Speaker 1: You know, I was talking about the fact that KOA
Speaker 1: has been around for one hundred years. We're coming up
Speaker 1: on our hundredth birthday, and they have been woven into
Speaker 1: the part of Denver for that long. And another thing
Speaker 1: that has been woven into the part of Denver is
Speaker 1: the Fort Restaurant, even though.
Speaker 2: Technically very outside Morrison.
Speaker 3: But it's fine, we don't talk about that.
Speaker 1: And the owner Turner mic on Aron, and the owner
Speaker 1: Holly Kinney is with me today to talk about one
Speaker 1: of their outstanding events that they put on with the
Speaker 1: Tosorrow Cultural Center, which is kind of is do you
Speaker 1: call it kind of an arm of.
Speaker 3: The Fort or is the Fort an arm?
Speaker 4: Well to Sorrow was created to celebrate all the cultures
Speaker 4: that traded at ben Sold Fort, and it's a five
Speaker 4: oh one C three. It's a nonprofit and I created
Speaker 4: it in nineteen ninety nine to really provide more education
Speaker 4: and more events that like our rendezvous coming up this weekend.
Speaker 4: But I have to give you a little trivia about me,
Speaker 4: oh please. I started in radio on ko I used
Speaker 4: to sell time on KOA Radio out in nineteen seventy
Speaker 4: five and seventy six and seventy nine, when Elway was
Speaker 4: the quarterback for the Broncos and we went the Orange Crush.
Speaker 3: Oh that's fantastic. I had no idea. I didn't know
Speaker 3: that about you.
Speaker 2: So Koa has a special place in my heart.
Speaker 1: Oh that's wonderful. That's a great story. I love that, Holly.
Speaker 1: So let's talk a little bit about the rendezvous and
Speaker 1: to the point you were just making this did you start?
Speaker 1: And I know we've talked about this before, but people
Speaker 1: don't always hear every interview. The Tsorial Cultural Center came
Speaker 1: out of sort of the intent that your father had
Speaker 1: when he built the fort in the first place, right
Speaker 1: the original.
Speaker 4: In nineteen sixty two, we created a replica of Ben's
Speaker 4: old fort, which was a famous fur trading fort from
Speaker 4: eighteen thirty three to eighteen forty nine, and we started
Speaker 4: doing school tours because every teacher wanted to take their
Speaker 4: kids on.
Speaker 2: A school tour to see the fort.
Speaker 4: And we actually had a little museum in the building.
Speaker 4: We had to turn it into a restaurant to pay
Speaker 4: off the mortgage, but it turned out that the history
Speaker 4: was as important as the food. But then the food
Speaker 4: kind of took over. It became very famous because we
Speaker 4: are fine dining. And so when I joined my father
Speaker 4: in partnership in nineteen ninety nine, I said, well, let's
Speaker 4: get back to the school tours and educating the public,
Speaker 4: which was what the building originally was designed for. And
Speaker 4: we created to Sorrow Cultural Center, and my dad called
Speaker 4: it Desorro because there are many amazing artists, like the
Speaker 4: Spanish colonial artists, the mountain men who hand make flintlock
Speaker 4: guns and who do it as works of art, and
Speaker 4: that is their treasures and their treasures to our society
Speaker 4: and to us. And let's use the fort's platform and
Speaker 4: market them and call it the Tesoro. The treasures mean
Speaker 4: it means treasures in Spanish.
Speaker 1: Well, I can vouch for the food we ate there
Speaker 1: Saturday night with friends who had never eaten there. And
Speaker 1: the patio, Oh, hollie, the patio is glorious.
Speaker 3: It is gorgeous out there.
Speaker 1: You just have this incredible view of Denver in the distance.
Speaker 1: It is stunning, and the magical is second to nine.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about what's happening this weekend. One of
Speaker 1: the things that is so cool about what you're doing
Speaker 1: is for people who either don't know themselves a lot
Speaker 1: about Native American culture, or maybe you want your kids
Speaker 1: to have a better understanding of Native American culture. The
Speaker 1: rendezvous is even I think better than the powwow for
Speaker 1: kind of getting a feel for more about the culture,
Speaker 1: not just dancing and things of that nature.
Speaker 2: Well, it's a mix of cultures.
Speaker 4: You have the traders and trappers who were trading at Bensfort,
Speaker 4: and re enactors and interpreters, and then you also have
Speaker 4: the Spanish colonial artists because Ben's Sport was on the
Speaker 4: border of Old Mexico, which at that time was the
Speaker 4: Arkansas River. So you had the Spanish colonial artists who
Speaker 4: hand carved the saints, and they are they're demonstrating their
Speaker 4: carving and there just as they did hundreds of years
Speaker 4: ago at the same time of Ben's Sport. And then
Speaker 4: we have a scavenger hunt for kids, so they have
Speaker 4: they're given a sheet of paper admission, and then they
Speaker 4: go round to each artist and mountain man encampment and
Speaker 4: ask the question that's on the piece of paper and
Speaker 4: if and they're given a string of sinew or like
Speaker 4: a string, and then they get the answer from the
Speaker 4: artist or the blacksmith or whatever, and they are given.
Speaker 2: A trade bead.
Speaker 4: But each encampmen they collect a trade bead after hearing
Speaker 4: the answer and understanding the answer. So they stay there
Speaker 4: for our with their parents following behind them, and they
Speaker 4: collect their trade beads by asking the questions, and they
Speaker 4: learn all about how did they make the dye from
Speaker 4: rocks and through kochiel, which is like an insect that's
Speaker 4: bright red, and how did they weave the wool and
Speaker 4: what type of wool did they weave and it's Churro
Speaker 4: wool and the Truro sheep were brought from Spain. So
Speaker 4: it's a whole day of interactive learning.
Speaker 3: It's like a living museum.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's really fun though, it's like an adventure. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and then we have also you get a trade beat
Speaker 4: if you go sit and listen to the Ricaramandan hadatsa
Speaker 4: tribe doing a dance and talking about the Indian tribes
Speaker 4: at vent Sport. But then you go to the blacksmiths
Speaker 4: and learn there and so it's really a great family
Speaker 4: of event and it's an adventure and fun and it's interactive.
Speaker 1: Holly Kenney is my guest, and this is all happening
Speaker 1: this weekend. There are you can buy your tickets. I've
Speaker 1: got the link online with all the information. How much
Speaker 1: your tickets it's a very modest dollars, yeah.
Speaker 4: And then five dollars for kids six and older and
Speaker 4: six and or five and under are free.
Speaker 3: Okay. And to be clear, Holly doesn't do this to
Speaker 3: make money at all.
Speaker 2: I donate my time for twenty five years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she doesn't.
Speaker 1: This is not a money maker. So that ten dollars
Speaker 1: just gets plowed back into two to to Sorrow, Thank
Speaker 1: you to to Sorrow, and so it just perpetuates in
Speaker 1: the future.
Speaker 4: Right, and helps cover the costs we have, you know,
Speaker 4: part of potties and other expenses related to it, just
Speaker 4: out of pocket expenses.
Speaker 1: And can people get some fort food while they're.
Speaker 4: There, Yes, the fort has concessions and we're doing Buffalo
Speaker 4: Burgers and Buffalo Broughts and a Freedo pie.
Speaker 1: When you say concessions, like people think, you know, it's
Speaker 1: the concessions at a Fort event are like next level
Speaker 1: can sessions. Okay, They're not just your like hot dog hamburger.
Speaker 1: They're like they're Buffalo burgers and things of that nature.
Speaker 1: So it's happening. What's a timeframe on Saturday and Sunday
Speaker 1: ten to four most days, Saturday and Sunday. I think
Speaker 1: you're gonna have some crummy rain on Saturday, but hopefully
Speaker 1: it'll clear up on Saturday.
Speaker 4: The dancing is under our patios, so it's undercovered, you know,
Speaker 4: wear a jacket.
Speaker 3: But mountain men were never dissuaded by rain.
Speaker 4: No and the Spanish artists are inside. There's and they'll
Speaker 4: do lectures going on. There's a great lecture about Henry
Speaker 4: Darringer trade rifle discovered it in Ben's Sport by Bill Gwaltney.
Speaker 2: And that's in the Benz quarters.
Speaker 4: So we have, you know, lectures and things going on inside.
Speaker 4: So there's a lot going on inside as well as
Speaker 4: outside encampments.
Speaker 1: And as I said, I put a link to the
Speaker 1: website on the blog today if you want more information.
Speaker 3: Holly Kenny, thank you so much. Thank you for everything
Speaker 3: that you do for.
Speaker 1: You you would just bring so much opportunity to this
Speaker 1: area for people to really learn about Native Americans and
Speaker 1: the history of this part of the country.
Speaker 3: It's just a really well done job. Thank you so
Speaker 3: much for inviting me. You're the best. You are