A 42-acre privately owned parcel of land with more than a dozen rustic cottages just inside Rocky Mountain National Park has been purchased so that it eventually could become part of the park.
A mile inside the Fall River entrance, Cascade Cottages was the largest private chunk of property inside the park’s boundaries, the National Park Service said in a news release Wednesday.
“When my grandparents first began operating these cottages, they always said they hoped that someday this land would eventually be added to the park because this is such a special place,” Brent Johnson, co-manager of the property, which has been in his family since 1941, said in a statement. “Today, it feels good to honor their wishes.”
The family will operate the 14 cottages for one more season.
The land was purchased for $3.4 million — $1.75 million of it raised by the Rocky Mountain Conservancy and the remaining $1.65 million from a line of credit obtained by the Trust for Public Land. Larimer County Open Lands Program, the Estes Valley Land Trust and the Town of Estes Park also helped in the financing.
It is hoped the National Park Service will pay off the line of credit loan to acquire the property, a spokesman for the Trust for Public Land said.
“Our friends, donors and local communities once again demonstrated their love for Rocky Mountain National Park and the need to protect it by supporting the Cascade Cottages campaign,” Charles Money, executive director of the conservancy, said in a statement. “The conservancy received over 600 individual gifts to ensure that this critically important parcel would become part of the park. We continue to be inspired by their generosity.”
About 350,000 cars enter the park and pass by the cottages each year. The future of those cottages has not been determined.
“We are grateful that through the support of so many, we are able to acquire the largest remaining privately held property within the park’s boundary. This is an incredible gift to the park,” acting park superintendent Ben Bobowski said in a statement.
