A Tailing Tale

Of Bill Lorenz and the Black Forest Inn By Maggie Magoffin In 1936, while Adolf Hitler terrorized Europe, Wilhelm “Bill” Lorenz was born in Mainz, Germany. Bill’s father owned three taverns, and by the time Bill was seven-years-old he stood on boxes to tap beer for his dad’s customers. At that time, young Bill had no idea one day he would be serving beer in his own restaurant in the Unites States. After World War II, while French forces still occupied Germany, Bill served a three-year apprenticeship at the Hotel La Central in Mainz. After graduating his apprenticeship, he worked in Switzerland and southern France, later returning to Germany to work on the U.S. military base in Wiesbaden. Eventually, one of the officers on the base sponsored Bill to come to the United States, and during his first year in America, he lived with that officer and his family in Aurora, Colorado. Bill went to work for fellow expatriate from Germany, Claude Boettcher, at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. Claude’s father, Charles Boettcher, made his fortune operating hardware stores and various other businesses, and striking it big in Leadville during the silver boom. How Boettcher came to own the palatial hotel is a humorous story in itself. It seems that one day in 1922, Charles showed up at the Brown Palace in jeans, and the desk clerk refused him a room because of the way he was dressed. At that time, Charles was the richest man in the west, so he bought the hotel and remained owner until his death, at which time Claude took over control of the Brown Palace Hotel. In the 1950s, Claude hired Bill to serve lunch in the Palace Arms Restaurant. Claude was in his final years and was gravely ill. Still today, Bill holds great respect for Claude Boettcher who was a generous and wonderful man, and a patron of the arts. Bill said, “He would give the shirt off his back for the Central City Opera Association.” Whenever the Opera had a performance, Claude sent the best of his servers and Irish linens, to contribute to making the opening a success. It was to the opening ceremony dinner in the late ‘50s that Claude sent Bill Lorenz as his personal representative to the Opera Association. After that fateful day that began his journey to Black Hawk and years later to Nederland, Bill formed his own appreciation for the opera and built great friendships with many Opera Association members. In 1955, Bill bought a ’52 Buick Riviera and invited one of the chambermaids and a telephone operator from the Brown Palace to accompany him on a ride up to Mount Evans. Bill remembers distinctly that it was June 21, 1955. He said, “In Denver it was 95 degrees. In Idaho Springs it was in the 70s. At Echo Lake it was raining hard, and as I got higher it turned into a blizzard. The windshield wipers quit on me, and my heater didn’t work. That was the time of hot pants, and those little girls were wearing light shirts and those short-short pants. They were freezing their fannies off.” Grateful to make it back down the mountain in one piece, Bill stopped in Idaho Springs to have the car repaired. Then he drove to The Tollgate Saloon in Central City for a stiff drink. Bill said, “The Tollgate was run by Earl Pearson, and he was serving a buffet upstairs in the Blue Room. It attracted some of the local people and all they served was chicken, rabbit, and a lot of vegetables and starches. It was like $1.00 a throw.” Bill recalls one of his colleagues from the Brown was tending bar and the drinks were free. He said, “I was pretty much into the grapes when I became acquainted with an elderly couple, Margaret and Jesse Clemens. They owned a property in Black Hawk that had a different occupant almost every year, and the Clemens wanted to sell the place. So, I bought it.” Bill’s bartender friend told the Clemens couple that Bill had a large inheritance coming from Germany, which was a lie. He bought the building for $5,000, paying $1,000 down and $65 a month. Bill reiterated that he was well into his grapes at the time. He said, “But, I figured I could make sixty-five bucks a month washing dishes. So, I wasn’t concerned about that part.” The Clemens asked him if he wanted to see the place before he bought it, and Bill told them he did not care what it looked like because he was going to change it anyway. Bill continued working at the Brown Palace and on his days off, he would grab a case of beer and some friends and go up to his future restaurant in Black Hawk. Then Bill went to work at Miller’s Matchless Restaurant in the Mile High Center in Denver, and it was at the Matchless that he partnered with Jimmy Hogan. Bud Miller from Duluthe, Minnesota owned the building, however, Bill said he and Jimmy ran the “joint.” It was while they were Captain and Maitre d’ at the Matchless that Bill and Jimmy began working on the restaurant in Black Hawk. They worked day and night getting the place ready. They slept in sleeping bags on the floor and lived on ham hocks and beans that they cooked in an electric skillet Jimmy had gotten from his parents. A day or two before they opened the restaurant, a little boy came in selling tickets to the Fireman’s Ball at Crook’s Palace, but Bill and Jimmy had less than a dollar between them. Bill said, “When the boy came in to sell the tickets for the Fireman’s Ball, I decided I was done with being poor.” So, Bill set out to hock his Leica camera that he brought with him from Germany. Otto Blake was running the Texaco station across the street, the oldest Texaco station in the State of Colorado. He gave me a tank of gas on credit so I could make it to Larimer Street and the hockshop with my camera. “I went down to Larimer Street in Jimmy’s car. Between the two of us, we had an Austin Healey sports car and a Chevy split shift, manual. It was a $400 camera, but the hockshop gave me $200. I later got the camera back. When I got that money, I paid Otto for the gas and we went to the Fireman’s Ball and got drunker than hoot owls. We had a good time.” Three years after buying the building, Bill and Jimmy opened their doors to the Black Forest Inn on March 1958, but nobody came. The second day they had three guests. Bill recalls one was an architect from Colorado Springs and the other two were his friends. From then on, business increased day-by-day, forcing Bill and Jimmy to serve dinners in the small back room. As the crowds grew, tables and chairs were set up and they served dinners in the upstairs bedrooms. Bill said, “It was a humble beginning.” From a starting seating capacity of 32 in 1958, to when Bill left the Black Forest in Black Hawk in March of 2000, they grew to a seating capacity of 1,100. Over the years, Bill had added on several connecting buildings, plus had accumulated some 38 acres of patented gold mining claims. Bill Lorenz did much more than build a restaurant that became a Colorado landmark and nationally recognized destination. He served on the City Council of Black Hawk for 18 years. He was also Justice of the Peace for two years, and Mayor for six years. Sadly, the old Black Forest Inn in Black Hawk is now a pile of dirt on Gregory Street between Crooks Palace and the Bobtail Mine. However, in 2013, Bill Lorenz partnered with his cook and long-time friend, Alfred Arias, to open a new Black Forest Inn in Nederland, Colorado. Most of Bill’s staff went with him to the Nederland location where they serve the same authentic and exquisite German American cuisine as Bill served in Black Hawk for over 42 years. I speak from personal experience when I say the food, the service, and the atmosphere is five star. We ate in the Garden Room with its twenty-foot waterfall, floor to ceiling windows with amazing views of the Continental Divide, Rollins Pass, and Eldora Ski area. There is also a formal dining room, lounge, and meeting room. Many thanks to Bill Lorenz and his lovely wife Kay for their hospitality and Bill’s willingness to share his amazing story. I continue to look for tales for my column. If you have tales to share, please call me at 303-881-3321 or email me at Maggie@maggiempublications.com . My apologies to folks looking for me at Cholua Brothers on Fridays. They no longer needed my assistance, so I am spending my time working on “Bonanza Beans,” Book 3 of Misadventures of the Cholua Brothers. Watch for Book 2 - “Pistols and Petticoats” coming in August – It will be available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and on my website at www.maggiempublications.com . The revised edition of Book 1 – “Dead Man Walking” is available at those online sites as well as at the Gilpin County Historical Museum. First editions of “Dead Man Walking” are available at Cholua Brothers Store and on their website at www.choluabrothers.com .

A Tailing Tale

Patrick Henry Sweeney

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