Evergreen Conference Center Revisited

Today (June 23) marked our 43rd anniversary. Our “big” celebration will be at the Safari Supper at the Wild Animal Sanctuary. We’ll be dining with 40-50 others on the ground floor of the Bolivian Lion House. That location means we could have a number of rescued lions as part of our company. Depending on which table we choose we could be next to one of our adoptees: either Leo II or Gigi. While, thanks to sturdy fencing, our adoptees won’t be joining us at the table, it could get a bit noisy.

However, we thought we’d at least celebrate the day by a delicious, if not particularly healthy, lunch at the Lariat Lounge Brewing Company. The food was good and substantial (Dorie Ann is holding our leftovers for tomorrow morning’s breakfast.) The beer was also excellent. But the major treat of that adventure was revisiting the Evergreen Conference Center which is where the Lariat Lounge is located.

For much of its existence the Evergreen Conference Center was run by the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado. It hosted hundreds of youth over the years in summer camps. It was best known as the home of the Evergreen School of Church Music, drawing renowned composers, hymn writers, choir directors, and various musicians from across the country and overseas. When we moved to Evergreen in 1989, they hired Dorie Ann to be bookkeeper for the Center. Later that year, the diocese sold the Center to Episcopal Renewal Ministries. They were looking for such a venue to host their newly developed Leadership Training Institute. Dorie Ann was kept on as bookkeeper for the Center and ERM as well.

In the years ERM ran their LTI at the Conference Center many Episcopal clergy experienced renewing, and even life-changing, encounters with Jesus Christ. However, a change in leadership prompted ERM to relocate in Georgia and the Center was sold. It went through a couple more changes in ownership until it became the Lariat Lounge.

It was great to visit the place. Even though the interior has been radically redesigned, there are still echoes of the many lives blessed in its former years.