Lincoln Hills

ED: In 1922, two black developers bought 100 acres of land nestled in the Rocky Mountains, just a short train ride from Denver. Their plan was simple– sell plots to middle class African-American families so they could build cabins. They called the area Lincoln Hills, and for four decades, it was the only known resort west of the Mississippi that catered to black tourists. Colorado’s locals relied on Lincoln Hills as a necessary retreat.

MARIE GREENWOOD: Denver was just a city that was like a little country town. It was just a nice place to live except we had a lot of discrimination.

ED: This is Marie Greenwood. She’s lived through a lot of Colorado’s history.

MARIE GREENWOOD: I’m 103.

ED: Growing up in the 1920s, Greenwood says that she and other African-Americans faced all kinds of restrictions.

MARIE GREENWOOD: Some theaters, you couldn’t go to at all. And the big theaters, a little bell would ring, and a usher would usher right up into whatever corner we were supposed to sit in. We would not be served in a restaurant downtown, not even Woolworths. And a lot of that discrimination came from Southerners who had moved in here and the Ku Klux Klan.

ED: By 1925, Klan supporters occupied nearly every level of Colorado’s government including one senator, the governor, and both the mayor and chief of police of Denver. In this tense racial climate, Greenwood says, she found an escape at Lincoln Hills. There, she attended a summer camp for African-American girls who were not allowed to attend the same camps as white children.

MARIE GREENWOOD: I had never been to a camp before. So when I was 15, and I had found out about this camp then of course I wanted to go, and I did it.

ED: Greenwood fondly remembers her first train ride through the Rockies to Camp Nizhoni. She says the experience inspired her love of the outdoors.

MARIE GREENWOOD: I can’t forget it. We went through– golly, I don’t remember– how many tunnels, and then we went through the little town of Pinecliffe, and then just beyond that was Lincoln Hills. And then there was a trail that took us on through to Nizhoni. From that very first time, I was thrilled to death. It was all of the mountains were just fascinating to me.

ED: There, the girls camped, hiked, sang songs– the usual summer camp kind of things. And Greenwood returned every summer for the next 15 years. First, as a camper and then as a counselor.

GARY JACKSON: Well, I was born in 1945. And during the summer months, I probably went to Lincoln Hills and to our cabin every single weekend.

BRIAN: This is Gary Jackson, a county judge in Denver. Jackson had an altogether different experience with the resort. When Lincoln Hills first opened, his great-grandfather bought one of the small plots and built a cabin that his family still owns today. Jackson says he spent his summers there, well, just being a kid in the mountains.

GARY JACKSON: Hiking, fishing, shooting my BB gun, skipping rocks across the creek. It was swimming in the ponds. There was horseback riding in the area. So there were all types of recreational activities. It was the American dream of black people to be able to have a second home. This was our American dream.

BRIAN: Jackson’s family were Denver locals, but Lincoln Hills also attracted tourists from across the country largely thanks to one entrepreneur named Winks Hamlet.

GARY JACKSON: He built a five bedroom rooming house that he rented out to the public. He also built about 17 other cabins in the proximity of Winks Lodge that he would also rent out to the public.

BRIAN: Hamlet open the Winks Lodge in the mid ’20s. Jackson says he advertised this recreational facility nationwide in three key outlets.

GARY JACKSON: Basically, in black newspapers across the country. It was advertised in the Jet magazine. It was also advertised in the Green Book.

BRIAN: Luminaries like Lena Horne, Duke Ellington, and Langston Hughes were among the famous visitors who stayed at the lodge during its heyday. Lincoln Hills had a fairly short life span. Winks Lodge shut its doors when Winks Hamlet died in 1965. By then desegregation efforts had opened more doors for African-American tourists. But Marie Greenwood says the resort played an important role in her life, and the lives of other African-Americans.

MARIE GREENWOOD: In Denver, we had to live under whatever the limitations were. But there in Lincoln Hills, there was a freedom. To me, it was wonderful that we had these families that could come, and be free and not worry about anything, but being in a place of their own.

BRIAN: Today, Lincoln Hills is a fly fishing resort still owned by a black entrepreneur. And new generations of African-Americans continue to seek out its history.

JAMES EDWARD MILLS: Here was the one place west of the Mississippi where African-Americans could recreate safely. And I was amazed.

BRIAN: This is journalist James Edward Mills. He writes about what he calls the adventure gap, the idea that outdoor activities are typically for white Americans and not enjoyed by people of color. When he discovered the story of Lincoln Hills he set out to see the place for himself.

JAMES EDWARD MILLS: So I made a couple of phone calls, got myself an invitation to visit, got a chance to walk the grounds, and do some fishing, and I fell in love with this place.

BRIAN: I want to ask you what the story of Lincoln Hills tells us about the history of African-Americans and tourism in nature.

JAMES EDWARD MILLS: It’s interesting because– for myself– I personally haven’t felt limited by my ability to spend time in nature, but I know that a lot of African-Americans do. And so one of the things that I do in my writing is to try to find these very unique stories, and get that historic peg that a person can hang their heritage on. And if they can have that historical legacy, that link to the past that basically says, well, my ancestors are people who look like me, who share by ethnic heritage did these things, why can’t I do those things today? Especially considering how much better things are today. So if they could do it in 1920, why can’t I do this in 2016?

BRIAN: James Edward Mills is a journalist and the author of the Adventure Gap– Changing the Face of the Outdoors. You also heard from Denver natives Marie Greenwood and Gary Jackson.

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