“Sometimes I feel like I’m being watched by someone, or some “thing”, “We feel like we are always straightening the wall hangings and pictures.” These are just a couple of the many comments from guests and residents Grace and I have received while researching and conducting our tour Haunted History After Dark. Many people have no idea of the extraordinary early Fort Collins history regarding and surrounding their home or business. Home owners or new and ambitious business venture owners will reside or set up shop in a location and make it their own. Restorations, new furniture, or paint reflect their own energy and positivity and make it an inviting place for themselves, guests or customers with much success. Grace and I have had the wonderful opportunity to meet and be a part of the “new history” developing in Old Town and Fort Collins. But, occasionally we have found that there are personalities and events and secrets that even the new paint can’t cover over. Grace would call some of these imprints.
For those of you who haven’t taken our tour yet, you will learn that Fort Collins actually began as a military reservation which was eventually abandoned in 1867. If it weren’t for a few courageous settlers who decided to stay after the Cavalry left, Fort Collins would be a just another ghost town on the prairie. That’s why I like to call it the “jewel of the Frontier”. It survived! And here we are enjoying it today because of them. Our wonderful town literally could have died without the ambitious early pioneers like Joe Mason, Norman Meldrum and the Stover brothers. We celebrate the new pioneers today who continue to embody the energy and spirit of those early settlers. One of those motivated people is Kate, the proprietor of Boutique Bravo! and Mother Lode Gallery located at 136 West Mountain Avenue. She has weathered many storms to successfully continue her store for 33 years! Kate is a resident and business owner who has expressed curiosity in her various store locations in Old Town. She has come to the right people! I cannot disclose all of the information we have gathered regarding Kate’s location. But through many hours of research we have discovered her store was once the location of an indoor skating rink, as well as a surgeon’s office, whose doctor lived on the premises!
Through the various booms and busts, developments and depressions, we have learned that many businesses set up shop, only to be replaced by another soon after. Who are these early settlers that placed their own hopes and dreams in your location? Was it someone as notable as ambitious as Joe Mason who is called the “Father of Fort Collins”? Lucky you, if it was! He was the most ambitious man in town before he died a grizzly death at an early age in 1881. Do you travel the same steps every morning to open your shop that Mr. Miller would have to open the same shop? Only 121 years earlier? Is Mr. Miller still trying to set up shop?
Grace and I can tell you this. Through our collaboration we can provide a detailed historic portfolio of your location, as well as a spiritual house clearing.
ARE YOU BEING WATCHED?
Contact hauntedhistoryafterdark@yahoo.com for more information. Haunted History After Dark tours run Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 8:30 p.m. YOUR HAUNTED JOURNEY STARTS AT DUSK.
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