Not many people know that Danny St. John, a fixture in Allenspark for more than 70 years, grew up in Southern California.
Don’t hold that against him.
He and his family came to Colorado during the summers until he was old enough to move here.
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“I’ve been coming here on and off since I was 1 year old,” he said.
St. John came to the mountains because of his grandfather, Francis Hannen, who lived in Greeley.
“My grandfather loved the mountains,” said St. John. “He taught high school in Greeley but always came up to Estes Park.”
Eventually, his grandfather bought 160 acres near Wild Basin outside Allenspark.
“My roots are here,” he said. “I’ve tried to move away, but these mountains draw me back and I cannot leave.”
Danny St. JOhn
His mother, Irene Hannen, was the second daughter in the family. She married Al St. John, who built a cabin on the property in 1941.
St. John said his whole family was in love with the mountains.
“But at that time, the winters were really harsh. No one lived up here year-round.”
After graduating from high school in California, he also came to the mountains.
He knocked around for a while and did a stint in Southern Colorado, where he met the woman who would become his wife, Rocky (Roxanne). In 1974, he started his own business, Wild Basin Builders.
In the late 1970s, he began writing a column in The Wind called “Windfalls.” The column expresses his opinions on philosophy, people, events, the environment, and the state of Allenspark.
Readers also learned about the wisdom of the Zen Tree through his column. He communes with the tree regularly.
“The Zen Tree teaches us to look at the big picture, the whole planet,” he said.
He loves to write and has a folder of stories and memoirs dating back to high school. He also attends a weekly online writing workshop with Estes Park author Kevin Wolf.
He is working on a folk tale, “Old Ned: The Longs Peak Body-Snatcher,” set in the 1920s, about a chef at the Baldpate Inn who chops up the kitchen help and runs off to the mountains to hide.
“I try to write daily,” he said. He is also a teller of tales, entertaining folks with stories during the summer at Meeker Park Lodge. He provides homemade pies for those gatherings of visitors and locals.
Folks in Allenspark know St. John through his construction business and the Meadow Mountain Café, which he and Rocky bought in 2007. Two of his four children work at the café. His son, Joe, is the cook.
“I never thought I would own a restaurant,” he said.
Rocky died in 2015 of breast cancer. St. John did not know if he would keep the café.
“Joe wanted to continue with it,” he said. So, they did. It is a family affair with daughter Jennifer waitressing and St. John himself doing some baking. Cookies are a specialty.
He has seen Allenspark change considerably over the years, with the working class shrinking and the retirement community growing.
He is now 78 years old and is content to spend his coming years in the mountains he loves.
“My roots are here,” he said. “I’ve tried to move away, but these mountains draw me back and I cannot leave.”
He suggests that those who want to stay in the mountains and make a living should have two skills. They should be both self-sufficient and be able to diversify.
He hopes the Meadow Mountain Café reflects those skills. He and Joe are building planters behind the café so they will have fresh greens to serve. They will also sell produce in addition to breads and pies at the Allenspark Farmers’ Market at The Old Gallery this summer.
St. John is also making Wild Basin Creations called Wood Knot Family pieces. Each unique figure is mounted on weathered wood. They will be for sale at the café this summer.
“When my cousin, Mike Donahue, and I came out here every summer, we had to make our own money. We would consult the old-timers, and they taught us.”
Old-timers like Otto Walter, Lester Coates, Chick and Jenny Jansen, Johnny and Eula McCollister, Kermit Pierce, Bud and Coleen Ewy, Pearl and Cecil Sinn, Frank Hansen.
“I’m so thankful for those folks,” he said. “And I’m so appreciative of the fact my grandfather had the vision to buy acres in the 1930s. It has become a sanctuary.”
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