ST. ELIZABETH (1951)

Two years before Buffalo Creek was platted in 1881 as a town on the Denver, South Park & Pacific Railroad, John W. Green opened the general store his descendants still operate. The Greens, along with other Buffalo Creek residents and summer visitors, hoped for a church in their tiny community.

Not until July 17, 1943, however, did Monsignor Elmer J. Kolka begin saying summer Sunday Masses in the community chapel. Monsignor Kolka, who grew fond of the quaint little mountain town, soon established a summer home there. He and the Greens dreamed of a Catholic church, a dream made possible by Bal F. Swan, a wealthy Denver banker and developer. Swan, who owned a large ranch just upstream from Buffalo Creek, donated the former Buffalo Hotel site. Don Green, who still runs his father's 1879 general store, headed a construction committee. The Fred Fisher Construction Company completed a rustic log church, dedicated by Archibshop Vehr on June 21, 1952.

The Franciscan friars at St. Elizabeth's in Denver agreed to staff the new mission, which was named in honor of their church. Archbishop Vehr donated the 500-pound statue of St. Elizabeth for the entry niche as a Christmas present. When as many as 150 worshippers squeezed into the knotty pine interior for Sunday Mass, the 10 o'clock service had to be supplemented with an 8 o'clock Mass. Construction of the $35,000 chapel left the parish heavily in debt, but Bal Swan paid it all off, saying, "I don't like to have any debt between God and myself."