Wondervu ( WUN-dər-VYOO) is an unincorporated community in Boulder and Gilpin counties in the U.S. state of Colorado. It lies within a valley known as Coal Creek Canyon and is a part of the larger census-designated place of Coal Creek. The settlement was developed in the late 1920s and the early 1930s by the prominent Denver lawyer Otto Friedrichs as a vacation community for the working class.
Location
2.6 km
Coal Creek, commonly known as Coal Creek Canyon, is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place located in Jefferson, Boulder, and Gilpin counties, Colorado, United States. The population of the Coal Creek CDP was 2,494 at the United States Census 2020. The unincorporated community is a part of the Denver-Aurora-Greeley, CO Combined Statistical Area and the Front Range Urban Corridor.
2.7 km
Gross Reservoir, located in Boulder County, Colorado, is owned and operated by Denver Water. Completed in 1954, the reservoir has a surface area of 440 acres, and the spillway sits at 7,225 feet elevation. The reservoir is undergoing an expansion project.
The reservoir receives water from South Boulder Creek and the western side of the Continental Divide through the Moffat Tunnel. South Boulder Creek flows out of the 340-foot high dam.
2.9 km
Pinecliffe is a U.S. Post Office and an unincorporated community located in Boulder County and Gilpin County, Colorado, United States. The Pinecliffe Post Office, in Boulder County, has the ZIP Code 80471.
5.3 km
Winks Panorama, also known as Winks Lodge, was a hotel near Pinecliffe, Colorado catering to African-American tourists during the early and middle 20th century. The lodge was built in the Lincoln Hills Country Club, which was at the time the only African-American resort in the western United States. The Lincoln Hills club was organized in 1922, selling lots with payments as low as $5.00 down and $5.00 per month. The lodge was built by Obrey Wendell "Winks" Hamlet in 1928. Hamlet had been involved in the original club project, and had been assembling land for a lodge since 1925. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 caused many lots in Lincoln Hills to be abandoned, but Hamlet promoted the lodge nationally through advertisements in Ebony and attracted a clientele from the eastern United States.
The hillside lodge used local stone for the foundation, with a three-story shingled superstructure. The first floor was for service and storage, the second for dining and entertainment, and the third included six guest rooms and a shared bath. Several cabins surrounded the main lodge, including a honeymoon cabin and a tavern.
Prominent guests included Count Basie, Billy Eckstein, Duke Ellington, Lena Horne, Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.
The lodge operated until Winks' death in 1965. It is now owned by the James Beckwourth Mountain Club, which has undertaken restoration of the lodge as a conference center. Winks Panorama was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 28, 1980. On December 11, 2023, the United States Department of the Interior designated the lodge a National Historic Landmark.
5.4 km
Lincoln Hills in Gilpin County, Colorado, the United States, was a vacation resort for African-Americans. Lincoln Hills was created in 1922 by E.C. Regnier and Roger Ewalt, and was the only resort for African Americans west of the Mississippi River. Lincoln Hills served as a reprieve from segregation for middle class African-Americans in the 20th century.
All businesses and homes in the village have a Golden ZIP Code. Businesses in Wondervu include the Wondervu Café. The welcome sign for the village of Wondervu is near the junction of Coal Creek Canyon Road and Ramona Road.