Happy Birthday America – celebrated in the beautiful southern Rocky Mountains of Creed, Colorado
Small mountain towns all strive to find their identity to stay vibrant and attractive to tourists. Creed, Colorado is a small mountain town that is not as well known as some of the ski villages, but has always been a very special place for me to visit, especially during the birthday celebration of our beautiful country. Located in the Rio Grande National Forest, Creed is hard to get to, and even harder to leave. Its main street less than a mile, but is filled with eclectic stores, specialty restaurants, art galleries, and the famous Creed Repertory Theatre (https://creederep.org ).
We begin our visit there dressed in red, white, and blue outfits, and join the crowd gathered along the streets awaiting the famous Creed July 4th Parade – always a lively display of fun loving entries.
We then visited the art gallery of famed painter, Stephen Quiller. The Quiller gallery was established in 1970 by Stephen Quiller, a painter who has lived and worked in the southern Rocky Mountains for over 30 years. https://www.quillergallery.com. I’ve always loved his work and have purchased and read many of his books. I’ve used his name brand line of watercolors for many years and hope to one day take one of his workshops. Stephen was at his gallery the day I visited and I, very shyly, asked if I could capture him and his wife through the lens of my camera. He smiled and said, “sure”, and continued to talk to the young couple that was inquiring about an upcoming workshop. He stopped just long enough to ask me where I was from and told me that he has held watercolor workshops in St. Louis. My heart leaped!!!
We then purchased tickets to the Creed Repertory Theatre production of “Dear Jack, Dear Louise” which was being performed in their outdoor theatre in the meadows of the Rocky Mountains.The show was an epistle play, a story told through the form of letters. Jack was a doctor in WWII and Louise was an actress in NYC. Their relationship grew through a series of letters. It was a romantic comedy but sprinkled with thoughtful reflections of the historic times and how it altered blooming relationships. The show was excellent, exciting, sad, funny, and very well performed. We’ve attended many shows at the CRT during our summer visits, but this was the first time that we saw the show in an outdoor setting.
We toured the cemetery and found some very interesting historic markers.
We then toured the World’s Only Underground Firehouse (https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/19914) Silver was discovered in Creed in 1889 and was mined until 1985. The community then carved out a hole in the mountainside and created a home for their volunteer fire department and mining museum.
As we left this beautiful mountain town, we discovered some new and creative homes being built. This small town in the southern Rocky Mountains invites all creative souls to visit and stay a while!!
We love to stay at the Windsock Acres B&B in Creed CO.