ALLENSPARK — It was standing-room-only at Tree Huggers Trading Co. on a recent Sunday afternoon in mid-November when locals gathered to talk about, Katherine G. Garetson, an early settler who wrote a book about her life in the mountains, “Homesteading Big Owl.”
Katherine, who was nicknamed KG, was about as naïve as they come but that didn’t stop her from homesteading 160 acres of high mountain property from 1914 to 1919 near the base of Longs Peak.
While her cabin was being built, she stayed at her sister’s cabin, the Helen Dings cabin, which still stands just west of Highway 7 about a quarter mile south of the entrance to Longs Peak Inn.
At the book party was Prudence Dings, Katherine’s great- grand-niece, and Allenspark historian Edie DeWeese, editor of “Homesteading Big Owl.”
DeWeese led a discussion about the book, asking those gathered, “How many of you had homesteaders in your family?”
Several hands went up: Homesteading is recent history.
Prudence Dings explained a little of her family history and what led them to the mountains.
“KG and Helen were sisters,” she said. “Helen married and lived in St. Louis until her son, Mac, got ill. Then they moved to the mountains. Enos Mills welcomed them to the Longs Peak Inn.”
Apparently, Mills was a strict man and the girls did not want to live with him at the inn. For one thing, they wanted to dance, Prudence said.
So, being independent women, they bought their own properties.
KG lived with a friend and a dog and by herself on and off for five rough years. She lived on borrowed money and on money she earned running a tearoom for travelers and hikers. And sewing, always sewing, doll costumes and other items to sell in her gift shop.
Tearooms were popular at that time in remote areas. Eagle Plume’s Indian Jewelry store on Highway7 used to be a tearoom owned by Katherine Lindsey Perkins.
The Estes Park Museum has the ledger and menus that once belonged to the Big Owl Tea Place. A menu from 1925 offered tea, cinnamon or buttered toast for 40 cents.
DeWeese suggested that KG had an idea that she could sell some of her land and make some money as the years went by. But DeWeese also thought that KG’s motivation changed in later years.
KG grew to love the land despite hardships and thought of it as her home. When she sold off parcels, she didn’t do it for money.
“She sold pieces of land for $1 and love and affection,” said DeWeese.
KG writes about the mountain people she meets, the help that is generously offered to her, the daily trials and triumphs she lives through. Finally, at the end of the book, she receives her legal documents signed by President Herbert Hoover.
She did it. She homesteaded her land and earned it, a feat many others failed to accomplish. During the long winter nights, she also taught herself a form of shorthand, knowing that she wouldn’t remain in the mountains forever. World War I and the flu epidemic were impacting the mountains.
KG finally moved to Denver where she worked as a stenographer at the state capital earning $1,500 a year. She must have loved being warm and having enough to eat and she must have missed the mountains terribly.
She came back for vacations, but never lived on Big Owl again.
KG died in Washington state where she spent her last years with her nephew.
Her cabin and tearoom burned down in 1985.
Elisabeth Sherwin is a seasoned journalist who teaches memoir writing at the Estes Valley Rec Center. She holds a master’s in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, worked as a copy editor at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and the San Francisco Examiner, and was a reporter, editor, book reviewer, and copy editor at the Davis (Calif.) Enterprise. She also taught journalism at UC Davis Extension. She lives in Allenspark. Her book reviews and other writings can be found on her website, Printed Matter, or click here to see her reviews published on the Estes Valley Voice.
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