August 18, 2013 – A Relatively “Down” Day – Baldpate Inn

This morning we did a bit of cleaning … something we can’t escape even when on the road.

This afternoon, we headed for horse show at the Estes Park Fairgrounds to watch the draft horse pull.  When we arrived at the arena,

there was absolutely nothing going on … as they were under a lightning delay (not surprising as we’d seen a brilliant ground strike during the short drive to the Fairgrounds).  However, there were a couple of sculptures.

Cowboy Up

A Mother’s Love

We also discovered the draft horse pull event had not even been scheduled for this year’s event!  Oh, well.

From there we drove to see the rustic Baldpate Inn, built in 1917 at an elevation of 9,000 feet on a dead end dirt road in the shadow of Twin Sister Mountain.

The Inn, which had electricity, indoor plumbing and hot and cold running water upon its opening, today boasts charming B&B accommodations, renown dining, and a delightful live theater.

The Inn’s balcony and dining room provide some great views of Estes Park in the valley more than 1/2 mile below.

Originally known as the Mace Hotel, it is best known for its key collection whose antecedents date back to the Inn’s naming   The Inn was named after the mystery novel “Seven Keys to Baldpate” by Earl Derr Biggers who, upon visiting the property, stated that the inn was so similar to the heretofore ‘imaginary” Baldpate Inn.  In the novel, each of seven visitors traveled to the closed-in-winter hotel and thinks he’she has the only key to the Inn.  The Mace was subsequently renamed the “real” Baldpate Inn and in keeping with the storyline, the Mace family gave each visitor their very own key. 

This tradition continued until the outbreak of World War I when the price of metal became so expensive that the owners were no longer able to give keys away.  The loyal guests who returned yearly were so disappointed that they began their own tradition of bringing a key back to the inn with them each year.  Legend has it that the competition between guests became so fierce to bring the best and most exotic key each year that the Maces decided to begin a display of all the keys.

Decorative Keys Hanging Outside the Inn

This was the beginning of the world’s largest key collection which has grown of over 30,000 keys, including examples from the Pentagon, Westminster Abby, Mozart’s wine cellar, and even Frankenstein’s castle, Adolf Hitlers’ Bavarian mountain retreat at Berchtesgaden to name a few.

Thousands of Keys hanging from the log ceiling

The first Key presented to the Baldpate Inn in 1923 by Clarence Darrow

A key to the US Capitol

Key to the First United Air Lines “Mainliner”

Hotel room keys from around the US

Old Fort House, Sandwich, MA (circa 1640)

Even a Keystone from Pennsylvania

And one appropriately named the “Last Key” (one used to secure the bolts on a coffin)

The Baldpate’s guest register has included presidents including Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, George Bush; movie celebrities Lana Turner, Jean Harlow and Roy Rogers; captains of industry Henry Ford and Randolph Hearst; folk heroes Buffalo Bill Cody; and world renowned figures Thomas Edison, Jack London and Tetrazinni.

This evening, we gathered with our wine and several bowls of Orville Redenbacher’s buttered popcorn outside Dave and Debi’s coach to watch Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman, Ernest Borgnine, Richard Dryfuss and Helen Mirren in “Red”, a typical Willis adventure film with some of the funniest lines ever.  Meanwhile, a few hundred yards away we were serenaded by a band of coyotes in or on the fringes of our campground.

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