A Brief History of Rivendell Retreat near Hotchkiss Colorado
Once you've come down the Rivendell lane you enter through the blue gate, where this sign is located.
We—Joe and Katherine Colwell—visited the North Fork Valley in 1990—and like so many others—fell in love with the area; and were fortunate to find this 40 acres on the southeast end of Redlands Mesa.At that time we were planning ahead to Joe’s retirement. For the next seven years we spent long weekends and vacation weeks here—camping, cleaning up the old homestead, building trails, and naming features of the land from Tolkien’s Hobbit, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and The Silmarillion.
The land was homesteaded by Hazel Short in the 1930s, and continued in her ownership until 1988 when she deeded the property to her nieces. In 1990 they sold to a developer, and we came along at the moment when he was ready to list the property. From 1998 to 2000, Joe interviewed Redlands Mesa residents who knew Hazel, and he has been working off and on since then on a book inspired by her life and this land. Eventually we will have a “homestead-photos-and-history” page on this website.
In 1997 we realized that while we were physically in the Black Hills of South Dakota—where Joe was in his 28th year with the U.S. Forest Service—we were mentally here. So, we did some math, and realized that if we lived frugally, he could retire early, and we would move here. So we did.
The Rivendell lane is 1/4 mile long and has pasture and hay fields on either side.
We were also fortunate to find a terrific builder and subcontractors, and moved into our home in January 1998. Katherine’s artist friends visited during construction and immediately started planning our first retreat, which we held in May 1998. The Imladris Guesthouse and garage were constructed in 2000. By 2002, Katherine was weary of using her studio-gallery space for retreats, so the Taniquetil Lodge classroom/meeting facility was constructed in 2003.
Over the years we have documented with photos the homestead cleanup, our landscaping, the building construction, the flora and fauna, and our retreat guests.. Looking back over the 21 years, it has been a remarkable journey—incredibly interesting, challenging and rewarding—with no end in sight: Joe keeps “finding” new trails to build, and with Katherine’s health odyessy magically ended, in some ways we may be growing younger as the land is restored.
A small gallery of old homestead views:
A small gallery of neighboring views:
A Brief Bio for Joe
During his 27½ year career with the Forest Service, Joe worked in most areas of land management on 6 different ranger districts, on 5 national forests: range management, timber, recreation, wildlife, land-use planning, environmental education (certified as a facilitator in Project Learning Tree and Project Wild), and mediation and facilitation. Prior to his Forest Service career, he spent summers during college working at Idaho State Parks in recreation management, and at Mt. Rainier National Park on the trail crew, thus getting on-the-ground experience which he still puts to use. His BS from University of Idaho-Moscow is in Wildlife Management. And in 1978-79, the USFS sent us to Michigan, for Joe to get an MS in Resource Economics and Land Management Planning.
Joe typically spends several weeks every year during the wildfire season dispatched to do fire information around the western states. When he is not doing trail maintenance, landscaping projects, defensible space work on the property (thinning and removing fire-prone vegetation), and vegetable gardening (he is trained and certified as a Master Gardener and Master Food Preserver), Joe reads extensively (non-fiction and fiction), and he works on his Forest Service memoirs, several novels, poetry, and essays. Stay tuned for a section of our web site for samples of his work.
A Brief Bio for Katherine
In 1978, Katherine explored her plein air graphite pencil drawings as design sources for her embroidery, as independent studies to complete her BA in Fine Art (University of Northern Colorado). Then, while Joe was studying economics and planning at MSU, Katherine studied embroidery as drawing in the MSU visual arts graduate program; she subsequently delved into small business management to learn how to make a living as an artist. The decades since have been an amazing creative journey. On Katherine’s Studio-Gallery page you will find a short highlights resume.
The term fiber artist does not truly describe the work she creates. The foundations for all her work are: 1st—the fine-hand-sewing and clothing construction skills Katherine learned in middle school, high school and apparel design courses, and 2nd—the fine art skills and the development of intuitive senses from drawing in nature.
As a life-long-learner, every medium and material explored over the decades simply makes more unique synthesis in her artwork (for example: studying with Lakota beaders; and spending a year researching archival-conservation materials and techniques applicable to her media).
The adage “To teach is to learn twice” is relevant, too. Katherine lead the annual Rivendell Embroidery and Fiber Art Retreat most years, and she spent the prior year studying something new, in order to teach it; the most fascinating (and inspiring) was learning to write poetry and then teaching it to embroiderers so they feel comfortable composing and using their own poetry in their fiber art.
This year, while Katherine continues to teach art, she is taking a break from creating her two-sided and 3-dimensional embroideries. Currently, her creative energy focus is on Rivendell Retreat (website and other marketing, and landscaping/gardening), and her volunteer work as corresponding secretary for the Hotchkiss Community Chamber of Commerce.
As an art educator, she works with individuals (including Vision Program students), and organizations in workshops and art classes in her Rivendell studio— focusing on design fundamentals, critique skills, drawing, and fiber media. Please go to her Teaching and Mentoring page for more information.
We look forward to scheduling your Rivendell experience, whether it is:
- an individual retreat, or a family gathering;
- your own class or workshop in Taniquetil;
- your business’ or non-profit organization’s board meeting;
- a peronalized itinerary for you or your small group;
- to work with either or both of us in merging awareness, creativity & nature.
Thank you for visiting our website—we hope you enjoy your virtual tour of this amazing forty acres.
Please do schedule your reservation and discover it all for yourself.
In response to our most recent E-NewsPhotoLetter, Donna (a frequent guest from Lakewood Colorado) said, “Be still my heart! this is what dreams are made of!”
If you have visited Rivendell and appreciate everything it represents, please let us know.
And we thank you for passing the word to others. We limit our advertising and appreciate word of mouth references.
Joe and Katherine Colwell
For years we called them Hazel's Flowers, but they are commonly known as Bouncing Bets. They thrived in her old garden area and we've transplanted them around the Rivendell buildings.