Ever wonder how to get water from one side of a
mountain to the other? Our Key
Collection has part of the answer.
The Big Thompson water project did just that in the
Colorado mountains, and we have a key and key hole donated in 1944 from that
project.
"This key was presented to Baldpate Inn
through the courtesy of S.S. Magoffin Company.
This key was forged from the last piece of drill rod, drilling the last
hole in the last round of the Alva B. Adams Tunnel. This drill rod was removed from the ground at
a point 42,994 feet from the tunnel portal; the longest single heading known to
engineering history. Forged and finished
by James B. Pearce”
Water coming and going for The Baldpate Inn has
had its challenges as well. When we bought
the Inn, our property was part of a development project, Baldpate Estates,
which had its own metro district for water and sewer. For the first several
years, they furnished these utilities for us.
Not to be too graphic, at the time we were using
holding tanks for our waste, but since our business grew rather quickly, we
were all surprised when the tanks couldn’t keep up and another solution was
needed. First we went with our own
septic field but ultimately ended up with the “flush & forget” (as they
called it) attachment to the Upper Thompson Sanitation District. Let me tell
you a two mile long 1,500 foot drop service line is not cheap to put in the rocky mountains!
In the meantime, the Baldpate Estates was phasing
out as an entity and with it, much needed maintenance to the water system. I’ll
never forget Father’s Day 1998, with 200+ dining reservations, and we ran out of
water!! We struggled for several hours,
using every dish and piece of silverware we owned, but ultimately had to close
and call our guests to cancel.
A very long story short, along with another bank
loan later, today we are blessed to have our own water system. Our system
includes two adjudicated wells, a 40,000 gallon holding tank, and an
augmentation plan that entailed answering (and thankfully winning based on historic use) a water
rights court case filed by the US Government against me as
property owner. And as a bonus, I have
managed to somehow maintain my licensing as a Class D Water Operator (I know
that means nothing to most of you, but let me tell you, even counting my
college Chemistry days, it was the hardest test I ever took!)
So water,
water everywhere…… I’m remain thankful
we have some to drink!
Written by Lois Smith
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