Car fanatics now have a new mecca. It’s not Detroit or Indianapolis, Talledega or Daytona.
It’s Gateway.
The Gateway Colorado Auto Museum opened last May in a town so small you have to squint to find it in your road atlas. But the motorheads in this state already know where it is.
Gateway, population maybe 200, once a bustling little town that supported the timber and mining trade, was stone dead by the mid-1990s. The vanadium and uranium mines had closed, the cafe had closed, the gas station had closed. Some ranch families kept a rural school open, and for anything else you had to drive to Grand Junction.
Middle of nowhere
How remote is it? In the “Colorado Atlas and Gazeteer,” map square 54 has one settlement in it: Gateway. It’s in the red rock country south of Grand Junction, just a few miles from the Utah border on the Uncompahgre plateau.
That tiny, squiggly red line on the map is Colorado 141, which winds west from U.S. 50 along the bank of West Creek, through the Unaweep Canyon.
When the land opens up, you are in Gateway, the officially designated middle of nowhere until John Hendricks rediscovered it.
Hendricks, 55, is one of those cable cowboys so beloved in Colorado. He founded the Discovery Channel and now serves as chairman of Discovery Communications. Like Bill Daniels, Bob Magness and John Malone before him, he can be fairly described as one very rich dude.
He is also an Alabama boy enamored of automobiles. Perhaps you can see where this is going.
Hendricks bought a gentleman’s ranch near Gateway in 1995. Fell instantly in love with the red rocks, the wide open spaces, the bluebird sky. Started buying land. Built one of those modest casitas that very rich dudes build: 23,000 square feet, with an observatory on the roof. Most stories like this end with a flock of “No Trespassing” signs and some disgruntled locals.
But that’s where this particular story veers in a different direction.
Automotive centerpiece
Hendricks’ automobile collection became the centerpiece of a 30,000-square-foot museum featuring “the performing art of the American automobile.” He envisioned the museum as a way to bring little Gateway back to life.
To that end, he spent $3.2 million at a Scottsdale auction to acquire the centerpiece of the collection: a 1954 Oldsmobile concept car, the F-88. Most concept cars were destroyed after being put on display at auto shows, but the sleek gold F-88 survived the mid-century Motorama and is now on display at Gateway.
The museum explores how car culture has shaped America.
Half of the 8,000 acres Hendricks acquired have been placed in a permanent conservation easement. Much of the surrounding land is national forest and BLM land.
Under the red rock palisade that stands outside Gateway, Hendricks and associates built things that locals hadn’t seen in years: a general store and gas station. There’s a sit-down restaurant, the Paradox Grille, and the Outpost Coffee Bar at the general store. Another new business, the Outfitters Shop and Adventure Concierge, will fix your mountain bike, sell you a hiking map or arrange for horseback rides.
Three lodgings
The Gateway Canyons Resort now has three lodging properties: queen rooms and suites at the Outpost Motor Inn, two-bedroom Canyon Casitas and luxury rooms and suites at the Kiva Lodge.
Activities range from romance weekends to murder mysteries, horseback adventures and Telluride ski packages.
But the place will really come alive May 19 for the Second Annual Gateway Canyon Classic Auto Festival, and Aug. 10-12 for the Gateway Canyon Road Race and Tour, when car fiends will descend on tiny Gateway for discussions of gear ratios and metalflake paint.
Gas up the GTO, lay in a supply of sunflower seeds and Mountain Dew, plug in your iPod and head west. As the sages say, the journey is the destination.
Lisa Everitt is a freelance writer who lives in Arvada. Contact her at lisaeveritt@comcast.net.
The details
Gateway Canyons Resort offers lodging at the Outpost Motor Inn starting at $69 for a queen room in the off season (through March 31). Canyon Casitas sleep six in two bedrooms, starting at $179, and luxury rooms and suites in the Kiva Lodge start at $149. Visit gatewaycanyons.com or call 970-931-2458 or toll free at 866-671-4733.
The Gateway Colorado Auto History Museum, 43224 Highway 141, Gateway, is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $9 for adults, $7 for seniors, $5 for youth (ages 6 to 12). Kids 5 and under are free. Special rates for groups. Call 970-931-2895 or visit gatewayautomuseum.com.
