Entry No. 123 — the Denver file — filed under: history
Hiwan Heritage Park & Museum (Hiwan Homestead)
Tucked in an old-growth ponderosa grove off a quiet Evergreen street is a 25-room log lodge that grew like a fungus over 50 years, and the carpenter was forbidden to fell a single tree, so the house is literally built around living pines (one still rises through the dining room). Mary Neosho Williams started it as 'Camp Neosho' in 1893; her daughter Josepha, one of Colorado's first female physicians, and Josepha's clergyman husband Canon Charles Winfred Douglas expanded it into a rambling pile with two octagonal towers and a private octagonal chapel. It's free, county-run, and almost nobody outside Evergreen knows it's there.
The story
You don't expect a 25-room log lodge to creep across four acres of ponderosa pine like a slow-growing wooden organism, but that is precisely what happened here. In 1893, Mary Neosho Williams and her daughter Dr. Josepha Williams—one of Colorado’s first female physicians—hired Scottish carpenter John "Jock" Spence to convert an old hay barn into a mountain retreat called Camp Neosho. Over the next quarter-century, as Josepha married Episcopal clergyman Canon Charles Winfred Douglas, they kept adding rooms, two octagonal towers, and an upstairs private chapel, letting Spence hammer together a sprawling rustic labyrinth without clearing the grove.
Spence was under strict orders not to fell living pines, so he simply framed the lodge around them. Where a standing trunk intersected a room, the timber floorboards and ceiling hugged the bark, allowing living trees to continue growing right through the interior. Step into the dining room today and you'll see a massive ponderosa pine emerging from the floor and disappearing through the ceiling. The family’s son, Frederic Douglas, went on to become the Denver Art Museum’s first curator of Indigenous arts, stocking the home's timber alcoves with a massive private collection of Southwestern Native American pottery, baskets, and weavings.
When the property was sold in 1938 to the Buchanan family—who renamed it Hiwan Ranch and raised prizewinning Hereford cattle—the sprawling wooden structure remained remarkably unaltered. Threat of redevelopment in the early 1970s prompted Evergreen residents to rally, leading Jefferson County Open Space to purchase the parcel in 1974 as its very first historic property acquisition. It sits off a quiet residential street, completely free to enter, largely overlooked by drivers rushing past on Highway 74.
What it's like
Arriving feels less like visiting a official county museum and more like stumbling upon a quiet, private mountain retreat hidden in the pine trees. You can roam the shaded four-acre grounds and inspect the exterior log work anytime during park hours, but stepping inside the main house requires catching a free guided tour. Inside, expect tight staircases, low doorway headers, squeaky original floorboards, and the smell of aged timber. Because it's an authentic, un-modernized 1890s structure with steps between additions, accessibility for wheelchairs and strollers is limited. The volunteer docents know every nook of the house, including how to find the second-floor octagonal St. Joseph's Chapel.
The move: Wander the free 25-room lodge and the ponderosa grounds, hunting for the spots where the cabin wraps around standing trees, then grab lunch in downtown Evergreen a few minutes away.
📍 Before you go The two halves work differently. The wooded grounds are self-guided and open daily, so you can wander the ponderosas anytime; the inside of the log lodge only opens for the free guided tour, and those open days are limited and shift seasonally, so check with Jeffco ahead and aim for the afternoon window. Look for the signed Hiwan Heritage Park entrance set back in the trees in the Hiwan area near downtown Evergreen; there's an onsite lot. Because the buildings are historic, expect uneven floors and stairs — it's not fully ADA accessible. Pair it with a loop around Evergreen Lake just down the road.
- 📍 Evergreen
- 💸 Free
- ⚡ Low-key
- 🌗 Indoor or outdoor
Where: 4208 S. Timbervale Drive, Evergreen, CO 80439 (Hiwan Heritage Park, operated by Jefferson County)
Hours: Free admission; county-run with seasonal/limited days (often weekend or weekday afternoons, varies by season). Confirm current open days with Jeffco before visiting.
Pair it with
- Walker Mansion Ruins and Unfinished Summer White House — Compare Hiwan's intact 25-room wooden lodge with the fire-gutted stone ruins of John Brisben Walker's mountain mansion just ten minutes away on Mount Falcon.
- Tiny Town & Railroad — Follow up a walk through Hiwan's sprawling full-scale log lodge with a trip down the canyon to explore a hand-built town crafted at one-sixth scale.
- Morrison Natural History Museum — Pair a stop at Evergreen's quiet historical lodge with a visit to this compact storefront museum housing locally excavated dinosaur tracks and fossils.
Good to know
Is admission to Hiwan Heritage Park free?
Yes, visiting both the outdoor grounds and taking the guided lodge tour is completely free.
Can I tour the inside of the lodge on my own?
No, access to the 25-room log house is available only via free guided docent tours during open house hours. The grounds and outbuildings are open for self-guided wandering daily.
Where inside the house is the tree located?
The living ponderosa pine trunk passes directly through the floor and ceiling of the lodge's dining room.
Is the museum accessible for strollers or wheelchairs?
Due to its historic 1890s log construction, narrow passageways, stairs, and uneven thresholds, the interior of the main lodge is not fully ADA accessible.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: jeffco.us · Wikipedia · coloradoencyclopedia.org · 9news.com
last checked: 2026-06-07