Poudre Canyon summer resort, 1930s -1980s, now a Wild & Scenic River Visitor Center
The Arrowhead Lodge is an important historic site in the Poudre Canyon, and the Forest Service (Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests & Pawnee National Grassland) has been working hard with partners to preserve this site. Arrowhead Lodge was originally built as a summer mountain resort. Construction began in 1933 and the lodge opened for business in 1935. The resort has been unused since 1984, when it was transferred from private to public ownership in a land exchange with the U.S. Forest Service. In 1992, it was registered on the list of the National Register of Historic Places.
===CONSTRUCTION:
It was a seasonal residence, offering fishing and hunting. Historically and at the present time, the Cache la Poudre is famous for its trout fishing and has been rated “excellent” by the Colorado State Division of Wildlife.
It was built by Carol and Marion Baffod, Wayne Frakes and Brye Gladstone. It accurately portrays the physical setting and architecture of one of northern Colorado’s fishing and recreation resorts of the Depression years, prior to World War II. It also represents the only relatively unaltered resort of that era in the Poudre Canyon. There are a couple of other lodges in the area, but they have deteriorated or had drastic alternations.
The Lodge is half encircled by 13 cabins. It had a water fountain constructed of native rock and cement. The architecture is considered rustic. The foundation is native stone and the walls are logs (milled with oakum chinking. The roof was covered with #90 rolled roofing paper, and was maintained in later years as new roofing was added. There are wood windows and paneling throughout. Of particular interest is the beautiful entry with its outstanding symmetry. The Lodge complex is on approximately three acres.
The diversity of its vegetation draws numerous wild animals and birds to the site. It is located at 7,400 feet. The lodge is known as a viewing spot for bighorn sheep, mostly on the hillsides behind the main buildings. It is about 32 miles up Cache la Poudre Canyon.
It is reached by Colorado State Highway 14, which runs west off U.S. Highway 287, about 8 miles northwest of Fort Collins, Colorado. It is located in Roosevelt National Forest in the rugged lower montane climax region typical of Colorado’s Rocky Mountain eastern slope, on the north bank of the Cache la Poudre River.
===ARROWHEAD FIRE, MARCH 2023
The Arrowhead Fire, which started March 19 and burned 15 acres in the Poudre Canyon, impacted an outbuilding and outhouses associated with the Forest Service’s historic Arrowhead Lodge. Thanks to the Elkhorn Prescribed Burn near the Arrowhead Lodge and lingering snow, the other buildings were able to remain untouched by the Arrowhead Fire. This prescribed burn, completed in 2020, helped keep the Arrowhead Fire from spreading further north and provides an excellent example of the positive impact prescribed fire can have in minimizing negative effects of wildfires. Of those buildings that were impacted, an outbuilding on the west side of the site used for storage and as a chicken coop was destroyed.
===HISTORY PRESERVATION EFFORTS
With support and funding from various groups, including the Colorado State Historical Fund, Colorado Preservation Inc., Rocky Mountain National Park Historic Preservation Crew, and the Poudre Wilderness Volunteers, the site has been cleaned, architectural and engineering assessments have been completed, and windows are being repaired. Additional work, including repairing floors is planned in the coming years.
The Arrowhead Lodge is expected to be open part time as a visitor center this summer 2023, staffed by volunteers. It is a Colorado’s Wild & Scenic River Visitor Center.
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This article’s facts were provided by information from Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests
Pawnee National Grassland, and the Application for Designation as a Historic Site.
