Estes Park Events: The Heritage Festival

Step back to a time when people depended on each other, the land and animals for survival. Directly connected to the original means by which we all live today, the early pioneers led the way to establish Estes Park, preserving a lasting heritage.
The fourth annual Estes Park Heritage Festival will take place in Bond Park on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 23 and 24 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. The Heritage Festival re-creates times gone by, filling Bond Park with history.
Watch live demonstrations of crafting, quilting and woodcarving. Enjoy old time music and events on stage, the petting zoo, Stanley Steamer car rides, wagon rides and more. Food is one of the main attractions — baked goods and kettle corn waft through the mountain air. Biggins catering will provide lunch items each day. Steve Lamont of Nutz 4 Life, a local nut-roasting business since 1998, will sell fresh-roasted cinnamon nuts at the festival. The Kiwanis Club will sell root beer floats for a dollar, raising funds for club projects.
New this year is a seven-station encampment, showcasing the old ways of life. Lance Grabowsky, from Wyoming, will present primitive skills at the stations.
“The individuals in the differing encampments will be showing the way of life that the frontiersmen endured,” said Claire Beasley, Heritage Festival board member. “They are going to have someone with a great big pot showing how they cooked over a stove, furs… mountain man type things.”
Jim (Tattoo) Johnson will also demonstrate mountain man living. MacGregor Ranch will give wagon rides, have a booth and give kids a chance to build a log cabin. The Stanley Museum will have a booth and provide the Stanley Steamer car rides. The Estes Park Museum will present Estes Park history and sell books written on the subject.
“We are trying to educate people as to what life was like in the 1880s to 1920s — how people lived in this area — to help people have a better understanding of how this area came about and how we survived up here,” said Beasley. “Because you didn’t have the roads, the infrastructure to get goods up here, you had to hunt. How did you survive? You didn’t have Safeway. You grew your garden. You lived on the land. You didn’t have clothing stores so you had to make your own clothing. You bought your yardage, maybe, from traders. You didn’t have towels and linens to buy, so you made your quilts.
“Everybody had to cooperate together where you didn’t just live your independent life.” Beasley continued. “One person impacted the other person. Going down to Lyons, which was a 20-mile hike or on a horse… bringing supplies and mail up to you.
“Lyons was the epicenter. The main road was via Lyons, St. Vrain, Allenspark to here. So it was Alexander MacGregor who said, ‘Let’s make a better road’ and received money from his mother-in-law and put the road in from Lyons to Estes Park and they charged a toll, which is Highway 36. People rebelled against the toll, tore down the toll booth and then they opened it up to the public.”
“Charles Hewes started a system that would bring people up via wagon… and a number of the lodges went together to promote this to get people up here in larger quantities. It was very difficult because they didn’t have access to mountain stores… it was a very isolated way of life and you had to have survival skills. You had to build up this cache of food and clothing to survive. You had to plan ahead in June, July, August and September to make sure you had things stocked up — hats, mittens, coats, boots, wood.
“Either you raise your own chickens or you didn’t eat. You had a milking cow or you didn’t have your butter, or your milk. If somebody was ill, somebody was expecting a baby, somebody was elderly, you depended on your neighbor to keep an eye on you; you depended on your neighbor to plow you out. They cared for one another.
“What I’m trying to show — the educational — not only for adults but for children, is how rough life was up here and how special it was because these people were extraordinary individuals.”

Rent a house in Estes Park for the Heritage festival with Estes Park Central.