot. Our first stop was to visit the Kemple family at their arcade. They offered a shooting gallery and booths for tossing baseballs into milk bottles or bursting balloons with darts. We rarely played any of the games, just enjoyed talking with them. Our other entertainment there was watching who was coming in or out of the Dark Horse bar, Sometimes as a special treat, we went in and sat on the carousel horse barstools to enjoy a bowl of soup. My grandmother was a suffragist and a supporter of the Temperance Movements so my father’s drink of choice was water. Maybe that’s when I became a CocaCola addict. The Dark Horse and all of the Riverside entertainment complex were torn down before I was old enough to drink there.

​We went on our way across the bridge to the Wheel alley. There was another arcade where one of the Riverside Plaza fountains is now with pinball machines and other games. Sometimes my brother would peel off there to hang out with his friends. My father and I turned east on to Elkhorn for a refuelling stop - the Dog House. Hazel and Dale Stoner spent their winters travelling in the southwest to fairs and rodeos. In the summer they offered hamburgers, hot dogs and corn on the cob from their tiny storefront between Coulter’s Waffle Kitchen and the Macdonald Book Shop. The corn was on a stick - perfect for eating while walking - and kept in a pot of melted butter so we always needed a pile of napkins to wipe our greasy faces. The Dog House was a casualty of the 1982 Lawn Lake flood.

​Continuing east on Elkhorn, we passed Jerry’s Sandwich Shop and maybe stopped into the corner pharmacy - Alpine Drug - to look at the magazine rack. Further down the street we stared at the baron of beef lit up by heat lamps in the window of the Tender Steer. In the next block was Jax Snax, but not much was happening at that 3.2 bar until later in the evening. And Brodies Market was usually closed after 6 p.m.

​Our next stop was Casey’s little train, the Silver Streak Railroad, at Trout Haven. I felt way too sophisticated to go for a ride but I still loved to hear Phil Martin’s chant and always laughed when he would tilt up a car with a crowbar and call out “There’s a BEAR under there.”

Past the train station, there was a gas station and the original Trout Haven pond. Small vending machines offered fish food for purchase Sometimes we picked up handfuls of gravel to throw in to see the fish rise to the surface. The small row of shops that signalled the end of the business district started with Andy Anderson’s liquor store and ended with Crowley’s Restaurant. In between was Gift Haven where Lois and Ted Matthews entertained us with stories of the customers they had that day or their adventures hiking in RMNP. I used to have a collection of porcelain animals that were purchased there. Then it was on to DieAlte Delicatessen for another food stop. They had wonderful sandwiches. My memory is creaky about whether it was owned by Peter Marsh’s family or some of the Crowleys. (maybe both at different times.)

Munching on our sandwiches and chips, we crossed the street and turned west to walk by the football field, soon to be turned into a parking lot after the new school was built out by the fairgrounds. We got a drink of water from the fountain in front of the original library with its Hobbit House wooden door in Bond Park. Then we passed the Chamber of Commerce, the Town Hall/Police Department and the Coffee Bar before reaching one of our favorites - the Silver Spruce Pharmacy.

Our destination was the soda fountain. While my father talked to Glen Swearingen, the pharmacist and owner, my brother and I decided between a cherry coke or a root beer float or an ice cream treat - sundae, soda, or milk shake. Most were served in cone shaped paper cups inserted into aluminum stands.

​Refreshed and fortified, we continued up the street, maybe stopping to watch the airbrush artist painting sweatshirts next to Western Brands. In the next block we ducked into the Taffy Shop to say hello to Mr. Slack and get a small box of our favorites - mint, lemon and cinnamon. On past the Community Church and the Dinner Bell and across Fall River for more ice cream at the Dairy King. My choice there was a chocolate dipped soft-swirl cone The bathrooms at Tregent Park mark that location.

Back across the street and turning east, we looked in the windows of Kings Casuals to see the latest women’s fashions and at the horse paintings and tiny carousel in the Haff Sisters studio before stopping at the Chevron to visit with Fred Bonelli when he wasn’t having to dash out to fill somebody’s gas tank or work on fixing a flat tire. If you’ve ever seen a brochure for Helen and Tom Justin’s original Lazy B Ranch/Chuckwagon on Dry Gulch Road, Fred is the cook in the cover photograph.

More food was on display at Hart’s Cottage Inn Buffeteria and further down that block there was another window full of meat under heat lamps at the Continental.Besides a bar, that was a fine dining establishment in several different incarnations. Next door we stopped to visit Lois Schmidt at the Estes Park Times and Old Fashioned Candy Store. Usually my father picked up some horehound drops and I went for the butterscotch disks or cinnamon bears.

One more stop - up Moraine to the original Tony’s in Gaslight Square where we picked up more sandwich fixings to enjoy at home or sometimes had a sloppy joe burger or smoked oyster pizza.to counteract the earlier inhalings of sugar. Stuffed to the gills, we might stop at the A&W (now the parking lot across from Snowy Peaks Winery) for a jug of root beer. And then it was home again to watch the stars, listen to the burble of the Big Thompson, and think about what to eat tomorrow.
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What do you remember about your early visits to Estes Park? They could be from half a century ago or last summer. Share them with us. This essay will appear in a slightly different form in the Estes Park Museum newsletter sometime in the coming year.

• The above postcard images can be purchased at hippostcard.com​

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