Highlandlake Revisted in 2024

Highlandlake (yes, that is the correct spelling) is a small community outside of Mead, Colorado.  It was last visited here way back in 2008 and as mentioned, it was a summer getaway area for Longmont via buggy-rides, starting in the 1870s.  (As expected after 16 years, most of the links in that article are dead, more on that later).  

The surrounding area was a private fishing camp in 2008.  In 2016, the Town of Mead purchased the recreational rights to the lake and built a park there (Lorin Mead Park).  It's a fishing, picnicking, and low-impact boating destination only; no swimming allowed due to unknown water quality.  The water in the lake is owned and used by the oil and gas industry.  

The excellent and well-crafted Historic Highlandlake website historichighlandlake.org from 2008 looks like it has transitioned to a slightly renamed site.

Lorin Mead Park today:

The water level of the lake will vary over the year, depending on usage by it's owner:

 

Despite changes at the lake, the historic church across the street remains constant and well-maintained:

If you're interested in learning more about this community, in 2013 a book was published on the Highlandlake and Mead area:

Memorial Day 2024

 

Memorial Day Longmont 2019

From today's speaker at the Memorial Day observance at Mountain View Cemetary

"Memorial Day is more than the flags waving at a sale, at the car dealership"  

Edward Whipp U.S. Soldier.  Captioning in case  he shows up in a genealogy search

Five Years since the Flood of 2013 in Longmont

Can't believe it's been five years since the Flood of 2013 hit Longmont.  I was evacuated but luckily suffered no damage.  A few blocks over from where I lived was a different story.

Here's a video I took of Missouri Avenue on Friday morning, September 13, 2013:

For those reading this from far away, Longmont is still recovering from the flood.  The St. Vrain Greenway, for example, is still not open on portions east of Main Street.  Just a month ago, the most eastward portion to Sandstone Ranch was re-opened.

Some of my Flood-related stories, mostly from the Southmoor Park neighborhood:

• Left Hand Creek in Longmont and the Rain Storm.  This was the first day of the rain but it didn't stop.

• One More Round of Flood Pictures

• Kanemoto Park Pool is All Gone Now
• Splash Pad Replacement for Kanemoto Park Pool?
• Open House for St. Vrain Greenway Planning 
• Pike Road Underpass Open Again
• Kanemoto Park Bridge
• Kanemoto Park Bridge Update 
• Missouri Avenue Pedestrian Bridge Open Again 
• Kanemoto Park Pool Appears Near Completion
• Missouri Avenue in Longmont:   Pre and Post-Restoration
• New Kanemoto Park Pool Opens Today
• St. Vrain Greenway East of Main
• Revisiting St. Vrain Green to Sandstone Ranch after 4.8 years 

My local streets were a steady parade of construction vehicles for almost two years, as the park and bridge next to me were reconstructed. 

What a lot of people will forget is that the flood could have been a lot worse along Left Hand Creek.  The City undertook a channel re-widening project two years earlier in 2011 (with federal funding), including a new box culvert and bridge at South Pratt Parkway and Missouri Avenue.  Most will agree that this work saved a lot of houses from being underwater but this is now mostly forgotten.

Revisiting St. Vrain Greenway to Sandstone Park after 4.8 years

Longmont's St. Vrain Greenway recently re-opened all the way east to Sandstone Ranch, after being closed for 4.8 years due to damage from the 2013 flood.  Finally got back out there on the bike today to check it out. 

Before the flood, the Greenway to Sandstone was a popular bike ride and hike, especially on weekends. But it's been fenced off first at County Road 1 right after the flood and then in 2015, it was extended 1/2 mile east of CR1 for a few more years.

This was the the previous eastern-most point.  The gate was closed and you can still see the leftover "No Trespassing" sign.   Gate is open now!

  
The wetland marsh still exists north of the Greenway as you go toward Sandstone:

The powerful 2013 flood created a new channel of the St. Vrain river out here.  It was decided by the engineers and planners just to leave it as nature carved it out in the flood vs. trying to put the river back in it's pre-2013 shape.  One reason I heard at a city open house was that wildlife had already adopted the new wetlands created by the river split.  A new double-bridge was added over the new channel, kind of hard to see in this picture:

The smaller 2009 bridge remains over the original flow of the river as you cross into Sandstone Ranch:

I saw some wild turkeys after crossing the bridge into the park:

The cliffs at Sandstone:

I was glad to see my old favorite gravel road still there, going in front of the cliffs to the east and then up the hill.  It's in rougher shape than I remember it with lots of loose sand.   I wouldn't try it on skinny bike tires:

The view from the lookout point situated on top of the cliffs:

Hard to believe it's been over 1768 days since I've been able to ride the Greenway to Sandstone.  Very glad it's back.

Memorial Day Longmont 2018

Dougherty Musem

Despite being just a few miles from where I live, and passing it everyday for twenty years, I had never visited the Dougherty Museum just south of Longmont.  Finally in August of last year (2017), I went inside.

Ray G. Dougherty was a Boulder County poultry farmer and began collecting musical keyboard instruments like organs and the pianos in the late 1920s, along with audio equipment (phonographs, radios, etc.).  In the 40s, he and his wife's interests expanded to vintage cars and farm equipment, with their first acquisition being a 1913  Ford Model T.  As their collection grew, it was stashed but safely preserved, in various storage sheds on their property.  In the 1970s, the Dougherty family decided that their collections had public interest and built a 29,000 square foot building to house a museum.  Ray died in 1988 but the museum continues to this day as a private foundation and is open part of the year in the summer months, June through August.

This is just a sampling of what's inside.  I liked seeing the history of these well-preserved vehicles, including from some manufacturers that I had never heard of.

First, a 1924 "Silver Ghost" Rolls Royce.  6000 of these were made, all hand-built.

One of the oldest bicycles in Longmont, an 1896 Cleveland.  Dougherty was way ahead of his time in collecting vintage stuff and some were even questioning his judgement. I kind of wish he had snapped up more of the early bicycles.

One of the many musical instruments in the Dougherty museum, this one an amazing 1895 foot pump Pianola player-piano, with me at the helm!  It's taken a lot of precision volunteer hours to keep these operating.





The Dougherty's found this 1918 Cadillac Model 57 in a Boulder garage. 

1917 Studebaker, originally owned by the John W. Goss family of Hygiene, Colorado:

Lozier was a short lived Detroit turn-of-the-century car company, started by a bicycle builder.  This 1913 model was made a year before they shut down.

A reminder that electric cars are not a new thing, here's a early 1900's Detroit Electric 84-Volt coupe, top speed 25 mph.  List price was $3300. 

1919 Locomobile, a Connecticut car company, known as the staff car of General Pershing during WWI.

1908 Packard Model 30, found in Basalt, Colorado.

Just one of the many tractors and farm implements at the museum, a 1936 Fordson, manufactured in Dagenhem, UK by Ford and originally purchased by Philip Travarton in 1936 from Cleveland Motors, Longmont.

Speaking of tractors, you can double up on visiting the museum and seeing vintage tractors outside by attending the Yesteryear Farm Show on the Dougherty property, usually at the end of August each year.  That's what I did.   Vintage tractors used to be on display at the annual Boulder County Fair but they now gather at Dougherty instead. The farm show is free and admission to the museum is $5, $3 for kids.