 ike the Holmberg Preserve, this site embodies many layers of women's history. Mary Parsons Roose (ca. 1856-1937), a Swedish miner's widow with seven children, built the Antlers Hotel here in 1896 to capitalize on nearby Eldora's gold mining boom. Guests enjoyed the best view in town, first of Barker Meadows and later of Barker Reservoir. During the 1918 influenza epidemic, the hotel became a hospital, its porch covered with canvas to shelter the sick who were lined up on cots. In 1932, the Catholic Daughters of America converted the old hotel into a summer camp for girls and built the Chapel of St. Rita next door. Although the deteriorating hotel was demolished in 1961, the chapel remains. |
