Coloradans don’t just talk about what they consider wrong; they also try to fix it. Wrecking balls ruled Denver in the 1960s, and as dismayed citizens saw landmark buildings they knew and admired disappearing, they joined in historic preservation battles — and began to win.
Towns enacted legislation to protect significant old buildings, and non-profit historic-preservation groups sprouted up across the state in the ’70s, led by Denver, Boulder, Georgetown and others.
In 1985, the non-profit Colorado Preservation Inc. was founded, giving local preservation groups and the National Trust for Historic Preservation a statewide forum to join strengths and strategies. More than 1,000 preservationists attended CPI’s annual meeting earlier this year.
When gamblers wanted to come in to Colorado, they recognized the public’s interest in historic preservation, and pushed casino profits as a fine preservation resource. Voters agreed, so we got the State Historic Preservation Fund in 1990. Since 1993, more than $255 million has been given in grants in all 65 counties to revitalize old buildings, bringing jobs and life back to cities and rural towns.
Coloradans were just as worried about sprawling development destroying the state’s open space and natural beauty. In 1992, Colorado voters approved a constitutional amendment stipulating that net proceeds from state-supervised lottery games be used to protect our places of natural beauty. Non-governmental Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) administers the fund of about $55 million annually. In 3,500 projects over the years, it has worked to protect, enhance and manage our open space heritage, so that the natural landscapes we love will be here for future Coloradans.
Now there’s a new player, HistoriCorps, combining our interest in old buildings and nature. The U.S. Forest Service manages 14.4 million acres of public land in Colorado, and old buildings — cabins, mining, cow camps, and such — have not been high on the budget, even though they record how people settled in the West. There have been eras when USFS policy was to remove historic structures, infuriating those who value visual reminders of how humans coped.
HistoriCorps is an offspring of the USFS and CPI, with partner Volunteers for Outdoors Colorado (VOC). It enlists and trains volunteers to work on those historic structures. Workers will learn how to repair and create buildings like traditional trades did a century ago.
“We were losing our history; our historic structures were falling down,” explained Steve Sherwood, 32 years with USFS and regional director of Recreation, Heritage and Wilderness Resources. “This is the first time I know of that there is a huge emphasis on restoration work. It is a very significant policy change.”
The agency provided $250,000 to get the operation up and running, from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. HistoriCorps will provide job training as well as restore buildings.
VOC’s projects are on public lands, training and providing volunteers to build and repair trails, bridges and work on other outdoor projects. From 1984 through 2009, VOC has managed $15 million in volunteer work, with 40 projects this summer.
HistoriCorps completed two pilot programs last fall. In historic Saguache, 50 volunteers revitalized several old buildings, and outside Telluride hardy volunteers braved the weather to build a protective roof over the historic Matterhorn Mill.
These projects are in the works: repairing and making habitable a 1915 cabin and repairing a 1930 Civilian Conservation Corps work center in the Rio Grande National Forest; and repairing and replacing rotten logs and other work on the 1913 Alpine Guard Station in the Gunnison Forest.
Enthusiasm is high, with expectations that HistoriCorps could become a national model.
It’s another national first for can-do Coloradans.
Joanne Ditmer has been writing on environmental and urban issues for The Post since 1962. To learn more, visit .
