From the Author

Having spent

the last 23 years working with the Buena Vista Heritage Museum and going

through stacks of old newspapers, letters and photographs, I have a great

fondness and appreciation for Buena Vista. It has been informative and fun

gathering the information for this Walking Tour and I hope those of you

who take it will learn from and enjoy these bits of Buena Vista history.

This tour of historic Buena Vista will take you on a walking

or driving route around the town. The tour starts at the Chamber of Commerce

building, but can be started anywhere along the way. I have tried to give

addresses as known for all the sites. There are numerous buildings but also

some historic sites where the buildings once were located. Through the Buena

Vista Heritage Museum I was able to provide historic old photographs of

most of these sites. Other photos are recently taken of present buildings.

Walking the tour through town will take about two hours. The climb up the

Barbara Whipple Trail will take another two hours all sites except the Midland

Hill Depot can be seen from a car.

The homes on this tour are private residences,

so please do not disturb the people in them. Most of the businesses will

be happy to let you look inside.

As near as possible I have given dates of construction.

History of the buildings and sites has been gathered from various sources.

I especially appreciate Lloyd and Shirley Swedhin and Bryce Kelly for correcting

mistakes I made.

Thanks also goes to the Chamber of Commerce for information

from their walking tour brochure; the original one which Marge Dorfmeister

and Mike Dolan worked on in 1979 was expanded. And I have expanded the one

updated by Melanie Milam and Juel Kjeldsen.

There are many more homes and sites which will be included

in future editions of this booklet. If there is a site or building you would

like to know more about, please contact me or The Chaffee County Times.

Please thank the merchants who advertised in this booklet and provided a

copy for you. I hope you enjoy your walking tour of historic Buena Vista.

– Suzy Kelly