Glenwood Springs Colorado

In May 1899, a group of fashionable women gathered for an outing on Grand Avenue in front of the Glenwood Hotel. The group includes (as identified on the back of the original): "Mrs. Ed Taylor, Sadie Kern, Mrs. Heisler, Mrs. Kilber, Mrs. Dickson, Mrs. Parkinson, and Mrs. Clark." The driver was Brink Barlow.

Overlooking Glenwood Springs around 1900

Glenwood Springs has a special history regarding aviation activities: we are possibly home to the fourth oldest airport in the U.S.!
Glenwood's original airport activities can be dated back to 1913 on a graded polo field initially located in the area that now holds the current high school on Grand Avenue.
Operational airfields existed as early as 1909 in the United States, but these spaces were dedicated only to warfare planes. Operational airports weren't commissioned until 1910. By 1912, there were a reported 20 listed operational airports in the United States, with the 4th being Glenwood Springs, though none were exclusively dedicated to aviation. Many were converted country clubs or fields, such as Glenwood's original landing site. Most pilots that flew onto Glenwood's original airport field didn't have formal instruction on how to fly, as planes had been invented only ten years before, so they were literally flying by the seat of their pants.
Eventually, the airport was moved south in 1937, nestled alongside the Roaring Fork River, and became today's Glenwood Springs Municipal Airport(GWS). The airport initially aided in flying in the WWII Civilian Conservation Corps. Now, it is a general aviation facility that stores close to 70 aircraft. More than half are Glenwood residents and business owners!
(Photo courtesy Sig Olsen) This photo, found in the family archives of former Glenwood Springs resident Sig Olsen, shows the first "aeroplane" landing on the polo field in Glenwood Springs is now the site of Glenwood Springs High School and the Polo Park neighborhood. Note the crowd gathered to watch the landing and the continuous row of cottonwood trees along Grand Avenue.

This CCC Camp (Civilian Conservation Corps) was located in Glenwood Springs at today's Sayre Park. Camp SP10C was established in 1934 and could accommodate 240 Corps members. The CCC was a government program that created jobs during the Great Depression. While in our area, the CCC built forestry trails, roads and campsites. They developed Hanging Lake Park and Grizzly Creek Campground and cleared the brush off Red Mountain to clear the way for a ski tow and ski run. After December 1, 1941, the Camp closed but was later reopened near the end of WWII and converted to a prison camp for captive Nazi storm troopers. It was reported that the prisoners played soccer and the townspeople of Glenwood Springs became an enthusiastic cheering section.

 

This building located at 512 10th Street (corner of 10th & Bennett) was built in 1908 by Dr. D. F. Berry and came to be known as the Glenwood Sanitarium. It became a highly reputable medical clinic furnished with the latest equipment. Large wards were included in the building plans: one for railroad patients, another for men from Shoshone Electric Plant, and a third for coal miners. At the time it's doors opened, a medical convention, hosting approximately 500 people, was held in Glenwood. In attendance were Dr. Charles and Dr. William Mayo (founders of Mayo Clinic) from Rochester and Dr. Lorenz from Vienna (the noted bloodless surgeon). A clinic was set up for them and local patients were prepared for surgeries by these famous men. The Sanitarium was also a training school for nurses who learned many new methods in the medical field. The Sanitarium was the first to introduce modern surgery and hospitalization in Glenwood Springs. After closing in the 1930's, it became the "Elms Apartments" and still functions as apartments today.

Glenwood Cafe

Hotel Barlow

Hotel Glenwood

Glenwood Train Station 1940

1947 Glenwood Demons Football Team

1950 Christmas

Dick Chatfield, Tom Williams and Jack Smith 1964

This photo is from 1910 of the Glenwood Hatchery located on Mitchell Creek in West Glenwood Springs. The Hatchery was inaugurated in 1906. This original building was large with barn-like framing. An electronic egg-picking machine used to separate live and dead eggs was developed in the 1960's by local Neil Van Gaalen who was superintendent of the Glenwood Springs Hatchery. This technology is used at all state operated hatcheries. The Glenwood Hatchery evolved to stock around 3 million sub-catchable fish for the waters of northwest Colorado. Eggs that are produced are also shipped to other state-operated fish hatcheries to be hatched, raised and used for stocking.

2018 Walking Tour of Glenwood Springs, CO

 

  Then - About 1900

Now 2025!

 

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