Past Tours & Talks

Tours & Talks in 2023

January 14: Winter Mixer at the Masonic Lodge in Fort Collins. The trivia contest was a lot of fun as was the Show & Tell of historic artifacts!

February 16: The Cherokee Trail and the Dutch George Cabin, presented by Ethan Gannett of the Oregon/California Trail Association (OCTA).

March 16: The Life and Times of the Emma Malaby Grocery, a talk presented by Meg Dunn with a tour of the store following.

April 29: The Sugar Beet Factory Neighborhood in Loveland.

May 13: Historic Preservation Celebration and Bellvue Tour

June 24: College Avenue Walking Tour, Fort Collins

July 22: Red Feather Lakes 100th Anniversary Driving Tour.

August 12: History of Harmony Tour, Fort Collins.

September 30: YMCA of the Rockies Tour, Estes Park.

October 8: Provost, the Railroad, and the River, Laporte.

November 4: Hotel to Elks Lodge to Music Venue, Loveland.

November 19: Armchair Tour of the Work of Bill Robb, Fort Collins and Surrounding Areas.

December 10: Sixth Annual Holy Places for the Holidays Tour, more Mid-Century Fort Collins. 

Tours & Talks in 2022

January 25: Civil Rights History in Fort Collins: Preserving Places that Matter to All (Zoom).

February 9: Kill, Camp, and Return: 2021 Excavation of the Lindenmeier Folsom Site, Larimer County, Colorado (Zoom).

March 5: Pulliam Building Tour, Loveland.

April 23: Boulder County Agricultural Heritage Center, Longmont.

May 21: Historic Preservation Celebration and Tour of 3 Mid-Century Buildings, Fort Collins.

June 18: Graves Camp Tour, Soapstone Prairie Natural Area.

June 30: Archaeological Dig at the Roberts Ranch.

July 9: Historic Buckeye School Tour.

August 13: Historic Downtown Windsor Walking Tour.

September 24: Two Part Estes Park Tour: 1) The Birch Ruins and Birch Cabin and 2) The Stanley Home Museum.

October 23: An archaeological tour of Roberts Ranch, Livermore.

November 5: History Along the Poudre River Tour, Fort Collins.

December 3: Fifth Annual Holy Places for the Holidays Tour, Mid-Century Fort Collins.

Tours & Talks in 2021

February 2: We gave our Pandemic Places talk to the Fort Collins Historical Society via Zoom.

April 29: The history of the Poudre Canyon by Sue Schneider and Sandy Lundt.

May 22: Our Annual Members Meeting was held online with a video that covered all that HLC has done since 2019 as well as an extended video on the Cache la Poudre School Wagon that HLC has in its possession and that we hope to get studied so we can get it restored.

July 11: Stanley Home Museum tour in Estes Park.

July 24: Harrison Addition tour in Fort Collins – “From Professors Parlors to Beer Pong.”

August 17: Downtown Fort Collins tour – “Tour of the Triangle.”

October 24: Roberts Ranch, Livermore.

November 6: Namaqua and the Wild Plaster Mill at Devil’s Backbone, Loveland. 

December 4: Holy Places for the Holidays, Berthoud. 

Tours & Talks in 2020

January 18: Winter Mixer held at the Masonic Lodge in Fort Collins. The trivia contest was a highlight as were the BBQ’d meats.

February 11: Jason Labelle spoke on “The Archaeology of the Fossil Creek Site, a 1200 Year Old Campsite in Larimer County, Colorado.” We met at the Timnath Beerwerks and the place was absolutely packed. We knew COVID was on the horizon at this point, but it hadn’t yet reached Colorado that we knew of.

March 10: Ken Jessen gave a talk on the Historic Schools of Northern Colorado. We met up at Verboten Brewing, though some members didn’t come because we were just starting to get an inkling that COVID might be something we want to quarantine ourselves away from.

May 21: We held our first virtual meeting in which we met with the board of the newly established Stanley home Museum in Estes Park and heard the story of how they purchased the house and were restoring it in order to turn it into a museum.

October 27: We hosted a webinar on Pandemics and Epidemics in Northern Colorado for the past 200 years, with a focus on the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.

December 17: We hosted Holy Places for the Holidays – a Virtual Tour. It included two historic churches in Bellvue, the Poudre Canyon Chapel, and the Virginia Dale Community Church.

Tours & Talks in 2019

January 12: Winter Preservation Mixer held at the Bellvue Grange. The trivia contest was a highlight as was the BBQ’d meats.

February 19: History Lost & History Saved — a presentation by Ken Jessen on buildings from throughout Larimer County that have either been lost or saved over the years. Held in the historic First United Presbyterian Church in Loveland.

March 14: An Overview of Archaeology in Larimer County talk by Ray Sumner was postponed indefinitely due to a conflict with an archaeology conference… of all things.

April 14: (postponed to April 28 due to snow and mud) Tour of the Graves Camp in the northeast part of Soapstone Prairie Natural Area.

May 19: A tour of historic Berthoud following the Annual Members Meeting at City Star Brewing in downtown Berthoud.

June 22: (postponed to July 6 due to mud) Tour of the Bingham Hill Cemetery and Bingham Farm in Laporte/Bellvue.

July 13: We wandered around both historic and eclectic Timnath with a visit to the Swets Farm and downtown Timnath.

August 17: After having to shift plans a couple of times due to lack of space at Gateway Park and then construction along the Poudre River in downtown Fort Collins, we settled on holding a Fort Collins Light & Power Plant tour including historic features inside and out as well as learning about the energy efficient addition to the historic power plant.

September 22: Our annual Roberts Ranch tour. This tour included three historic houses, the remains of the alabaster shop, several historic cars, and a Native American buffalo jump.

October 5: We learned about the Fort Collins waterworks in the Poudre Canyon that a colony of bats now calls home every summer.

November 12: Ron Sladek gave a presentation on the Veterans monuments located throughout Larimer County.

December 3: Meg gave a “Preservation on Tap” talk about the Evolution of Historic Preservation from the early 1800s until today.

December 7: We held our annual Holy Places for the Holidays tour in Loveland, visiting three churches downtown.

Tours & Talks in 2018

January 24: Historic Larimer County president Ron Sladek gave a talk on the Power Plant Diversion Dam (AKA the Coy Diversion Ditch) in Fort Collins.

February 13: “The Wrecking Ball of Progress“, a documentary put together by Wayne Sundberg, local historian, was shown, followed by a question and answer period with Wayne Sundberg himself.

March 28 (Postponed till April 4th due to snow): “The story of Jacob and Elizabeth Flowers” was presented by Ron Sladek at the Bellvue Grange.

April 19: “The Greenest Building” documentary was shown at the Colorado Welcome Center. You can view the trailer for the move here: https://youtu.be/IyY4DnTapN4.

May 20: Annual Member Meeting and a Tour of Jefferson Street in downtown Fort Collins by Ron Sladek.

June 30: Ron Sladek led us on a Wellington Walking Tour providing the history of several of the oldest buildings in the town.

July 22: Tour of the Hydropower Plant and Museum in Estes Park.

August 26: Overview of the history of Red Feather Lake at the RFL library followed by a tour of the Robinson Cabin Museum. Lunch at the historic Trout Tavern.

September 22: The tee pee rings, Signature Rock and Devil’s Washboard on the Roberts Ranch.

October 13: Fort Collins River Crossings Tour – cancelled due to construction along the river.

November 17: Historic Loveland: Inside & Out — a tour of the First National Bank building, the Lovelander Hotel, and the Rialto theater.

December 8: Holy Places for the Holidays — a tour of three churches in downtown Fort Collins. 

Tours & Talks in 2017

July 24: Tour of the Milner-Schwarz House in Loveland following board meeting.

August 27: Tour of Virginia Dale Stage Station and parts of the Roberts Ranch followed by board meeting at The Forks.

September 25: Tour of the Plains Hotel in Cheyenne, Wyoming followed by a board meeting.

October 23: Walking tour of downtown Estes Park followed by a board meeting at the Estes Park Museum.

November 19: Tour of the Little Thompson Valley Pioneer Museum in Berthoud, as well as the McCarty-Fickle House followed by a board meeting at the McCarty-Fickle House.

To see the list of upcoming tours, check out our main Tours & Talks page.