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The Elkhorn Hotels 

In The Poudre: A Photo History, Stanley Case discusses two Elkhorn “hotels” in the Elkhorn area, which I will call Elkhorn 1 and Elkhorn 2.  A second source is The Elkhorn House 1874 – 1890, by Robert V. Unfug, December 2000, Updated May 2005, 17 pages.  Unfug owns the north half of Section 20, R72W T9N on the Elkhorn, north of Lonetree Mountain, which he says, (supported by documents in his publication), is the location of the first Elkhorn House.

Both give a description of the structures being on the Elkhorn Creek between Log Cabin and gold-mining town of Manhattan, where gold was discovered in 1886 between Elkhorn and Seven Mile creeks.  The area experienced a mini-gold rush which lasted briefly until circa 1911 (you can look up Manhattan Colorado in Wikipedia).  

The specific locations for each hotel was a mystery at the beginning of the writing of the road tour of Boy Scout Road (fall 2008) but it has been resolved by careful study of Case’s photos which show structures from Elkhorn 2 and by the Unfug publication and an email about the location of his property which came from his sister in-law, Karen Unfug who is on the Historical Society Board of Diretors.

The Elkhorn 1 was built by Reed, Palmer and Company in 1874.  It went by several names according to Case: Elkhorn House, Palmer House, Norman House (Hotel). Unfug says the only name he has seen in a primary source is Elkhorn House.  Both Unfug and Case have a picture of an advertising brochure which shows a drawing of a two-story structure, which is to all appearances a hotel, most likely a “destination” hotel where people came to stay a while to enjoy hunting, fishing, hiking and the like, similar to the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park.  Unfug has in his publication several extensive reproductions of newspaper accounts of the Elkhorn House which describe the guests and their activities.  They appear to be a well-off group, indeed from high society, from Greeley and parts as far east as New York.  There is a puzzling reference to a Mrs. Dr. Bennett.  At first I thought it was a typo, then eventually concluded that the "Mrs." is included to indicate that Dr. Bennett is a woman.  The articles give conflicting elevations of 7,200 and 8,000 feet; Wikipedia resolves the issue at  8,474.

The hotel was owned by Charles Emerson (one of the remittance men), George H. West, and Charles H. Wheeler for two years before they closed in 1881.  Dr. George Norman then owned it for some years.  However, “when pioneer Norman Fry passed by the hotel [Elkhorn I] in May of 1889, it was closed.  Thereafter, the county changed the route of the road (now County Road 68C) to its present location bypassing the hotel.  Here is the second mystery: why was the road changed?  In January of 1890, the structure burned to the ground along with the outbuildings associated with it.  Elkhorn House was never rebuilt” (Case).   The hotel’s life span was 16 years, 1874 – 1890.  According to Unfug,  the Elkhorn House had been quite popular, but it was uninsured, or marginally insured, which may be the reason it was never rebuilt.  The rerouting of the road should not have been a major reason, as I study the map, because one could always make a left turn where 68C meets the Elkhorn and go down the creek to the hotel, were it to be rebuilt.  

The second Elkhorn began as a residence for Willis and Emma Miller and family of 9 who homesteaded on Elkhorn Creek in 1887 (13 years after the Elkhorn 1 was built and 3 years before it ended) about five miles west of Log Cabin near a wagon trail now 68C.  When postal authorities closed the post office at Manhattan they moved it to Millers who then built a store on the edge of road. Over the years they added more structures to accommodate travelers.  In 1916 – 1917 just after building a new and larger store and post office they traded it all to Appelton C. Worster for Log Cabin Hotel, store, post office and ranch (they thus owned the property for 30 years).  Worster held the property less than 1 year and sold to Chas A. Yancey who used the land to harvest timber for his sawmill in Windsor.  Three years later he sold to A. A. Maxwell.   From 1928 – 1946 (58 years) it was owned by Ole M. and Ester A. Nelson.  From 1946 – 1959 (13 years) Willard W. and Mary Jane Leonard used place as a fox farm (Red Feather Lakes area also had a fox farm).  Kenneth & Garnet Monroe bought it in 1959 and in 1965 the old hotel burned. They built a new house.  The life span of the hotel was 88 years, 1887 – 1965.  Photos in Case show the family and structures including a 1993 photo of original Miller Elkhorn store and post office and second store and post office building identified as being at 5210 County Road 68C.

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Early in our effort to determine the locations of the Elkhorn hotels, from studying the textual descriptions of their relative locations, and studying the map, we suspected that the road into the North Rim subdivision was the original route.  The Unfug email was the confirmation.  

The eastern access to the Elkhorn Creek from 74E is via North Rim Road, which is access to a private community and therefore not open to the public. The Mummy Range is visible in the distance. A few miles along this road is the Elkhorn Creek shown in the picture below, looking southeast down the drainage. 

Shortly after this valley the creek begins its rapid descent to the Poudre.

This picture looks west up the creek and shows what may have been the original wagon road.   

Explorations of the Elkhorn Drainage

We have spent many hours on horseback roaming the Elkhorn drainage in our attempt to understand the homesteading and settlement of this area.

In July 2005, we came across this deteriorating structure, above, and rock wall, below.  

Here we see an irrigation ditch, from lower right to upper left.

 We saw many two tracks throughout the Elkhorn area.  The Mummies are in the background.

Here is an example of one of the many unnamed drainages.  

There are lots of pretty flowers in the spring time.

As of this writing, my wife thinks she has a lead on the location of Billy Batterson’s homestead, over where the Elkhorn crosses Manhattan Road .  Stay tuned.

Elkhorn House

The following photos are from a June 2005 Historical Society visit to the Unfug property, site of the first Elkhorn House (destination hotel).