Day 1: Beginning with a Love Story and Honeymoon on Valentine's Day

Somehow it seems fitting to begin our Baldpate Inn 100 days Key Moments & Memories blog on Valentine's Day since The Baldpate Inn is really the result of a love story. As the story goes, after honeymooning in Estes Park, Gordon & Ethel Mace along with Gordon’s brother, Charles, were so in love with the area that they decided to Homestead here.

With their Homestead patent registered as complete on January 22, 1917, the family officially opened The Baldpate Inn at their homestead that same year.

The earliest news report is this Kansas City Star, circa 1916 article that talks about the Homestead being known as Baldpate and the Maces beginning to tie their property to the then popular novel Seven Keys to Baldpate.

The first local mention of The Baldpate Inn seems to be this 1917 story from the Loveland Daily Herald.

And amazingly since Charles was a photographer by trade, this appears to be the only photo of construction of the Baldpate Main Lodge.

An interesting news story from the Estes Park Trail tells about the selection of this particular property and a story of two brothers and their pocketknife.

Truth or folklore, we will never know! What do you think?

Written by Lois Smith