David E. Steiner

Retired USAF, Teacher, Dad, Grandfather, Curmudgeon

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Old and New

 

Old and new things seem to be very much on our minds. When the snow melts, the aspens finally leaf out and the alders sprout beside the stream we begin to look around to see what’s new and how well the old things have fared. I was reminded of this shortly after the WIND readers did their part by cleaning up the litter along Highway 7. Mostly we found bits and pieces of cars and we collected a sack full of truck parts, including the license plate, a quarter of a mile south of Eagle Plume’s. I found that Budweiser is the predominant choice of those who toss their beer cans out the window. But there wasn’t really a large amount. The road in front of St.Catherine’s was very clean; no film canisters or other photographic trash, which is amazing, considering the number of pictures taken there every year.

A few days later Patty Dever, who helped pick up with us, told me that a section of the road now had more beer cans and a whiskey bottle. She has picked them up. Old and new. It’s new trash, but it’s old stuff. Fortunately, the amount of trash is much less than it was before organizations gathered trash. Must be something about the setting that keeps people from littering. Perhaps most of us are more conscious of the need to protect the environment.

We are ambivalent about the old and new. A friend of mine who doesn’t move as fast as he used to, won’t buy a cordless telephone, even though he can’t hear the telephone from his front porch. “Newfangled," he sneers. On the other hand, he enjoys playing music on his stereo system.

I went on a short walk up the Wind River Trail the other day, to see what remains of the Wig-Wam Tea Room. It was out of business when I was young and I walked down the trail from a point about a quarter of a mile north of Wind River Ranch. That part of the trail was closed years ago because it was on a dangerous curve and there was no place to park. The trail head is now across the road from the Ranch entrance. The 160 acre homestead was sold to a family in 1950 and sold again in 1989 to the Nature Conservancy which donated the land to RMNP.

The Park hasn’t figured out what to do with the property, but the original homestead cabin is still there. It’s not in very good shape, but it’s a monument to Anna Wolfrom, AKA Anna Wolfrom Dove, who built it and raised a crop of potatoes to “prove up” the place and secure ownership. Below the cabin you can see the field next to the stream where she planted. It must have been very hard work.

The Wig-Wam was just one of several tea rooms in the area:  the Perkins’ at what is now Eagle Plume’s, Katherine Garetson’s Big Owl, among others. Now we are having a resurgence, this time with coffee. Perhaps it won’t be long before we see a Peaberry’s or Starbuck’s nearby. It would be a welcome addition, and a reminder of the old days.

We also see the old and new in the people of the valley. Almost every month we run an obituary about a person who has been here for years. We have new arrivals, some of whom put down roots, some of whom move on after a few years. Several commercial properties are for sale at the moment. The new store next to the Post Office, Dusty Trails, is the latest in a long line of occupants. It’s new, but it specializes in things of the past. John Calden makes boots and shoes the old fashioned way, by hand. June Wesel weaves rugs, place mats and such the old fashioned way, by hand. Sinn’s Western Trail deals in antiques.

We are caught in a tug-of-war between the past and the present. The past seems more important to us. We forget that, as Billy Joel put it: “the good old days weren’t always good and tomorrow’s not as bad as it seems.” People come here to live and work, retire or have a summer home. Some stay and some go, but the things they build most often stay until they burn down. Some are palaces and some are shacks,  but there’s a story, about the people who built them, lived in them and created a past, in every one.

 

 

Columns

© 1985 – 2003, David E. Steiner

Allenspark Wind Columns:

Introduction

Why Allenspark?

Going Riding [August, 1985]

Electricity

Used Cars

Peace and Quiet [1986]

Liberals & Conservatives

Going to the Movies

The Screened Porch

The Beginning of The Season

The Weather

The Hilltop Guild Bazaar

The End of The Season

The Gift of Time

The Beavers

Addresses [1987]

Hiking

Watching the Trees Grow

Postal Rates

Changes in Estes Park

Square Dancing at the Pow Wow

Back to the Hilltop Guild Bazaar

The Solstices

Bird Feeders

Elevators

The Estes Park Hardware Store [1988]

Visitors

Limousine Service

A Memorial Service

A Hummingbird

Garbage

A Hiking Trip

The Estes Park Public Library

Wild Life

Riparian Rights [1989]

Weather

Fences

Commuting

Mountain Friendliness

A Motorcycle Trip

Satellite Television

“Weaving Mountain Memories”

Hotel Rates in the Old Days

The Price of Propane [1990]

The Front Range Almanac

June

Modes of Transportation

Miller Moths

My 50th Column

Modern Conveniences

Rock Climbing

On the Death of Otto Walter, Postmaster

Otto’s Memorial Service

A Big Owl Pot-Luck Dinner

A Whine About Telephone Service [1991]

After the Persian Gulf War

Some Changes in the WIND

The Trip to the Mountains

The Mountains in the Summer

Visitors

Of Dogs, Music, and Children

Muhlenburg County

To My Grandson

The Sale of Longs Peak Inn

World War II  [1992]

Murphy’s Law and the Computer

The South St. Vrain Canyon

“Whiteout”

The Hazards of Volunteering

Crime in Our Valley

Infestations

On the Death of Charles Eagle Plume

Can We All Get Along?

A Partridge in a Pear Tree

Lost Horizon [1993]

Walking

Rumors About a Visit by the Pope

Progress?

More About Fences

Woodpeckers

The Visit of Pope John Paul II

Forest Fires

The New Sewage System

The Snow Pool

The Good Old Days [1994]

The WIND’s 20th Anniversary

The Bunce School

The Shooting Gallery

The Estes Park Museum

Our Government

U.S. West Takes a Hit

The Year of the Hummingbirds

A New “Yield” Sign

Growth in Allenspark

Private Telephones?

The Salvation Army

Creation Science [1995]

Devolutionizing Big Government

Risks

Airports

Fort D.A. Russell

Domestic Terrorism

Old and New

Barney Graves

Life in the Wilderness

What’s In a Name?

Arthur C. Clarke

 

The Estes Park Trail-Gazette Columns:

July 1983

Carpentry

Estes Cone

Johnny Grant

Observations in Estes Park

The Bath House

Waving

The Sutherland’s Ice House

How Old is Charles Eagle Plume?

Dogs

Christmas Trees

Tree Murder

Mountain Driving

Garbage

Mail Boxes

More About Mail Boxes

“Are you related to ....?”

Spring

An Accident

The Wild Cat

A July Reunion

A Visit to Baldpate Inn

Opening Cabins

Summer

The Times, They Have Changed

Death and Transfiguration

The Population Explosion

The March of Time

Faith-Based Social Services

Looking for Pitch

Recent Writings I

Recent Writings II

Recent Writings III

Recent Writings IV

Recent Writings V

Recent Writings VI

 

 

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