Once upon a time, wholesome, educational family entertainment came from live performers on the Chautauqua Circuit. For at least two of the eight Colorado towns that once had Chautauquas (a Seneca Indian word said to mean “jumping fish”), that golden oldie is being reincarnated this summer.
Lake Chautauqua in upstate New York gave birth to what became the nationally popular Chautauqua Movement. It started in 1874 when leaders of a Methodist Episcopal camp meeting decided to increase attendance by secularizing their Sunday school-type program. Thousands poured into the eight-week summer program for lectures in the arts, sciences and humanities, as well as religious programming and outdoor recreation.
As the nation’s first experiment in mass public education and entertainment attracted paying attendees, other communities were inspired to form local Chautauquas with the help of the national headquarters and publishing house in New York. Chautauquas featured popular and respected authors, explorers, musicians, politicians and entertainers. William Jennings Bryan, the three-time presidential candidate, was a favorite because of his booming, inspirational oratory.
Combining the fervor of a revival meeting with the local attractions of a county fair, Chautauquas became standard summer fare for millions of Americans. At its peak, it offered an estimated 400 summer programs from coast to coast before 1920s radio, movies and other more sensational attractions ended Chautauqua’s golden age.
The original Lake Chautauqua facilities and programming continue in New York. Boulder’s Chautauqua is the other spectacularly preserved, still-operating Chautauqua campus with its 1898 auditorium, dining hall, and summer cottages. Like many Chautauquas, Boulder offered summer tents and cabins so thousands could summer in cool, sunny, dry Colorado with plenty of programs, as well as mountains to climb, snow to throw, fish to catch, and wildflowers to pick.
The beautifully kept and restored Boulder Chautauqua grounds were honored in 2006 with the top U.S. preservation status, designation as a National Historic Landmark District. This 91-acre Boulder resort is famous for its summertime Colorado Music Festival in the antique wooden hall, open meadows, inviting foothill hikes, and a splendid dining hall, which is now open year-round. Beginning with a group of tents in 1898, Boulder’s Chautauqua evolved with the construction of some 50 cottages, most of which survive.
Boulder’s proud claim to be the only active Chautauqua west of the Mississippi is being challenged by the upstart town of Palmer Lake in El Paso County. The Palmer Lake Historical Society is staging the 2009 Return of the Rocky Mountain Chautauqua in that resort town nestled between the Rampart Range and a sparkling lake 20 miles north of Colorado Springs and 45 miles south of Denver. The original Chautauqua Assembly came to Palmer Lake in 1887, 11 years before Boulder’s “tent university” opened.
Palmer Lake was founded as a resort town and named for William Jackson Palmer, presiding genius of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, which puffed special excursions to the town’s Chautauqua. The Palmer Lake Chautauqua faded away by 1910 but was revived last summer as a one-day event that this year has grown to a weekend, Aug. 7-9. It will include a vaudeville show, dinner theater, old-fashioned baseball game, history and nature walks, ice cream social, and more. (Go to for more information.)
Reach Tom Noel at coloradowebsites.com/dr-colorado.
