Latest news with #FourMileHistoricPark
CBS News
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Chinese lantern festival lighting up Denver park
Four Mile Historic Park is hosting its 3rd annual Bright Nights Lantern Festival. The festival runs about 10-weeks and covers 12-acres of the park. It's an all new display every year. "Everything is different this year. If you've come last year or the year before, you're not going to see anything you've seen before," said Kayla Amos, Marketing and Events Manager at Four Mile Historic Park. The lanterns are large scale metal frames covered in a silk canvas and illuminated from within. Many of the structures move, and there is a whole section of interactive displays in the park. "Some of them are so large you can walk through them. Some of them are games. There's a whole area in the back of games. One's a portal to a show that's happening in Baltimore, so we can see them and they can see us," Amos explained. The lanterns are designed and built by Tianya Arts & Culture, which is a U.S.-based subsidiary of a Chinese company. The company's goal is to create lanterns that mix ancient techniques with innovative technologies. They put together these lantern festivals with organizations across the country. "We've got two themes this year. The first one being Chinese Dreamland as a nod to the company Tianyu who creates these wonderful lanterns. The second nod is to us, Farm Flora and Fauna, so you're going to see things like giant fairies, 9-tale foxes right next to a giant barn that's so big you walk through," Amos said. LINK: For Tickets & Information about Bright Nights at Four Mile Historic Park Four Mile Historic Park's Bright Nights is open Wednesday through Sunday from July 23 to October, 5, 2025. There are three adults only nights, when the park is open to only people who are 21-years and older. Those nights are July 30, August 27, and September 17, 2025.
CBS News
14-05-2025
- CBS News
Denver students blast to Old West past at Four Mile Historic Park
Just four miles from downtown, Denver's oldest standing structure sits on a piece of preserved history at Four Mile Historic Park. The park immerses visitors in the past, offering guided tours of the Four Mile House Museum, field trips, and outreach programs. One hundred fifty years ago, children in Denver learned to churn butter, weave, and care for farm animals. Today's students can step back into that lifestyle through the park's programs. "We are learning about what people did in the past," said fourth grader Madeleine Capka. When Four Mile Education Coordinator Anne Butler rings the bell, it's time for some good old-fashioned chores. "We're giving kids a taste of what life was like back in the 1800s," Butler said. "It wasn't all like video games and Minecraft and TV... you had to work." Four Mile Education Coordinator Anne Butler, left, teaches children at the Four Mile Historic Park about Old West chores and lifestyles at the Denver park. CBS Students grind coffee and churn butter, a chore that comes with a treat. "So we were shaking a glass of whipping cream, and it was so hard because we had to do it for a very long time, and then we put it on crackers and it was very delicious," Capka said. "She spread it on some crackers, and it was really good. It was like whipped cream and shake it up," said Crestview fourth grader Jett Elkshoulder. "It tasted really good. It tasted like three times as sweet." Butler has worked at Four Mile for more than a decade and enjoys stepping into the past. She and other educators wear bonnets and dresses contemporary to the mid-to-late 1800s. "I had a little obsession with Laura Ingalls Wilder," Butler said. "It's fun. I get to dress like this, this is my work uniform." Children are also introduced to farm animals and taught to weave, pan for gold, and push wagons. "They used wagons and they had to lift the wagons up, and sometimes they had to chop the wagons in half because things would break down or things would crack," Capka said. When homestead work is done, there's still time for music and games. Swallow Hill provides a musician who plays instruments that homesteaders would have had. "We were also doing like bowling, like with beanbags and pins, and I realized that was a rare treat. You could only do that certain times, and you were usually like working," Capka said. Four Mile also teaches children about the Indigenous traditions that predate the historic farm, through indigenous dancing and a speaker. "I am actually Cheyenne, Ute, and Navajo," said Elkshoulder. "I think it's pretty cool to like show that stuff." Children return to the 21st century a little tired, but with a new appreciation for life in the Old West. "It was really fun and I'm glad I got to learn about this stuff," Capka said. Through the Wagon Wheel Field Trip program, Four Mile will host 3,400 children in just six weeks. On May 23 and 24, Four Mile will host "Family Fun Free Days," a free event celebrating Native American heritage. On June 7, the park will hold its annual Rendezvous Gala, emceed by CBS Colorado's Olivia Young.
