EVER WONDER: Camera Obscura is rubble

Years ago there was a Camera Obscura in Garden of the Gods? Tourists loved it. When did it disappear?
- N.P.

ANSWER: There are fascinating websites tracking the different cameras obscura, including the one in Garden of the Gods that was a twin to one on Lookout Mountain in Tennessee.

There was this 1991 description: “one of the world’s largest cameras, with a 13-foot focal lens, presents a 360-degree magnified panoramic view of the park and Pikes Peak region.” The views were projected onto a viewing table. The camera was atop a rustic shop, High Point, near the park entrance. It was featured on postcards and tourist brochures from the time it was built in 1951 until it was torn down in 1991.

Charles B. “Chip” Speice shared some history:

“My grandfather was Raymond J. Davis, the owner.  As a kid my family was living in Oklahoma City, Houston and New Orleans. 

“We would take a family vacation one week to Colorado Springs and they would let me fly up to my grandparents’ a week ahead of time.  I got to climb on the rocks and my grandfather would even let me work in his store from time to time making change.  There were times I would hide under the circular screen the people would look at to view the panoramic view outside thanks to a series of mirrors.  I believe the viewing took about 15 minutes to see the entire view and there was a recorded message that stated there were only two cameras in North America at the time.”

  He said his grandparents died less than a month apart “I believe in 1971” and his mother and uncle were hit with inheritance taxes somewhere in the half-million-dollar range.
“They had to work out a deal with the government to pay the taxes.  Then after 20 years the store and land would revert back to the government.  Once that occurred the store was torn down.

"I have been back twice since, once with my children and have a picture of them on the rocks where the store used to be located.”

Editor's note: Thanks so much, Chip.