MP 235 – 236: “The Haystacks” and Spruce Lodge

Spruce Lodge was an important stop along the Georgetown-Empire-Middle Park Wagon Road on the Grand County side of the Pass. Here travelers received a meal before the rest of the trip to Hot Sulphur Springs. In the introduction of Christmas on Berthoud Pass, Louise Harrison writes in the introduction “The wagon road over Berthoud Pass was completed in 1875 and HAYSTACK developed into ‘Spruce Lodge’, a station for the tri-weekly stage to Hot Sulphur Springs. All trace of the historic site was obliterated when the route became transcontinental U. S. Highway 40 and was paved for automobiles in 19381” She wrote in Empire and the Berthoud Pass “A particularly fine field lay six miles below the summit in marshy meadows made by beaver dams. Here, the grass was cut, stacked, and packed over the range on burrows. The site became known as Haystacks because of the two big haystacks that stood there unclaimed for many years.2”

Route Mile Marker X Y Longitude Latitude 3U.S. Highway 40 235 435647.48 4411495.14 -105.752262 39.851040

236 435354.94 4409858.43 -105.75519 39.836273

Spruce Lodge Photo provided by and used with permission from The Grand County Historical Association

1 Harrison, Louise C. Christmas on Berthoud Pass: One Hundred Years Ago Privately 1965 2 Harrison, Louise C. Empire and the Berthoud Pass published by Big Mountain Press, Denver 1964 Page 134 3 Taken from the Colorado Department of Transportation’s website: http://apps.coloradodot.info/dataaccess/Highways/index.cfm?fuseaction=HighwaysMain

MP 235 – 236:“The Haystacks” and Spruce Lodge (PAW 2012) 1

In the book, A Dangerous Crossing and What Happened on the Other Side, Emma Shepard Hill, who was thirteen in 1864, published her letters to her girlfriend back east. The letter quoted below tells about her trip from Empire, over Berthoud Pass, to enjoy the hot springs (now Hot Sulphur Springs). In a letter dated October 1868, she writes “Berthoud Pass is the best one over the range in this section. The mountains all around are anywhere from 10,000 to 14,000 feet high; but the trail goes through a gap in the range only about 11,000 feet high. Gray’s Peak, to the left, is 14,300 feet, and Bald Mountain nearly as high. All the range mountains go above timber-line, which is 11,000 feet.

The trail is very steep. In places regular stair steps are cut in the hillside. First a stone, and the exposed root of a tree, make these stairs; but mostly they are stones. Long bunches of moss hang from the limbs of the trees, and the blue jays make a great chattering. Often one sees an eagle soaring far above the trail.

We expected to reach the Hay Stacks the first night; but we had spent so much time packing and repacking the old mule that we did not get within five miles of them, but camped in a beautiful little park, where a stream of water right from the snow ran through it, and eventually reached the Pacific; for we had now crossed the Continental Divide.

The Hay Stacks are a landmark over there. Two large, long stacks stand out in an open valley. They are now brown with age. No one seems to know how they came there; for no white men live near and the Indians were never known to work as much as that would mean; and besides, they would not know how to cut the hay, nor have the implements to do it with. …”

She continues writing that “the Arapahoes had come into South Park, had a fight with the Utes, had taken several scalps, were now on their way to North Park,” Major Powell (of Grand Canyon fame) told the party that they should stay in his cabin that night.

“No Indians came at daybreak; but my father said we would not stay longer, and we packed up and were ready to start soon after eight o’clock. We traveled till nearly night, but camped before we reach the Hay Stacks; for there were eleven lodges of Indians there – mostly squaws and old men.” 1

In a brochure published by the Grand County Historical Association called Old Stage Coach Routes in Middle Park 1870 – 1910, Spruce Lodge is described as “‘At the foot of the steepest portion (of the West Side of Berthoud Pass) was a rest stop called Spruce Lodge which at first afforded two dampish cabins, but which developed by 1900 into a solid and well-maintained structure of squared spruce poles, two and a half storeys (sic) high with a carefully faced rock terrace. It offered meals at all hours and maintained a

1 Hill, Emma Shepard A Dangerous Crossing and What Happened on the Other Side The Smith- Brooks Company 1914 Pages 76 - 94

MP 235 – 236:“The Haystacks” and Spruce Lodge (PAW 2012) 2

corral for livestock.’ It was close to the last hairpin turn on highway 40, at the foot of Berthoud Pass but no trace of it remains today”

Stage on the Grand County side of the Pass Photo provided by and used with permission from The Grand County Historical Society

In the Grand County Historical Association 2007 Community Calendar, the following information is provided about the pioneer, R. W. (Dick) McQueary. “In 1892, Dick, newly married, began freighting between Hot Sulphur Springs and George Town’s railroad terminal. He moved boxes of merchandise for the general store, barrels of whiskey for saloons and machinery for sawmills. On one of these trips he decided to build cabins closer to Berthoud Pass. His crew built several log buildings 6 miles from the top of the pass and named it ‘Spruce Lodge’”.

Photo by author - 2004

MP 235 – 236:“The Haystacks” and Spruce Lodge (PAW 2012) 3

In the SPOKE, Grand County Historical Association’s newsletter, dated Summer 2003, there is an article called Spruce Lodge???, written by Don Woster. Using old photos and a 1920 map, the organization under Mr. Woster was able to find the location of the Spruce Lodge. With the help of Deborah Carr and Lou Ladrigan they located the original auto road‘s mileage posts for 380 and 390. Using a 1920 map with those mileage posts on it, they were able to find flat section of ground with remnants of discarded cans and a possible “two holer”.

Spruce Lodge Photo provided by and used with permission from The Grand County Historical Society

The Federal Highway Administration provided this 1920 map. It is named:

U. S. Bureau of Public Roads Berthoud Pass Project Empire to Fraser Colorado

This map shows the location of Spruce Lodge.

MP 235 – 236:“The Haystacks” and Spruce Lodge (PAW 2012) 4

Author’s Note: There is confusion about where the “Haystacks” were located. So information about another location is included as well.

In the Grand County Historical Association Journal, Volume V., Number 1, dated February 1985 in the article Ranching and Irrigation in Grand County by Charles C. Fisk, another location is suggested for the Haystacks.

“Two young men, John E. (Jack) Sumner and Ed Chipman, were sure the government would establish an army post in Middle Park. That, and agitation for a wagon road over Vasquez Pass, indicated to them that there would be a good demand for hay, which could be harvested from natural meadows. Consequently they took squatters’ rights on upper Fraser River. Lela McQueary tells how these squatters’ rights eventually became Cozens’ Ranch in her book, Widening Trails. With the help of men and burros, Sumner and Chipman cut wilo grass with hand scythes and piled two long stacks in August of 1863. No market developed and the hay stood for several years, turning dark and worthless with age. The place became a landmark known as Two Stacks Ranch… The first roadhouse in Middle Park was built on the old Two Stacks Ranch, twelve miles from the top of Berthoud. In 1874, George Grimshaw relinquished his squatter’s rights to William Z. (Billy) Cozens, well-known former sheriff of Gilpin county… No longer known by its original name, the place was called Cozens’ Ranch.”

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MP 235 – 236:“The Haystacks” and Spruce Lodge (PAW 2012) 5