Angry Message Left on Tourists’ Vehicles

I live in the beautiful small mountain town of Estes Park, Colorado that borders Rocky Mountain National Park. The merchants depend on tourist dollars from spring through fall. The town has more elderly per capita than any other place in Colorado. This retirement community is also the segment of the population that is most vulnerable to the pandemic. No longer did the elderly residents welcome tourists from other states. 

The local newspaper printed an article in June about the negative reaction of one member of the community to out-of-state visitors. He printed the following message on a flyer and placed it on cars with out-of-state license plates parked at the town’s Visitors Center.

After reading the angry message printed in our local newspaper I wondered if my fellow residents had the same reaction that I did—I was incensed that the anonymous author took it upon himself to say “We” as if his unwelcoming sentiments about visitors were unanimous among the town’s residents. At first, I was skeptical that this could actually have been the viewpoint among “the silent majority. After reading the following article in our newspaper, I did some research into how other small tourist towns were coping with outsiders.   

The Trail Gazette newspaper article read:

 “This note and disbursement by an apparent few is extremely unfortunate, disappointing and shameful. In Estes Park we welcome our visitors and appreciate their compliance with safety regulations. We appreciate their part in revitalizing our economy,” Mayor Koenig said. “As mayor, I apologize for these incidents regarding the notes placed on vehicles, and our police department is investigating this situation.”

The author or authors of the note do not seem to distinguish between Estes Park residents and the entire state of Colorado, making it seem as though they are fine with tourists from all over the state, but no one from outside of its borders.

As far as health guidelines go, the State of Colorado is still recommending that no one travel more than 10 miles away from their homes. In Larimer County, businesses are reopened to 50 percent capacity and employees must wear masks.

People walking outdoors in the downtown area are no longer required to wear a mask in Estes Park.

On Facebook, the comments section became a firestorm of opinions, mostly from people who were embarrassed by the notes, hoping to reassure tourists to come visit.

Ruth Kelley points out the irony of local seniors telling tourist to leave.

“Most of the senior citizens who live here probably started out as tourists at some point,” Kelley said.

Beverly Roberts Deardorff is hoping this kind of adversary will pull the community together even tighter.

“Lodges, & businesses are already hurting big time. This type of message will not help the community at all,” said Deardorff. “Let’s encourage each other & help these businesses. We love Estes Park, & will not let this stop us from visiting & staying in Estes Park.”

Cassandra Winkler says the note does not reflect the sentiment she received during her visits.

“This sure isn’t the message we have received from our lodging destination that we’ve been visiting for almost 20 years,” Winkler said. “We know some of the business owners now also and they are in need of commerce and tourism.”

DeAnna Aldrich Wederski says she works downtown and her employer has been happy to welcome customers.

“I work at Brownfield’s downtown. We are very welcoming,” Wederski says. “Come see us. We love people! To us, it’s all about people!”

In a Facebook post, Elkins Distillery shared that they would give a free drink to anyone who brought the note into the distillery.

“If you find one of these on your car, please bring it to Elkins Distilling Company. We’ll give you a free drink,” the post said.

Owner, Joe Elkins said that this note could possibly undermine the good work the community has been doing to recover from the lack of visitors.

“Whoever did that is just afraid and they probably should just stay home,” Elkins said. They went through a lot of trouble to create this note and the note is really underhanded. That doesn’t portray the town correctly.”

Elkins likened the note to someone leaving a bad online review for a business.

“A business can have mostly positive online reviews and they can have one person act poorly and it undermines all that good work, I think the town and the note is a similar situation,” said Elkins. “This is the country’s national park, it is not Estes’s national park and this community exists because of the visitors to the park. For someone to leave a note like that is just nasty and it doesn’t reflect the sentiment of the business owners I know in town.”

According to people aware of the issue, the police have been removing and discarding them.

A Facebook post from the Estes Park Police Department (EPPD) states, “We’re looking for the individual(s) who did this, because we’d like to remind them that tampering with private property and littering could lead to charges in Municipal Court. If you have information on the individual(s) who did this, please contact the EPPD Crimestoppers tip line at 970-577-3838.”

“Most importantly we want to say this… The pandemic has brought a lot of stress to everyone in the Estes Valley and everywhere — we feel it, too. Let’s remember that everyone is managing this difficult time in one way or another. Let’s adapt together. Let’s strive to be patient and kind, together,” the EPPD post says.

Whoever is responsible for the notes should feel free to contact the Trail-Gazette if they have the desire to articulate their message further with the public. We would be happy to hear your story and help you discuss your opinions in a constructive way.

I haven’t heard whether the anonymous writer of the flyer was ever unveiled. But how bold of him to speak for the whole town in defense of his own fears! Estes Park was not the only town to rebel against the influx of tourists. Remote towns feared that visitors from large cities where the pandemic was more prevalent would spread Covid-19 and over-run their medical facilities. Turns out that in one North Carolina town, every case of Covid was a victim from another state. Some counties closed off their roads to non-residents.

People with second homes in the Catskills region of New York are being warned to stay away in venom-laced Facebook posts and blunt messages from county officials.

Boardwalks and beaches in some Jersey Shore towns are barricaded and residents are urging the closure of coastal access bridges to outsiders.

In the Hamptons, the famous playground for the rich on the East End of Long Island, locals are angry that an onslaught of visitors has emptied out grocery store shelves.

Across the country, similar tensions between locals and seasonal visitors bubbled to the surface as efforts to confront the pandemic have led the nation to navigate uncharted territory.

The CDC (Center for Disease Control) stated on its website “Among adults, the risk for severe illness from COVID-19 increases with age, with older adults at highest risk. Severe illness means that the person with COVID-19 may require hospitalization, intensive care, or a ventilator to help them breathe, or they may even die. Many rural hospitals have fewer than 25 beds, so it turns out that the author of the flyer was probably right in his anti-tourist viewpoint, although he could have been more diplomatic in what he wrote.

After reading these reports, I had the thought that it just wasn’t the “bug” that people were afraid of getting; it was probably the fear that the tourists would buy our limited supply of toilet paper!

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