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Part of Our Past—A Gift for Our Future
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Here's the Denver Post article from December 24th:
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Article Published: Friday, December 24, 2004
RETURNING LUSTER AND VALUE TO NECKLACE OF MOUNTAIN PARKS
By Mike McPhee
Denver Post Staff Writer
Photo: Kathryn Scott Osler
W. Bart Berger, pictured in Genesee Park near Chief Hosa Lodge, has formed the Denver Mountain Parks Foundation, a nonprofit organization that raises funds to assist in the maintenance and improvement of the mountain parks system.
In the 100 years since the automobile first arrived, travel has improved, to say the least.
In 1904, Evergreen was a remote logging camp and summer resort, reachable only on horseback or by buggy, up Bear Creek on a dirt road from Morrison.
In 2004, Vail is an easy 200-mile day trip for skiing or fishing and back in time for dinner.
A hundred years ago, Denver's leaders wisely understood how automobile travel would give city dwellers access into the mountains for a day of picnicking or fishing or hiking, and enable them to get back down the same day.
With the help of famed park planner Frederick Law Olmstead Jr., Denver established a necklace of mountain parks - just outside the city - owned and paid for by Denver for the enjoyment of all residents without charge.
Stretching from Lookout Mountain across Evergreen and over Mount Evans to Sedalia, the parks include Bergen Park, Dedisse Park and Genesee Park.
Once enormously popular, the little gems today are nearly forgotten, as interstate drivers speed past them toward the larger national parks and forests over the Continental Divide.
And there is little money to maintain them.
One man is trying to change that.
W. Bart Berger - who lives with his wife, Fabby Hillyard, former head of Denver's Theatres and Arenas, among the parks on the western edge of Jefferson County - has formed the Denver Mountain Parks Foundation, a nonprofit organization to raise funds to assist in the maintenance and improvement of the mountain parks system.
"I wake up to these parks. I see them every day," Berger said. "To most Denverites, these parks are invisible and not appreciated. That piques my interest."
Berger, a fourth-generation Coloradan whose great-grandfather was three-term Gov. Alva Adams, has never shied away from a civic project. He has spent his 55 years involved in numerous public projects, serving as treasurer of the Colorado Historical Society, as a commissioner of the Denver Landmarks Commission, and several terms as chairman of his late-brother's WMBBerger Foundation, which connects kids with nature.
As Berger looked into the parks, he found an odd political reality. Although the 48 parks are owned by Denver, they cover 22 square miles in Jefferson, Clear Creek, Douglas and Grand counties.
With no financial advocate in government, the parks receive only 1 percent of Denver's parks department budget for maintenance yet constitute nearly 72 percent of the acreage of Denver's parks and open spaces.
"We want to help fulfill the mission of Denver Parks and Recreation to preserve, protect and enhance these recreational resources through a public/private partnership," Berger wrote in a letter to prospective members.
"This is the right thing to do. These parks don't have a higher and better use," he said.
Berger has no formal agreement with the city but has received an enthusiastic response from city officials. On Dec. 21, Mayor John Hickenlooper expressed his wholehearted support for the plan.
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