The Baldpate Inn Key Collection

June 9, 2020

Relics — I love them, and I always have. To me, they aren’t just idle objects with the sole purpose of collecting dust. They’re a surviving trace of a moment and a story. Here at The Baldpate Inn in Estes Park, Colorado, there are over 30,000 such narratives hanging within a single room. Except these artifacts happen to be keys to places both literal and symbolic. And for those that belong to a true doorway, some of them are all that remains of a space that has since been lost to development and/or time.

The Baldpate Key Collection is quite famous and has been since it started growing by word of mouth during World War I. Named after the mystery novel, “Seven Keys to Baldpate” by Earl Derr Biggers, the tradition began in 1917 after Baldpate owners, the Mace family, gave each visitor their own key as an ode to the storyline of the novel. Once the War began, however, the Mace family could no longer afford to give each guest their own key, sparking a competition of sorts among the most loyal of guests who would return each year with their own elaborate keys to share.

103 years later, this collection is now the largest of its kind in the world.

As anything numbering over tens of thousands of objects might seem, the collection is overwhelming. History is dripping from the ceiling by way of manilla tags and notched teeth. What we think of as a traditional key’s teeth on the blade are actually called “bittings,” and as you look to the walls, overhead and every other place in between, there are more shapes and styles than you ever dreamed existed. Not that you’d dream about keys probably ever, but after visiting this collection, you just might.

There are ship keys, household keys, car keys, jail cell keys, laboratory keys, typewriter keys, keys to Old Las Vegas casinos that have long been razed, and, my absolute favorite, keys to places that are still a mystery. Among the prominent in the collection are those from the Pentagon, Westminster Abby, Mozart’s wine cellar, and Frankenstein’s castle.

The Inn itself is just as unique and fascinating as the key collection. Built by hand-hewn timbers from the surrounding land, it’s a lovely, yet updated, representation of Old Colorado living that still retains its original charm. Actually, the Inn was quite modern for its time when it opened, offering guests amenities we now take for granted like electric lights, hot water and indoor plumbing.

Tour the main floor and the collections of photography and art. Sit and relax by one of the massive stone fireplaces crackling with warmth. Lounge outside and listen to the trill of the hummingbirds as they zing back and forth to the sugar water feeders. And, whatever you do, do not miss their amazing three-course breakfast.

Photographs and text by Elaine Skylar Neal / Travels and Curiosities

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