Ron Graham still chuckles about the nickname his mom and her three sisters were given — “The Shawnee Girls.”
All joking aside, this week is one of immense pride for Graham, 75, and his 96-year-old mother, Minerva (Price) Graham.
The town that Ron Graham’s great-grandfather and grandfather helped found — Shawnee — has been designated a Park County historic district.
A community potluck and unveiling of the official “historic district” marker will be Saturday.
The community of 75, on the side of a hill in a picturesque valley 50 miles west of Denver, also has applied for designation as a national historic district.
“It’s about the same as it always has been,” said Graham of the little hamlet where he still owns a house.
There are no big chain motels, no gambling casinos, no sprawling mountain developments that have intruded on the serenity of the town.
The fact that time has essentially stood still in Shawnee made it a “shoo-in” for being designated a historic district, said Linda Balough, historic preservation director for Park County.
“It has that integrity,” Balough said.
One of its many attributes, she said, is its location. It looks out over the north fork of the South Platte River onto a sweeping meadow.
On the other side of the meadow and river is an imposing mountain range.
For historic preservation buffs, however, the real kicker is the high percentage of turn-of-the-century buildings that are a reminder of the town’s heyday of railroad tourism, resorts and summer homes.
“While a number of other resorts and communities in the Platte Canyon figured in the height of popularity of tourism in the area, Shawnee remains one of the most pristine examples of a typical resort town of the era 1900 to 1957,” Balough said.
In the early 1900s, the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad (DSP&P) promoted Shawnee as a “destination community” with brochures and tourist guides. It offered package deals, meals on its “Fish Train” and “photographer specials” that included participation by well-known cameramen William Jackson and George Mellen.
Brian Heber, Shawnee’s postmaster, moved to Shawnee after living most of his life in Columbus, Ohio.
As customers walk into the 107-year-old post office, he greets each by their first name.
“You get to know one another and look out for each other,” Heber said. He opens the post office early each day. He then goes to the adjoining Shawnee Trading Post and starts a pot of coffee for members of the “Liar’s Club,” a group of 10 or 12 old-timers who gather there every morning.
Heber’s office looks down into the meadow where the depot stood and steam engines used to bring hundreds of people from Denver.
“My mind begins to wander about what you used to see there — that old steam train,” Heber said.
Before the European migration westward, the Utes, Arapaho and Cheyenne found the area ideal for summer camps. Early-day trappers used the trails through the area, and prospectors went through on their way to look for gold near what is now Fairplay and Alma.
Ron Graham’s great-grandfather, Englishman J.W. Price, moved into the area in 1886.
He struck a deal with the railroad, giving it a tract of land. There the DSP&P built a large hotel — the Shawnee Lodge — and named the site Shawnee. Price built the Fair View Hotel in Shawnee, which was renamed the Grand View Hotel, and the Shawnee Mercantile Store. The Grand View Hotel is now a private residence.
Graham’s grandfather, Harry Price, ran the store and was postmaster for almost 50 years. Graham said the store had a soda fountain, which his mother helped run as a teenager.
Leona Nelson, who ran the Shawnee Trading Post with her husband, Roy, before his death, said the community is “proud” of its historic district designation.
“Everybody knows everybody,” Nelson said. “People get along well.”
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
