A lodge tucked into Colorado’s Front Range mountains was once a woodland Harlem Renaissance, attracting jazz musician Duke Ellington, poet Langston Hughes, writer Zora Neale Hurston and countless other Black Americans who sought refuge, joy and fresh air at a time when the great outdoors was not safe for everyone.
Generations of Morgan Ramsey’s family were among the Black Coloradans who drove 40 miles west of Denver into Coal Creek Canyon to bask in the sanctity of Lincoln Hills — 650 acres of serene, green leisure in Gilpin County where African Americans could fish, hike, vacation, buy property and exist in nature.
Founded in 1922 by , Lincoln Hills was the first mountain resort west of the Mississippi created by and for Black Americans. The haven was indispensable as the Ku Klux Klan carved a foothold in Denver and surrounding towns in the 1920s, exerting economic and political control across the state.
“We couldn’t go to Estes Park, Glenwood Springs, the Broadmoor,” said Gary Jackson, a retired Denver judge whose great-grandfather was one of the first cabin builders in Lincoln Hills. “I want people to know about the ingenuity of Black people, the courage of Black people. We needed a place of our own.”
In the decades since its 1965 closure, Lincoln Hills has downsized and changed ownership. Most of the remaining 100 acres, which include a few privately owned homes and a tavern, are now managed by the nonprofit . The site was added to the .
Still, its champions find Coloradans who have never heard of the landmark.
Advocates and families who frequented the revolutionary Colorado mountain resort say that, as the federal government increasingly targets diversity, equity and inclusion efforts nationwide, teaching people about Lincoln Hills’ history while protecting its future is paramount — and new efforts to do that are underway.
Lincoln Hills Cares leaders told The Denver Post they need to expand and look for new revenue opportunities to preserve the site’s legacy. recently revamped its museum exhibit on Lincoln Hills, adding new stories and memorabilia and strategically moving it to preserve its sanctity, officials said.
And one Lincoln Hills descendant is highlighting the special place in her own way.
On a warm Friday afternoon in August, the 33-year-old Ramsey stood on the banks of Pactolus Lake overlooking the land where her parents, grandparents and other Black Americans once found salvation amid turbulent times. A century later, Ramsey is eager to introduce a new generation to Lincoln Hills through an “elevated outdoors” travel experience she’s curating with her company, , that promises luxury steeped in Black history.
The entrepreneur is pitching Lincoln Hills as “the Martha’s Vineyard of the West,” referencing the
“Lincoln Hills became a resort community for Black folks in the West, but… it hasn’t stood the test of time,” Ramsey said. “It’s so important we bring that back. Itap not just Black history or a nice resort town. Itap a piece of American history I feel has lost relevance in our history classes, social narratives… I want to bring this back to the forefront of American history so my kids will know the significance of Lincoln Hills.”
‘A safe haven’
Ramsey, who splits her time between Atlanta and Portugal but still visits her Denver family, headed to Boulder in late August to walk through her plan for the four-day retreat next June — the first of what she hopes is a recurring event.
On Friday, June 25, 30 to 50 travelers will be whisked from Denver International Airport to the Hotel Boulderado, the first luxury hotel built in downtown Boulder. The Victorian-style hotel will be the guests’ home base for the weekend.
Ramsey’s pristine cowboy boots clicked against the hotel’s floor as she toured the hotel, cataloguing the little details to ensure her guests feel transported.
The graduate and former chapter president of , a historically African American sorority, previously worked as a lead experience researcher at and , where she amplified unheard voices in the tech industry, she said.
As a travel lover, Ramsey applied that same lens to the retreat industry. For Ramsey, travel is a storytelling opportunity — a chance to immerse visitors in a location’s history through ambiance and education.
Details mattered to Ramsey, who has billed the Lincoln Hills retreat as at a place where “Black freedom, ownership and joy were not just possible, but protected.”
Ramsey’s eyes scanned the Hotel Boulderado’s ceilings, walls and floors. Her head was on a swivel.
“I’m taking in the smell and the look and the feel,” Ramsey said, appraising — the hotel’s underground speakeasy-style cocktail lounge — where her guests will be treated to a live jazz band and beckoning dance floor. “I want it to smell nostalgic — oaky and woody.”
After touring the hotel, Ramsey drove about 40 minutes West into the mountains, pulling up to the guarded, gated and privately owned Lincoln Hills community.
That rugged drive is a journey seared into 80-year-old Jackson’s memories.
The car ride took much longer back then — about four hours, Jackson recalled — as he and his family loaded into his grandparents’ 1948 vehicle and made their way from Denver’s Cherry Creek neighborhood into the mountains.
“When we would reach a switchback on a dirt road, my grandmother would have the children get out of the car and walk the switchbacks with her while my grandfather was in the car with the family dog… with the understanding that if the car didn’t make it, my granddad had the dog, and the grandchildren and my grandmother would be safe,” Jackson said.
There were towns along the route the family knew to be off-limits, teeming with KKK members, Jackson said.
Victor Green’s “Negro Motorist Green Book,” a guidebook published annually from 1936 to 1966 that listed places in the United States friendly to African Americans, featured Lincoln Hills among its entries.
Colorado had the second-largest KKK chapter in the nation during the 1920s, with around 50,000 members at its peak, according to .
By 1925, KKK members and political candidates backed by the Klan controlled much of the state, with Gov. Clarence Morley, a majority of legislators in the state House and Senate, the secretary of state, a state Supreme Court judge, seven judges on the Denver District Court and all members of the racist organization, according to
Born in 1945, Jackson said he didn’t have racism “slapped in his face” like his parents did, but Lincoln Hills — named after President Abraham Lincoln, who signed the — stood out in his mind as a place where Black people could truly be free.
Once at their cabin, built by his grandfather in 1926, Jackson would wander the mountains and splash in the ponds, and wouldn’t come in until his grandmother’s bell rang throughout the trees, calling the children inside for lunch and dinner.
“It was a safe haven,” Jackson said. “There was no fear.”
Black entrepreneurs Robert E. Ewalt and E.C. Regnier founded the Denver-based Lincoln Hills Development Company in 1922 with the vision to create a mountain resort for middle-class African Americans.
The local Black community, from spiritual leaders to business owners, rallied around the idea — including Obrey Wendell “Winks” Hamlet and William Pitts, who constructed cabins and lodges at the Gilpin County site.
Ewalt and Regnier advertised the resort and its lots for sale in Black newspapers and magazines across the country. Word of the resort spread quickly among Black Coloradans and African Americans nationwide. People built and bought cabins and vacationed in the Winks Panorama Lodge, designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service in 2023.
The secluded resort became a — from civil rights activists to singers to literary giants — who gathered at the lodge and nearby Panorama Tavern. When artists performing at Denver’s Five Points jazz clubs talent like Duke Ellington to Count Basie would opt to stay in Lincoln Hills, said Terri Gentry, History Colorado’s engagement manager for Black communities.
“You have jazz musicians and authors and other folks going up to Lincoln Hills to entertain people up there and giving them an incredible experience in the mountains,” said Gentry, who also grew up vacationing in Lincoln Hills with her family.
It’s all in the details
The Lincoln Hills retreat offers “choose-your-own-adventure” activities, from fly-fishing lessons or horseback riding for those feeling daring, to more laid-back alternatives like heritage tours, cigar tastings and sommelier pairings.
Whichever path guests choose, Ramsey plans to make the experience luxe.
As Ramsey’s boots kicked up dust along the Lincoln Hills forest paths during her August visit, she rattled off ideas to make the rugged space cozier and more opulent: rugs over grass and dirt patches, comfortable furnishings, generators, food trucks, luxury portable bathrooms.
After a brief gasp and some quick problem-solving, Ramsey was assured they could find a stylish way to cover up a less-than-aesthetically-pleasing port-a-potty near the mountain retreat’s home base.
The more Ramsey verbalized her vision — pillows over here, food there, this path dedicated for walks around the lake — the brighter her eyes became.
“I feel like things are aligning,” Ramsey said, hitching a ride on a golf cart driven by a Lincoln Hills Cares employee around the grounds.
While modernized, Ramsey wants the retreat to ring true to history and leave guests rich with knowledge of the area and its importance. The retreat will welcome Lincoln Hills alums to share their memories of the place and provide historical accounts during a storytelling activity.
Everyone was welcome, she said, but her target demographic will likely be historians, academics and folks in membership clubs.
“There will be a heavy emphasis on scholarship,” Ramsey said of the retreat.
On Sunday morning, guests will be invited to a gospel choir performance in the mountains, a jazz brunch and optional hike “for those who’d like a little more nature.”
The cost for the weekend experience hadn’t been settled just yet, Ramsey said. People interested in the retreat can request more information at TELA’s website, .
‘Black joy’ and connection
The chipmunks standing at attention outside Gentry’s family cabin let her know she’s back at her beloved Lincoln Hills whenever she returns.
“It’s like you’re on top of the world,” Gentry said. “The crisp air. The sky is blue. The trees blowing. The little chipmunks coming up to the door to tell us, ‘Hey, we’re glad you’re back!'”
The critters are so beloved by Gentry that the Lincoln Hills exhibit at History Colorado, which she helped curate, has a few chipmunks hidden around the interactive cabin detailing the resort’s history and significance to the state.
Birds chirp and jazz music croons as museum visitors are invited to read about Lincoln Hills and view artifacts, photos and video testimonials about the resort. Sometimes Gentry leaves her museum office to stand inside the exhibit’s makeshift cabin and take a deep breath, surrounded by a backdrop of evergreen trees lining the walls.
“It really brings me back,” Gentry said, doing just that during a recent Wednesday afternoon tour of the exhibit.
History Colorado overhauled the long-term exhibit last year to include newly collected oral histories and photographs.
As part of that makeover, the exhibit was also separated from the museum’s exhibit on the KKK in Colorado, Gentry said. Previously, Black visitors seeking the joy of Lincoln Hills were overwhelmed and frightened by white Klan robes that stood right outside the exhibit, Gentry said.
Now, visitors can be properly immersed in the bliss of Lincoln Hills without the shadow of the KKK looming, she said.
“When I talk about Lincoln Hills, that’s a place of Black joy,” Gentry said.
The exhibit holds the 1939 teenage diary of Nancelia Elizabeth Scott Jackson, Gary Jackson’s mother, during her time at Lincoln Hills’ all-girls . Before 1965, youth summer camps were segregated, Gentry said. Denver’s Phyllis Wheatley YWCA, a Black chapter of the national club, started Camp Nizhoni — named from the Indigenous Diné word for “beautiful” — around 1926.
Today, the nonprofit Lincoln Hills Cares continues to provide marginalized kids with opportunities to explore the outdoors.
Founded in 2016 by Flyfisher Group investment firm owner Matthew Burkett and billionaire Robert F. Smith, Lincoln Hills Cares’ mission remains “diversifying the outdoors for generations to come,” said executive director Jeanette Patterson.
“We want to make sure the outdoors are for everyone,” Patterson said. “Not only people from historically marginalized communities but also kids who have special needs.”
Last year, the organization reached more than 5,600 youth through summer camps on the Lincoln Hills property and school-based outdoor environmental education programs across the state,
The nonprofit launched last year, partnering with Denver Public Schools, Aurora Public Schools and Adams 12 Five Star Schools for after-school, outdoor learning programs, including at Lincoln Hills
The organization, which doesn’t charge its young participants and relies on community partnerships, sees a need for expansion, Patterson said. Formalized tours. Church and educational retreats for adults. Fly-fishing groups seeking a place to recreate.
Lincoln Hills Cares plans to continue its charitable mission while adding revenue-generating events.
“We’re moving into a place where we’re starting to generate revenue, and we have to,” Patterson said. “Things have changed in our country for a couple of years now, and we need to be in a place where we’re now charging for activities. Like Morgan is buying out a weekend, so we want to get to a place where that is happening more.”
Almost immediately upon returning to office last year, President Donald Trump and related initiatives, dramatically altering the landscape for educational institutions, research and humanitarian aid programs, nonprofits and other organizations that benefited from federal funding.
About 60 years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the revolutionary into law, which prohibited discrimination in public places, helped integrate schools and other public facilities and made employment discrimination illegal.
Ironically, this progressive legislation was among the final nails in the coffin for Lincoln Hills’ original incarnation. The desegregation provided more opportunities for Black people to vacation in places they weren’t previously welcome, Gentry said.
With the Trump administration rolling back protections and support for diversity, Ramsey said it is critical in this age of social media and digital communication to build strong, face-to-face communications. Her retreat, she said, will act as a conduit of connection.
“People are needing community now more than ever,” she said. “It’s incredibly powerful physically being together, putting our phones down, being present with one another and being in nature.”
