History of the River Forks Inn

At the turn of century, the Colorado & Southern Company conducted a stagecoach business with horses and coaches as shown in the picture below. They made a deal with the Johnson brothers to offer stagecoach rides from Loveland to Estes Park and back again, starting May 15, 1905. Frank Bartholf had anticipated the need of facilities for travelers up the Big Thompson canyon once the new road was finished. He had begun building an Inn, at the junction of the north and south branches of the river, when the road construction was first started.

1905 was a year of brisk business for the Inn at the forks, as daily stage travelers had a meal while the horses were changed. Some travelers stayed overnight. (See the notice from the Loveland newspaper detailing the stagecoach route.) That year, Frank Bartholf, with the help of State Senator William A. Drake convinced the Postal Service to establish a post office in his establishment. Because of this, the area became known as Drake. In the book Fort Collins & Larimer County: An Illustrated History, authors Thomas J. Noel and Ron D. Slader write, “The Forks Hotel offered good meals and respectable accommodations for travelers along the Big Thompson between Loveland and Estes Park. As Loveland was the nearest railhead to Estes and Rocky Mountain National park, this route was heavily used. Originally tourists came in horse-drawn stagecoaches, but by 1909 many came in Stanley Steamers. Frank Alderdyce bought The Forks in 1906 and also became postmaster. The post office remained in the hotel until 1973 when it moved into a nearby modular building.”

Difficult Access to The Big Thompson River

An English engineer and trapper established a trapping camp on the Big Thompson River in 1810. The Indians called the Big Thompson the Big Pipo. It is possible that Thompson, in his exploration of the river now named for him, was the first white man to view Long’s Peak at close range.

The Big Thompson flows out of the mountains onto the plains through a deep gorge cut through solid rock carving vertical cliffs several hundred feet high. This spectacular gorge is about two miles in length and in early days formed a natural barrier against easy access to the mountainous portion of the river. Just west of the gorge, or narrows, the landscape opens up into a protected area called Cedar Cove. It was called a cove because it is surrounded by high mountains and, except for the cut through the narrows, it forms a “box canyon.” It is a warm valley in winter. A map at the Ranger station above Estes Park shows Cedar Cove as a place where the Indians wintered because it was warm and protected with lots of fishing and hunting of all kinds of game. Signs of ancient Indian camps can still be found in Cedar Cove today, and it is still the home of much wildlife such as elk, deer, bear, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, etc.

The early history of the Big Thompson canyon is described in the book Reflection on the River edited by Sharlynn Wamsley: “One of the earliest settlers along the Big Thompson River valley was Mariano Medina, who in 1858 laid claim to the area west of what is now the town of Loveland… In 1862 the Holladay’s Overland coaches stopped at the Big Thompson River where it crossed Mariano’s property (see photo). This was the first eating stop for passengers headed west out of Denver and soon other services were also provided.”

The first road to Estes Park was also described by Sharlynn Wamsley, “In 1876 a road was constructed to the south over Pole Hill to provide a direct route from Loveland to Estes Park (See map above). Going west from Loveland on what is now 1st Street, past Rattlesnake Gulch, now Pinewood Reservoir) and on to the west side of Pole Hill, the route dropped into Muggins Gulch to join the St. Vrain toll road. The toll road up to the St. Vrain operated for only about 10 years when a spring flood destroyed it from one end to the other. The only remaining road into Estes Park was the Bald Mountain trail. Transporting tourists into the Park became a discouraging business. Due to the steep ascent up Pole Hill, combined with the 8,000 ft. elevation and bad winter weather, the Bald Mountain route failed to become popular, at least for the tourists.”

Because of these problems the mountainous portion of The Big Thompson river was accessed through Dickson Gulch, leading south out of Cedar Cove. Dickson Gulch provided access from the Bald Mountain Road that came in to the mountains south of the current highway 34.

A few miles up river from Cedar Cove, the Big Thompson forks and the north fork heads in the Mummy range, a part of Rocky Mountain National Park. The section of the Big Thompson from Cedar Cove to the fork was originally a cattle ranch, Frank Bartholf. In the area of the fork, Frank’s daughter homesteaded eighty acres she called Rosedale.

At the turn of the century there were no roads to Estes Park, except the one over Bald Mountain, and that was very rough and primitive. In those days, the settlers in the Big Thompson canyon thought that a road through the Big Thompson canyon from Loveland to Estes Park was neither possible nor probable, as so many of the high and perpendicular cliffs reached to the water’s edge, and if undermined, could not be supported and would keep crumbling down and never be safe. But people buying property in Estes Park wanted an easier way to get there, and they wanted it badly, as the old Bald Mountain climb was so difficult to get over. There was no way that the Estes park area could become a popular resort without a better way of getting to it.

Building the New Road

In Thompson Valley Tales, author Kenneth Jessen writes, “It wasn’t long before Larimer County Sheriff C.H. Bond inspired a petition drive suggesting that a public road be build directly up the Big Thompson canyon though the narrows, then to Drake, and up the untouched South Fork to Estes park. The petition was successful, and the Larimer County commissioners began accepting bids in 1903 for road construction.

“Local contractor William A. Riley won the bid at $27,000, but the commissioners had only $24,000 to spend. The project came under a great deal of public scrutiny, but Riley was authorized to begin work. He was given only one year to complete the project, and work proceeded at a frantic pace.

“By June of 1904, Riley completed the road up the Big Thompson Canyon. The Larimer County commissioners apparently were still lacking the full amount to pay Riley and made claims that the work had not been executed properly. Riley wasn’t a man to cross. He was the largest grading contractor in northern Colorado, and among his accomplishments was the grading work for the Loveland Great Western sugar factory.

“When the county commissioners refused to pay, Riley declared the road up the Big Thompson Canyon to be his private property, fenced off both ends, and hired guards. To further control any attempt to use the road, Riley tore up some of the bridges. Along with several Loveland businessmen, Riley organized the Loveland & Estes Park Railroad Company to utilize the road for the purpose of a railroad connecting with the Colorado & Southern in Loveland. Such a railroad would allow tourists to travel by rail directly to Estes Park.

“The commissioners counterattacked by sending a labor force into the canyon to finish the work on the road. Riley ordered the men out of the canyon and began work on a house right in the middle of the grade. In the lawsuit that followed, the commissioners found themselves the defendants and eventually ended up paying Riley the full amount.
“Although historically important, Riley’s pioneer road up the Big Thompson Canyon would qualify today as nothing more than a jeep trail. (Like the road shown on the left.) It was a single lane dirt road except for widely spaced turnouts. It lacked shoulders and was built only a few feet above the river. During the spring, certain sections of the road would be inundated, making safe travel impossible.

“The Riley road was so narrow that it led to some strange events. For example, the stagecoach from Loveland to Estes Park had the right-of-way both directions. If the coach met a wagon at a point far from a turn-out, the men on the coach would unhitch the on-coming wagon and walk the horses around the coach. Next, the men would remove the wheels from the wagon and roll them by the coach. Finally, the bed of the wagon would be placed on the hillside allowing the stage to pass. The wagon would then be reassembled, and the two vehicles would continue their journey.”

Stanley Steamers

“In the spring of 1907, D.O. Osborn and sons formed the Loveland-Estes Park Auto Company, which proved to be very profitable,” wrote Sharlynn Wamsley. “They started transporting tourists from Loveland to Estes with three five-passenger touring Stanley Steamers. The next year the company ordered some of the first of the nine-passenger Stanley Steamers and later the twelve passenger models. The Steamers were powerful and provided a nice ride, but frequent stops for water were necessary and it took a trained engineer to operate them. The company was purchased in 1916 by the Rocky Mountain Transportation Company who changed to the White, a gas-operated bus.”

When driving up the canyon, certain rules had to be observed: the speed limit was 12 miles an hour, except on-rare-straight stretches of the road where a speed of 20 miles an hour was allowed; horns were to be sounded when approaching curves, vehicles, pedestrians or saddle animals; muffler cutouts had to be closed when passing horses. Teams had the right of way at all times and if the horses appeared nervous, automobiles had to take the outer edge of the road with the engine stopped until the horses passed. By 1910, the Big Thompson road had been improved somewhat (see the photo), and that increased the traffic. See the photos of the road through the narrows in 1910 and the bridge crossing the north fork as the road approached the Forks Inn from the east.

Frank Alderdyce bought The Forks hotel about 1906 and also became Postmaster. Most Coloradoans know about Enos Mills, the "father of Rocky Mountain National Park” but few know about his younger brother, Enoch Joe Smith. It seems Joe came to Estes Park as a teenager and trained as a naturalist and guide under brother Enos at Longs Peak Inn, near Estes Park. Then, after a few years as an outstanding football coach in Texas, Joe returned to Colorado in 1912 where for the next two years he leased and managed the Forks Hotel for Mr. Alderdyce (See his postcard). A succession of owners and lessors have come and gone since then.

Motor Cars Arrive

Eventually gas motor cars began to make the trip to Estes Park by way of Big Thompson canyon. The Brunner family enjoyed stopping at Forks Inn each summer. As shown in the photo below they enjoyed making the trip in their 1915 Buick touring car. Julian M. Bruner remembers, “[in 1908] We stayed first in South Platt Canyon at Park Siding, but after a week there we moved north and took rooms at the Forks Hotel in the Big Thompson canyon. We stayed there a month or so. Meredith and I had a wonderful time exploring the nearby mountain streams, especially the North Thompson… I went with drivers of Stanley Steamers (who stopped at Forks Hotel for lunch) to Estes Park. They were delivering trunks.”

In 1915, Frank Alderdyce returned to the position of postmaster at Drake and he ran the hotel until 1918, when Almon D. Galloway took it over. He ran the post office and hotel until 1919. At that time, Mrs. Lena Salisbury became postmistress in the hotel. Then again in 1920, Frank Alderdyce returned to run the hotel and post office, until 1927. A succession of postmasters held the post at Drake from 1927 to 1930. These were Ellis S. Buck, Ed J. Docker, A. C. McMillin. Then Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Hayden purchased the Forks Inn and were to live and work there for over 40 years.

The land on which the Forks Inn is built lies between two rivers and has several springs. In the past, some of these springs formed permanent ponds. One such pond was located where the highway now passes in front of the Inn, as shown in the 1920 photo below. The widening of the road in 1920 was responsible to a large degree for the rapid settlement of the canyon after that date. It was probably at that time that the pond in front of the Forks Hotel was covered over for the improved road.

“Until 1928 the road was one lane, with turnouts for passing cars,” writes Wamsley. “The county continued making improvements, widening the road where they could and raising the low places. In the 1930s, during the depression, work crews were kept busy. Earning 50 cents an hour, the men worked in crews numbering from 20 to 45 men. Each man was allowed to work only two to four days a week depending on the size of his family. They removed dangerous ledges and widened sharp turns, making the road safer and easier to travel. In the spring of 1933 there were 300 names on the waiting list for work on this project. A lot of roadwork was also done along the Big Thompson River valley east of the narrows. Crews upgraded roads and built seven new bridges.”

Paving the Highway

Joyce Miller remembers the improvements made to the road by the Highway Department: “Jack and I lived at the Forks Hotel for three months in the summer of 1934. He was with the Highway Department, making a paved road up the canyon. Several others in the group lived across the river in cabins but all ate three meals a day at the hotel. There were bedrooms up stairs at the hotel. I remember a big dining room, a small living room where the women in our group played cards and did some mending.”

Sharlynn Wamsley describes the good years in the Big Thompson canyon as 1938 to 1976: “Opening the ‘Gateway to the Rockies’ did exactly what the Loveland Businessmen hoped. The highway from Loveland through the canyon to Estes Park was now well paved and continued on to Fall River Pass over trail Ridge, making it the ‘highest paved through highway in the world.’ It drew tourists from all over the United States and created the new businesses to support them.

“The road never exceeded a six-percent grade, far different from the narrow, dangerous roadway of the past. What often took the traveler two days to travel could now be done in under two hours. It’s varied scenery ranged from the hot dusty fields and pastures of the foothills, to breath-taking canyon walls and beautiful mountain scenery. It passed the Marianna Butte, near Loveland, passes the Devil’s Backbone, a rocky ridge of Dakota oil bearing sand with its famous ‘Keyhole,’ then went on through the Narrows’ steep slopes with only room for the road and the river. The road then entered the mountain meadows with their rock-bedded river, the vast forests clinging to the precipices, and on up until dropping into the breath-taking valley that surrounded the Estes Park village. The Big Thompson Canyon is an area of enormous beauty. From the North Fork through Glen Haven it was 37 miles of vacation wonderland enjoyed by people from all over the world.

“With at least eight filling stations to service the cars and distribute maps and brochures vacationers found it easy to learn the special landmarks in the canyon. They enjoyed trout fishing, hiking, picnicking and horseback riding. Lookout spots and picnic areas offer pleasant places to stop and enjoy the majestic scenery and a place to splash in the cool rushing water.”

Ray and Helen Hayden had developed a very successful campground in conjunction with the “Stage Stop,” as the Forks Hotel has generally been known since its early days. They had done some extensive remodeling on the building, enlarging the café to include a grocery store. Times were changing, the population of the Drake area had increased dramatically and the Postal Service thought the Drake Post Office should have a separate building. The Haydens leased ground next to the Stage Stop for a new modular post office. James Venrick was appointed postmaster.

The 1976 Flood

On the last weekend of July 1976, a 500-year flood occurred in the canyon that destroyed all of the filling stations, including the one at the Inn shown above, and damaged nearly every lodging structure. All the bridges were destroyed or badly damaged.

Two hundred and fifty two homes were damaged or destroyed and 144 people were killed. The estimated damage from the one Saturday night’s flood was over 20 million dollars. The road was totally destroyed in most areas of the canyon. People were stranded, cars were washed away, debris was littered everywhere along the river.

One of the few commercial structures left standing with little damage was the Forks Stage Stop, although the Hayden house, located across the highway was totally destroyed. The day after the flood (photo on the right), rescue helicopters were used to pluck the lucky people from the steep hillsides and transport them to Drake where the Red Cross had set up an aid station in Drake handing out sandwiches and drinks.
An article printed later in the Johnstown Newspaper stated: Many Drake citizens tell of the heroic efforts of Ray and Helen Hayden, the 68-year-old couple who heroically ran from house to house Saturday night, racing the onrushing waters of the Big Thompson to warn friends. ‘They must have saved a hundred lives,’ one man said.”

In Reflection on the River: The Big Thompson Canyon Flood, Joseph Applebaum, from St. Louis, related a story typical of many tourists who had crowded the Big Thompson canyon that weekend. His father and step mother, with their travel trailer had made a trip to Colorado and were camped in the Hayden campground at the Stage Stop. He tried to call about them, but couldn’t get through. Joseph wrote, “Later I talked to Ray Hayden, the operator of the campground where my father had been camped… He told me that my father had gassed up his car and left the campground about five minutes before the wall of water hit at Drake. It seems he was trying to drive out of the canyon, but of course we know now the road was jammed with other cars trying to drive out. Most all of those drivers and passengers were lost. We were told that neither my father’s car nor his travel trailer were ever recovered.”

Helen Hayden later wrote, “Everything was so dark without electricity. But when it would lightning, which was often, we would see the debris and campers and small cabins going down the river. I remember one small camper riding the waves. A woman was in the window screaming for us. When propane tanks and bottles would hit a rock and break the gauge, we would get a terrible odor. We were all anxious for morning to come but were dreading what we would see. As we walked to the hotel, the hummingbirds were thick, flying around our heads, and all their feeders were gone. Fish were all over the ground, and what a sight to see— no houses, no nothing, not even a piece of a stone or icebox.”

Rebuilding after the Flood

The Forks Hotel sustained water damage and remodeling was necessary on the ground floor (see photo, right). The gas pumps and storage tank were removed, as it would no longer be legal to have a gas station there. Before long, the Haydens sold the property to Lee Shirk who began a more extensive remodel of the west end of the building. Mr. Shirk was killed in a hunting accident before the remodel was finished. His son Mike took over, but was tragically also killed two years later. The west end of the building was constructed with a new two-story high log interior with a beautiful wooden bar and professional rock-work. A fireplace was built on the main level and also in a new lounge on the second floor level. The mason contractor was Dennis H. Gribble. His carved stone plaque can be seen today in the new part of the building (see photo).

Susan DeJesus purchased the property and tried to make a go of the business for a while and then sold it to the Joe Shaffer family. The property had been divided into two particles several years before by the Haydens, and Joe Shaffer planned to develop the old Stage Stop building and eventually sell that parcel to pay for the rest of the property on which they would build homes for the four sons in the family, Joey, John, Jeff and Jerry. The boys worked hard improving the old building. Jerry Shaffer had a Country band that played regularly for patrons of the restaurant and bar. Over the years, Jerry Shaffer developed a large following of fans. Because of his music the old Stage Stop became a lively entertainment spot in the early 1980s. Jeff Shaffer took over the payments on the Stage Stop building and was able to eventually sell it for enough to pay for the other half of the property where the family had improved the campground. Joe Shaffer’s dream was realized, but he tragically died three months later. The Schaffer family still lives on the beautiful park-like meadow just west of The River Forks Inn. It continues to be a popular RV camping site.

Jim Crill and his wife took over the Stage Stop property, enlarging the kitchen to make it into a profitable restaurant. After a few years, the Crills retired and sold out to the partnership of Brad Lucero and Mehzud Haghighi (Max).

In 2004, the present owners, William E. Jones and his wife Ann, purchased the property. They spent two years remodeling the rooms upstairs, with the aim of restoring the Inn to what it might have been in the early days. It is now a Bed and Breakfast facility with a mountain lodge atmosphere. Two Jones sons, Roy and Troy are bringing back the tradition that Jerry Schaffer started by singing, and the River Forks Inn features other musicians every weekend. The Inn operates the only restaurant in The Big Thompson canyon between Estes Park and Loveland, and it now includes a charming beer garden. The newly decorated rooms offer tourists a delightful place to stay while sight-seeing in the Big Thompson canyon and the Estes Park area.

The Joneses have developed an "Event Center" where weddings and concerts are held outdoors. There is parking space for up to 40 cars, and includes 12 river-side RV spaces with 30 amp electrical hookups.