The Raising of St Walter&#039;s [Denver Catholic Register, Sep 23, 1915]

There is a consistent history of how St. Walter Church came to be named, who the benefactors were, and the raising of the church itself. However, this article which you may read in in the Archdiocese of Denver Archives, or this clipping, introduces some sidenotes to this history.

Note that St Walter's is referred to as the "New Rocky Mountain Park Temple" and the "New National Park Church". The town of Estes Park was not established until 317 year-round citizens voted to incorporate the Town in 1917, whereas Rocky Mountain National Park was established by President Woodrow Wilson in 1915, at which time Estes Park is most often referred to as a "village" without any real political or administrative structure. Realty transactions and land ownership ran through land speculators, and there were no Catholic families in permanent residence. St Walter's was built for the convenience of those visiting the village of Estes Park and now the new Rocky Mountain National Park during the Summer tourist season.

The article also mentions an unnamed artist who painted an oil color of St Walter Church:

The new National Park church is called St. Walter’s. An artist who visited Estes this summer declared that the building is located in the prettiest site of any church in the United States.

"I intend to paint it in oil colors next summer,” he told Father Howlett.

The current location of that oil painting is not known, however, Our Lady of the Mountains is in possession of a hand-painted photograph of an oil painting that would fit this description. The cardboard frame on the photograph bears the name "Gary E. Konkel", and the Title "Estes Park Village - Main Range", but it is unknown whether Mr. Konkel would be the original artist, or the artist who hand painted the photograph, or both, or neither.

Lastly, there is also a more detailed accounting of the contributions made to the building of St. Walter Church, which Fr. Howlett described as "other smaller donations" in his autobiography:

$650 by the Walsh family for the chapel
$100 by Monsignor Ryan of Davenport
$750 by George J. Cooke of Chicago, thru the Extension society
$100 by P. J. Sullivan of Wray
$50 by Mrs. M. E. Wright of St. Louis
$100 by the Loretto-Sisters’ motherhouse
$450 bequest from the ranch of Father Howlett’s late brother, Thomas Howlett
$25 by Ed Cahill of New York.

The Walsh donation does not exactly match other accounts, however, this accounting is for the chapel only, and Fr. Howlett had already spent money to secure lodging for the Summer and to purchase the lot.

Some of the donations call back to the relationships described in Fr. Howlett's autobiography. Friend Fr. Ryan, the St. Louis connection where one of Fr. Howlett's sister was a Sister of Loretto as well as the Loretto Mother House where Fr. Howlett was assigned as Chaplain, and his brother's bequest from the farm that brought the Howlett family to Colorado in 1865.

This article also makes note of donations by non-Catholics; two are cited in the persons of Ed Cahill and another identified only as Nye. Mr. Cahill offered Fr. Howlett a 75 cent donation which the Father accepted, and later returned with a check for $25. Nye engaged Fr. Howlett in a conversation over who St. Walter was, after which he asked to donate $1 to pay for a brick as was the custom for "big city edifices."