Article Contributed on: 10/25/2007 5:11:35 PM
The TNT Country Kitchen at 408 Bear Creek Ave. in Morrison has a slightly new look. The building now sports an almost-complete mural depicting Morrison history.
Emanuel Martinez, a Morrison artist, painted this mural that depicts "Morrison Through Time". The mural measures 15' high by 60' long and chronologically depicts Morrison's past to the present in six panels. Funding for this mural was provided by the Federal Highway Administration, The Lariat Loop Heritage Alliance, the Denver Theatres and Arenas, the Friends of Dinosaur Ridge, the Morrison Natural History Museum Foundation, Karin Bond, and Jeanne and Cy Esphahanian.
The mural has several different panels, all showing a glimpse into Morrison history.
One panel displays the Stegosaurus (1) and Allosaurus(2), dinosaurs that lived in the area 150 million years ago, were discovered on Dinosaur Ridge in 1877 by Arthur Lakes, a professor from the Colorado School of Mines. Go to Dinosaur Ridge to see dinosaur bones in the rock where they were discovered or to the Morrison Natural History Museum where they are extracting dinosaur bones from the same rock.
Another panel depicts the Ute Indians. While the first evidence of paleo-Indians in the area dates approximately 9,000 years ago, the Ute Indians camped along Bear Creek in the 1800s. With the introduction of the horse by the Spanish, the Utes were able to travel far out into the plains to hunt bison.
George Morrison and his wife are also in the mural. They homesteaded near Morrison. In 1874 Governor
John Evans and George Morrison filed the original town plat. They formed the Morrison Stone, Lime and Town Company and were the owners of the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad; the narrow gauge rail line that made Morrison its first terminus to haul building stone, lime, lumber, coal and tourists. Arthur Lakes (3) also shipped dinosaur bones out by rail to O.C. Marsh at Yale University. The railroad ran to Morrison from 1877 until 1925, carrying tourists to Morrison to hike, dance, gamble, and transporting building materials to Denver.
The famous
John Brisben (J.B.) Walkeris also depicted. Heacquired the land around the giant "red rocks" in 1906 and envisioned an attraction he called "The Garden of the Titans." The City and County of Denver purchased the land in 1927 and built new scenic drives in the park. The area remained in its natural state until workers from the Civilian Conservation Corps, a Depression Era work program, built the amphitheatre between 1936 and 1941.
Pete Morrison, the grandson of George Morrison, acted in some of the first cowboy movies in the West. The two middle panels match the color of the early silent westerns, many of which were filmed in Red Rocks Park and the Morrison area.
J.B. Walker invited the famous opera singer,
Mary Garden, to test the natural acoustics of the site (then known at the "Garden of the Titans") in 1911. Since then many famous artists have performed at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Depicted here are
Bono (1) of U2,
John Denver (2),
Jerry Garcia (3) of the Grateful Dead,
Carlos Santana (4),
Jimi Hendrix (5),
Judy Collins (6),
Willie Nelson (7),
Ella Fitzgerald (8), and
Bonnie Raitt (9).
Present day activities one can do in and around Morrison are also found in the mural. Activitiesinclude such things as hiking, bicycling, motorcycling and rock climbing. Today, Morrison is a great place to begin or end your tour of the Lariat Loop Scenic and Historic Byway. After walking the Bear Creek Trail, or visiting mountain parks and open spaces in the area, stop in at the great restaurants and shops in Morrison.
Joe Tempel is the President of the Lariat Loop Heritage Alliance.