Caching In Loveland 6/19/2010

This morning we headed out to start caching in Loveland with a bunch of traditional caches and 3 nice virtuals. I won't bore you with the 6 NRV caches we did so I will start with the nice cache located at the Lone Tree One-Room Schoolhouse, a wonderfully restored old building. The schoolhouse was built in 1883 on land donated by B.R. Bonnell to serve families southwest of Loveland. Named for a single hackberry tree growing nearby. The school closed in 1920 and was used for a community center until 1940, then for grain storage until abandoned. We found the cache quickly and looked around before leaving.

As we left the park where the schoolhouse was we noticed a sculpture studio across the street with many many sculptures all around the grounds so we stopped to look around. They had a lovely garden with all different kinds of sculptures in them as you can see by the pictures.

We left there and were off to Benson Sculpture Park for our first virtual cache. We got to the park and parked and started to walk looking at the sculptures for clues to questions we had to answer for the cache. Benson Sculpture Garden has provided a beautiful and unique outdoor setting for showcasing sculpture since 1985. It is here that the Loveland High Plains Arts Council hosts its renowned Sculpture in the Park event each summer. Currently, there are 130 pieces of sculpture on permanent display by world-renowned artists. We walked around and looked at all of them too in order to get our clues for the answers. It really is hard to believe that a city as small as Loveland can be so art conscious and have so many works of art on display. We finally finished and were off to the next cache.

Next cache was a memorial to 5 native Coloradoans fallen in Iraq, during the start of the hostilities. There was a monument with a plaque and a pair of army boots on a pole as part of the memorial.

Our last cache was a 3 part virtual that started back at the sculpture garden with a statue of Louis Papa. Louis Papa was reportedly born at Snake Creek, Utah, in 1844. His mother, Tacanecy, was pregnant when the French trader, Louis Elbert Papin, traded her to Mariano Medina for some blankets and horses. He was 14 when Medina settled on the Big Thompson River. Papa never attended school. He herded cattle and horses around Medina's ranch. Papa homesteaded up the Big Thompson Canyon near Viestenz-Smith Park. He spent his winter months in Loveland and died in 1935 when he mistook lye for lard. He was buried in the Frank Bartholf family plot at Loveland's Lakeside Cemetery. (Papa rode for Frank Bartholf for years and they became lifelong friends.)
Mariano Medina was born in 1812 in Taos, New Mexico, which was Mexican territory at the time. He was the first permanent settler in the Big Thompson Valley. Medina was a former trapper, hunter, scout and guide. In 1844, he lived as a trapper along the Snake River in Utah Territory. Several years later, he lived at the head of the Missouri River in Montana at Fort Lewis. He left Montana after he killed two
Blackfeet warriors in a battle. Instead of paying the natives several hundred dollars in ponies for his actions, he left the area. In 1856, Medina operated a ferry on the Sweetwater River in Wyoming, and in 1857 he lived at Robertson's Indian Camp in Wyoming. In 1857-58, during the Mormon Wars, Medina accompanied Captain
Randolph Marcy and his men on a supply trip from near Fort Bridger, Wyoming to New
Mexico. The band became mired in deep snow and lost their way over the mountains.
All of their supplies were gone and men died every day. Captain Marcy sent Medina and
another Mexican off to Fort Massachusetts alone for help. Eleven days later, they
returned followed by with fresh supplies, saving the remainder of the band.
Medina moved to the valley in mid-1858 with his wife, Tacanecy, and three children,
including his stepson, Louis Papa. Two more children were born, but none except Louis
Papa is known to have lived to adulthood. In 1857, Tacanecy died, Susan Carter Howard
went to live with Medina after her own divorce. The couple had a son in 1876. Mariano
and Susan had not been married; they were indicted for open adultery. In July 1877,
Mariano and Susan were married by a priest, making in legal.
Medina died in 1878 from a painful effect of bullets lodged in his body over time. He
asked to be buried with his two horses, his carriage and a keg of whiskey.
Mariano's (or Marianne's) Crossing later became known as Namaqua. In
1868, a federal post office opened there under that name. The settlement was located
across the road from the present site of Namaqua Park. The toll bridge was located west of the present bridge, and at least until 1980, tow pilings from Medina's toll bridge still stood on the south side of the riverbank. In 1956, all that was left of Medina's home was torn down. Some of the original logs were used to reconstruct the cabin in the Loveland Museum/Gallery.
In 1960, Medina's and other family member's graves were moved to the
current site. The only notice of the move was in the Fort Collins paper. People claim
that Loveland residents were not notified of the proposed move. The family cemetery
had been located about ¼ mile south of Namaqua on the west side of Namaqua Road.

The second site was Namaqua Park at the above burial site and then it was off to the final site at Viestenz-Smith Mountain Park the site of Louis Papa's house, which is now gone, and where he lived and rode all his life. As we drove to the park we went through Big Thompson Canyon which was an awesome site.
The Big Thompson Canyon is a heavily wooded area of scenic beauty with rugged cliffs and high mountains bordering the Big Thompson River. The road follows the river, and winds around walls of granite, which lift their heads thousands of feet in the air, past timber and grass covered slopes. The views presented along the route through this wonderful canyon are beyond comparison and one never tires of looking at and admiring the wonderful works of nature.
he Big Thompson River and Canyon were named for David Thompson, an English engineer and astronomer, who, early in the 19th century, explored many streams in the Mid-West and mountain states in search of trapping camps on the Big Thompson and Cache Le Poudre rivers.
The modern history of the Canyon started in earnest when Loveland merchants wanted to build a road through the Canyon. Difficult to build, it was so narrow that problems arose when wagons met in an area with no pullouts. The Loveland to Estes Park Stage Coach had the right-of-way in both directions, so when the stage met a freight wagon they had no option but to unhitch the horses from the wagon and drive the entire team around the stage. The wagon would be unloaded, wheels removed, and the wagon tipped up on its side to allow the stage to pass. Then the wagon was reassembled, reloaded and both would go on their way. As time went on the road was improved making it the most spectacular ways to travel to Estes Park and the Rocky Mountains.
The towns of Drake and Glen Haven were stage stops allowing travelers a chance to get out of the dusty, bumpy stage and stretch their legs and get food and drink. These stage stops quickly expanded into small villages that catered to travelers. Locals from the Front Range built cabins and cottages in the Canyon to escape the heat of the summer sun. Many of the cabins and cottages in the Canyon that date back to the turn of the last century have been modernized and are available for rent. A variety of accommodations offering year-round lodging are available in the Canyon. Today, visitors can choose from charming motels, family friendly or secluded cabins and cottages, romantic bed and breakfasts, vacation homes or RV and tent campgrounds.
There is an abundance of wildlife that inhabits the canyon. Thousands of hummingbirds follow the lead of summer residents and tourists and come to the canyon to escape the summer heat. Big horn sheep, mule deer and elk graze in the canyon and can frequently be found along the roadside nibbling on the tender shoots of grass. On occasion you may find a mountain lion, bobcat or bear. In 1976 the Big Thompson River and Canyon flooded with 19' of water killing 145 people and destroying 418 home, cabins and businesses.

We got to the park and walked down into the picnic area and finished our cache and were back off to the coach for the day. Well that's about all from here for today so until tomorrow we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad Dori & Dick