Rediscovering Idaho Springs: History, Vision and the Mighty Argo Mine & Gondola with Mary Jane Loevlie

John Wilkinson (00:02)
Hi everybody, welcome to the Getting Real Estate Podcast. I'm John Wilkinson here with Kenda Ruck and Mary Jane Loevlie Mary Jane, thank you so much for having us out here at the Argo. This place is magnificent.

Mary Jane Loevlie (00:14)
I'm excited to have you.

Kenda Ruck (00:16)
We are so thrilled to be here. We've kind of had a little detour in our plans because of some weather. Right. So we decided to come all the way up on top of the gondola and check it out. And we are recording as the storm is rolling in. So it's pretty cool.

John Wilkinson (00:30)
Literally

it's cool.

Mary Jane Loevlie (00:32)
Yeah, and and the gondol is shut down right now. We just made it.

John Wilkinson (00:35)
That's right, that's right. We just made it. So so Mary Jane, you grew up here in Idaho Springs, is that right? So tell me how that was and did you really like sell rocks?

Mary Jane Loevlie (00:44)
Yes, my parents moved here in the fifties before I seventy came through. And I in I I'll show you in the mercantile there's a beautiful painting that my mother did of the Argo in nineteen sixty three. But

The US 6 and 40 came straight through Idaho Springs. This was the main highway across North America. Wow. And so as I was growing up, it was bumper to bumper traffic through Idaho Springs. I believe that. And my brother would sell worms, and my sister and I would sell rocks. Because the it was such stop and go traffic that. And then my dad and mom had a Dairy King and a miniature golf course, as well as he had an insurance agency. my first job.

was actually taking tourists for their money at the miniature golf course along with selling them rocks.

Kenda Ruck (01:31)
Of course.

John Wilkinson (01:32)
That is amazing. I love it. Yeah, and you mentioned earlier, about the I-70 expansion and what it did to Idaho.

Mary Jane Loevlie (01:38)
my god, yeah. We were the sacrificial lamb back in the sixties. In the mid-sixties, I-70 was just being built. You know, the Interstate Highway System, the Eisenhower administration had done that. And CDOT and the feds had decided that they would build the toughest sections first. And coming through a small town was obviously a tough section. So they built I-70 through Idaho Springs before they built the West and the East.

And they ripped out a third of the town because the National Historic Preservation Act and NEPA.

The National Environmental Policy Act, neither one of them had been enacted yet. So Idaho Springs was basically destroyed. And as I seventy came through the back side of town, it showed the ugly side, the substations and all of that, and the trailers moved in for the construction workers for I seventy. So those were added because of I seventy. I've been trying to I'm on a redemption mission ever since.

Kenda Ruck (02:41)
fix that ever since. Yes, yes. And all of the historic buildings that they lost and the historic homes I sh I'm sure that they lost is tragic.

Mary Jane Loevlie (02:49)
You should see the maps.

It's tragic.

Kenda Ruck (02:51)
And I love that that's your mission to kind of bring some of that history back. And as you've been showing us around today, we have seen some really a lot of thought has gone into this project here in Idaho Springs. But before you landed back here, you kind of had a wild ride. You've kind of been everywhere. So you built a successful company with your husband. So

Mary Jane Loevlie (03:15)
Yeah.

Kenda Ruck (03:16)
what what you went and saw the world? What brought you back here? Well I

Mary Jane Loevlie (03:20)
I went

to school in the East Coast because to g to get as far away from here as I could. Of course. Of course. We all did have kids do, right? And then I was luckily I was interviewed by Up With People during the bicentennial, and they don't normally hire people, but because they were expanding to five different castes around the world, they hired four people globally that had never been in the program before. So I ended up traveling the world for five years. Scheduling Up with people.

In Germany, Belgium. I lived in Dublin, Brussels, and Oslo. And traveled Europe all that time. And all over the US too. So, but I was a 22-year-old, thrown to the wolves of the businessmen in Europe. And it was a very quick life learning experience. Steep learning curve. So that was where I met my husband, my wasband now.

John Wilkinson (04:16)
That's fine.

Kenda Ruck (04:17)
one of those. Yeah do you? Yeah I do.

Mary Jane Loevlie (04:20)
but he was in Oslo and that's where we started. I saw that he was a brilliant innovator and he had developed this process called Shot Crete. And we came over to the US. I said and I was the first person that he knew that knew what Shot Crete was.

Kenda Ruck (04:36)
No, I had to look it up on the way up here. Did you

Mary Jane Loevlie (04:40)
Well because I grew up by the it when they were building the Eisenhower tunnel and all other mining things. So I knew what betongsproit thing was. So I met him, I worked for up with people, then I started the first Mexican restaurant in Oslo, Norway, and I helped him develop his business. Then we came over here and looked at the state of the art of the technology and said, pfft

We're so far ahead of it that we need to move over here. Yeah. Yeah. And started our business here in Idaho Springs. And that was in the early eighties.

John Wilkinson (05:12)
that's amazing.

Kenda Ruck (05:12)
And

the rest, shall we say, is

Mary Jane Loevlie (05:14)
Yeah, yeah. And we traveled all over the world with our and my I have two global daughters that

John Wilkinson (05:20)
Yeah, met met one of them briefly.

Mary Jane Loevlie (05:22)
And her three my three year old grandson.

John Wilkinson (05:24)
Super cute. Yeah, very cute.

Mary Jane Loevlie (05:27)
She's the

founder of an international business, Icelantic skis.

John Wilkinson (05:30)
Yeah, started here in Idaho Springs. Yeah. Which is amazing. Yeah. It's incredible. So in 2016, you decided to purchase the mill. The

Mary Jane Loevlie (05:39)
The mighty Argo.

John Wilkinson (05:40)
Mighty Argo Mill. What what inspired you or thought it's a historic piece of property. Right. Big

Mary Jane Loevlie (05:46)
Well,

John Wilkinson (05:46)
piece of property.

Mary Jane Loevlie (05:47)
Well we

had actually and Dana was part of this and several other historic preservationists in Denver, we had actually been after the hot springs. Okay. And we lost that deal by several hundred thousand dollars. And but the same owner owned both properties. Okay. And he said, Are you interested in looking at the Argo? I said, Well, not really. We really saw the value in the hot springs. And think, I grew up here. Right. And though this was just wallpaper to me. Right. It was a super fund site. Nobody

touched it. The kids played in it, but yeah.

As far as development, but then I said, Okay, we'll walk through. And Dana and I had always thought that it would be a great hotel inside the mill. How cool would that be? Yeah. Right? Yeah. Then we walked through it, and when you walk through it, you'll feel like you're walking into an H. G. Wells or a Jules Verne movie because all the stuff is there. Yeah. It's the turn of the century of the second industrial revolution. Wow. So we walked through there and said, We have to buy it. And of course Dana was my litmus test.

And we had a round table with people like Steve Turner, Dana, all these people going, what could we do with the Argo Mill? And at that time we said, well, let's make it an amazing tour site.

Let's build a hotel, let's build housing, and it's a super fun site. So our first step was, can we even build on this waste drop? Right. So we spent $100,000 on a risk assessment at at Dana's insistence. Because she's not gonna be involved in something that's got a lot a lot of liability. Right. Too risky. But she also said, You have to buy this because it's amazing. And we passed all those tests, got through all of our planning for the hotel and the housing.

And then the idea for the gondola came up. Which

Kenda Ruck (07:34)
It's just amazing how that progression happened. And you mentioned Steve Turner. We love Steve. I know. Steve has done an episode with us.

Mary Jane Loevlie (07:42)
I know I listened to it last night to see who you guys were. On Larimer Square.

Kenda Ruck (07:47)
He's awesome. We love

my river square. That's right. I still can't say it right.

Mary Jane Loevlie (07:52)
My parents

and and Dana's fri they were all they tangentially knew her, but my parents' best friends were really good friends of Dana's who owned the Red Ram in Georgetown and many of the historic places that were extremely busy before I seventy came through. We were the ski towns. You were the We were the ski towns.

No, well you could go over Loveland Pass. Well but we were the h the center for the tenth mountain division. We were the real place until the playgrounds to the west were developed.

Kenda Ruck (08:27)
There's the ski history and that's that's incredible, but there's also a little going further back than that, there's also something that makes Idaho Springs very significant historically. Okay, let's

Mary Jane Loevlie (08:39)
Yeah, and we always fight Central City about it.

Kenda Ruck (08:42)
hear about it. I want to hear your side of the

Mary Jane Loevlie (08:44)
January 7th, 1859, during the fall of 1858, Thomas Golden and George Jackson were hiking up Clear Creek looking for gold, where the gold there must be gold because there was gold in arraria, there was all this placer gold, but it wasn't real rich, but there was gold. So the smart guys started going up looking for the source.

of the gold. And Thomas Golden and George Jackson says, well let's go up and see what's up in those hills. It is cold, dead of winter. Thomas Golden turns back and founds Golden.

And George Jackson keeps going and he sees the hot springs vapor and goes, Okay, I can keep going 'cause there's and this was the ancient healing waters for the Ute and the Arapaho Indians, by the way. So he keeps going a little beyond the hot springs and at the confluence of Chicago and Clear Creek, Where there's a a monument right there.

He just he put his miners cup in the river and and pulled out a big nugget of gold. And that was the first

Kenda Ruck (09:49)
Yeah.

Mary Jane Loevlie (09:51)
there's a monument. It's not very well signed right now, but it will be. So that was the first major discovery of gold.

Kenda Ruck (09:58)
Imagine that feeling after you've risked everything and you've like traveled over like these hard secret.

Mary Jane Loevlie (10:03)
And he had to keep it a secret.

Kenda Ruck (10:04)
And you had to keep it a secret, and he's like, I

Mary Jane Loevlie (10:06)
I know what this is. So then the Gregory Diggings, this was the Central City guys, come in April. I know Central City always claims it. We have a great

Kenda Ruck (10:13)
see they were late. Uhhuh. They were late. I think you win.

Mary Jane Loevlie (10:20)
look. So the next year he goes and stakes his claim and marks his claims and the first name of Idaho Springs is Jackson's Diggings. Wow. Then he brings a whole party out from Missouri.

And they start in earnest finding gold and this becomes, as you know, if you've heard any if you've been to the Central City Opera, been to Central City, all that, became the richest square mile on earth.

Yeah. And the Argo tunnel, when we if we have time to go through that, had a trillion dollars of gold go through it in today's

Kenda Ruck (10:54)
A trillion dollar.

John Wilkinson (10:56)
It was a hundred million dollars I think right back then. Yeah.

Mary Jane Loevlie (10:58)
Right.

And so the Denver Mint was built because of the riches of the gold mining district here. And right in front of the Argo, the train went down through Clear Creek Canyon to Golden and onto the Smelters and to the Mint. So the history is magnificent. And we just have a a really great partnership with Union Station because of the trains going back and forth. And so think about 1890 the Argo was started, eighteen ninety Adolph Coors

came and started the Coors Brewery. The Union Station was started in 1890. So all of these industrialists were here and because of the gold.

Kenda Ruck (11:37)
in that decade because of the

Mary Jane Loevlie (11:40)
And it was it was fueling the Industrial Revolution and the East Coast. It kept the Carnegies and all of those people in business because the money went back east. Sure.

John Wilkinson (11:51)
Yeah.

I love all of the tie backs, you know, I you mentioned Dana, Dana Crawford and the tie backs, you know, because she helped develop a lot of Union Stations and how it is

Mary Jane Loevlie (11:59)
today. And I was on the original Union Union Station advisory board back in two thousand and two, I think it was. So and that's when Dana and I became okay acquainted. Yeah. Yeah. And I stalked she would tell you I stalked her.

Kenda Ruck (12:13)
Johnny

Mary Jane Loevlie (12:15)
But she says, why didn't I listen to you sooner? Because I missed so much fun.

John Wilkinson (12:19)
Yeah, no, I love that. I mean your life has been I l you know, you say the you have that pin MSH make shit happen. Right. I mean it seems very evident you make

Mary Jane Loevlie (12:28)
And if you turn it upside down, it's how shit works.

Kenda Ruck (12:32)
There you go.

John Wilkinson (12:34)
That's

great. So two thousand two get the property.

Mary Jane Loevlie (12:37)
I I I you know I don't know if you kne ever knew Jeff Shoemaker, one of Dana's dear friends, but this is his like motto. I spread it to all of Dana's friends.

John Wilkinson (12:47)
I love

that. So like 2016, get the property. Right. 2018, the idea of the gondola. How did that come about? What was going on?

Mary Jane Loevlie (12:56)
As as I showed you my house directly across the valley, I'm sitting here I had owned bought the Argo Mill with my partners Bob and Jan Bolin and with Dana's push.

Kenda Ruck (13:06)
Saying she's like, Do it, I feel it.

Mary Jane Loevlie (13:08)
Yeah, she just said, just do it. Yeah. And it's the most iconic site on I seventy. Yep, it is. It's the biggest billboard you can see, right? No. And so we we're gonna make it into the best tour site, the most amazing historic site, add a hotel and housing and activate it that way, make it the in the economic engine that it was back at the turn of the twentieth century was our goal.

And as I'm sitting at my house across the valley, drinking wine with my neighbor, I realized the city owned five hundred acres of public lands that was gone from the BLM to the county to the city. And the city planner, the first city planner ever, said we should be building trails there. And then I thought,

The Argo is directly adjacent to this 500 acres. Yeah. And there were already social trails there. And I saw it. And I'm literally sitting with my neighbor drinking Cabernet, not champagne.

Kenda Ruck (14:05)
Okay.

Mary Jane Loevlie (14:07)
And we're only on our second glass. And we're looking across the valley and I said, Cindy, I wonder if we could build a gondola up there that would serve the hiking and biking trails that the city wants to build.

And she happens to be in the lift industry. She's run Loveland Ski Area for forty years and she knows everyone in the industry. She said, That's the best goddamn idea I've ever heard. So we immediately start calling people in the lift industry and saying, Can we build a gondola in Idaho Springs? And they said, Yes you can, but who would come to Idaho Springs and ride a gondola?

Kenda Ruck (14:42)
Like I don't know. Well let me ask you this. A lot of people that that watch and listen to our podcast are kind of new to the area. So for somebody who's never seen Idaho Springs or seen your gondola system, describe the experience of of what it's like.

Mary Jane Loevlie (14:58)
Well we are

actually blending. We're at the intersection of outdoor recreation and heritage tourism. We don't think there's anything like it in the world. Here you've got this major national historic site on a super fund site and this gorgeous modern piece of machinery that harkens back to the turn of the 20th century. There were tramways on mines. There were there was a tourist tramway in Silverplume from 1910 to 1917, the Sunrise Peak Tram. So it all

fits. I mean the city is our partner. So as you come into exit 239 in Idaho Springs or Exit 240, look to your right, you'll see our beautiful golden nugget gondola cabins going up the mountain. It really is spectacular. With the beautiful wooden seats, gorgeous and and we're paying homage to the gold mining history

and Tommy Matthews of Triba Architects

w was up here when this was just raw land. Remember I bought nine mining claims up here to make this happen. So I dealt with nine crusty mine owners to make this to happen. And they just think

Kenda Ruck (16:07)
Your

early life when you were trying to travel around the world as a twenty year old prepared you right.

Mary Jane Loevlie (16:12)
But

also my father who picked up back tax mining claims when I was growing up made me understand what mining claims were. So I knew a lot, but they just saw this jumbled from Idaho Springs. And I said, Okay. Came on.

John Wilkinson (16:28)
Game on. Yeah,

yeah. That's right. I mean that's tough. I mean you can think about like a project like this obviously is huge, right? Right. So there's there had to be setbacks. What kept pushing pushing?

Mary Jane Loevlie (16:40)
I just believe that it was amazing transfor transformative project not only for Idaho Springs but for the state, the region. And a little bit of redemption for the I-70.

Kenda Ruck (16:52)
What

was it like the day it opened? I mean you put so much into it for so long.

Mary Jane Loevlie (16:59)
I think

I was in disbelief. Yeah. I mean I were

Kenda Ruck (17:01)
All about it. I mean it was all over the news.

Mary Jane Loevlie (17:03)
good, good, good. Yeah. And it's it's it was just again, I I hate to use the word redemption, but it's a huge celebration. It wasn't just me. I was working with so many people that were smarter than me. And the team was so

Dedicated. And once I had the Austrians and the Swiss investment, and they believed in Idaho Springs, the entire project is over $70 million. So bringing $70 million into this little tiny corner of Colorado was huge. I have the smartest partners, they're very picky, particular, and they're very detailed.

And they tried to make me change my architectural look, but I stuck with it. And I guess it was just like, okay. This is, and and my design director, Travis Cook, who's a brilliant young man who also was a founder of Icelantic skis, has been with me from day one, keeping that design aesthetic along with Dana. So it was and Doppelmeyer, the lift manufacturer from Austria, they have a tradition, and I wish I had it with me.

They presented me with this giant cowbell that they give to all the lifts all over the world. And that will be front and center here. Yes. But we'll also use it at ceremonial events. So I think going up that first gondola during the opening ribbon cutting was pretty amazing. Yes, yes.

Kenda Ruck (18:34)
And you have the glass bottom gondola. yeah.

So cool. When we were riding up here, just looking at the bike trails and the people and it it just it's just it's stunning. It's just beautiful. And like you said, our swizbys, we never knew

John Wilkinson (18:50)
Yeah. Well

you know, we o we would stop often at Bojo's or something to eat when coming off

Mary Jane Loevlie (18:55)
And

by the way, the owner of Bojo's is a dear friend and an investor.

John Wilkinson (18:59)
Well, that's great. Well and you introduced us to Tommyknockers which what a great restaurant.

Mary Jane Loevlie (19:04)
Yeah, and he they their owners are investors in this project as well. So it's a lot of family and friends and community believers that they invested because they believed in building on a super fun site.

John Wilkinson (19:17)
Which is

in itself a little crazy.

Mary Jane Loevlie (19:20)
Right? But they saw the vision. I would bring them up to this raw land that I bought and

Kenda Ruck (19:26)
Like this could be something. Yeah.

John Wilkinson (19:28)
I just realized how close it is to Denver. I mean you're looking thirty five, forty minutes, you know, from Denver, you can get up here, spend the day, come up to the to the Argo. Like how important is that, the proximity?

Mary Jane Loevlie (19:39)
Well, it's huge and it's interesting, I keep mentioning Dana because she is such a litmus test for me. Once once she finally said, I've been missing a lot, haven't I? Yes, you have Yes, you have. She I I would bug her and she'd give me a night at the Oxford and dinner somewhere, you when I was doing a fundraise, she'd just keep me away. But

s it's closer to go to Idaho Springs than it is to Highlands Ranch or to Lafayette or to Louisville. It's so this is a

Kenda Ruck (20:12)
That surprised me too, John, on the way up here. I'm like, wait, we're here. I mean we did hit a little traffic because of some issues right now, but that's temporary. But we were like, wow, I can't believe I didn't realize how quick how close it is.

Mary Jane Loevlie (20:23)
And so it

it really is.

she always realized once she became acquainted with the historic importance of this community, she realized I could be down at her loft in thirty minutes from here. Yeah.

Kenda Ruck (20:35)
Easily. Yeah. But a a world away.

Mary Jane Loevlie (20:37)
It's a world a literally a world away.

John Wilkinson (20:39)
Right, and I I mean I highly recommend, you know, anybody in Denver, you know, that well anywhere really coming up here because you're right, it is a world away, but yet it's so close. We were here in July, I think I told you, and it was I don't know, ninety two degrees or something in Denver, and it was seventy-two degrees up here. And it was so beautiful. Yeah.

Mary Jane Loevlie (20:58)
And right

in the winter, this will be a year round destination. We call Idaho Springs the Banana Belt. Okay. Because there's more snow to the east and more snow to the west. and we're on the south side, so the snow, if we get a foot of snow, it'll be gone next day. Right. It melts.

Kenda Ruck (21:13)
Just

Mary Jane Loevlie (21:14)
And sitting in here in a snowstorm.

Kenda Ruck (21:17)
Right?

John Wilkinson (21:18)
With a martini?

Kenda Ruck (21:19)
Yeah.

Right? So we are at the top of we rode the gondola up and we walked over to this beautiful building that you've built over here. So tell us about the future of what you have coming still for the food and the beverage and events and like we're sitting in a room that's unfinished right now, but very soon this is gonna be a pretty spectacular, almost a speakeasy kind of feel.

Mary Jane Loevlie (21:41)
It is. Well, and you

know, I learned well through my years living in Europe and the East Coast and then frequenting the Cooper Lounge and the cruise room with Dana. Yeah.

John Wilkinson (21:52)
The crew cruise room this week.

Mary Jane Loevlie (21:55)
And so

and it it really wasn't me, but as we designed this space, we always wanted to keep the mining aesthetic. As you saw, the core tent seal is everywhere. Yes. It's rustic, but it's elegant. Yep. It's beautiful, but it's not lodgy. Right. So this particular space will be kind of the crown jewel of the site. And it was originally going to have another name, but people insisted on calling it MJ's.

Kenda Ruck (22:22)
Yeah. I love that.

John Wilkinson (22:24)
Fitting, yeah. Yeah.

Mary Jane Loevlie (22:25)
Which will

be the sexy spot. Private events, gorgeous, gorgeous. As you can see. you can't see too well out here, but this will be sort of the crowning jewel. But you can invent private ev private elevator. Yeah. Nobody has to know you're here. Yeah. And we can just sort of look down over at what's going on over there. And

Kenda Ruck (22:50)
the

live music and stay tonight, listen to the live music right there. So

Mary Jane Loevlie (22:53)
Yeah,

yeah. What a special Right. And that the other levels weren't three levels in the outpost. The lowest level, which we didn't go to yet, is called the Sun and the Moon saloon. Okay. And that is directly over I love that. I know. And you know why it's called the Sun and the Moon Saloon? Because

Kenda Ruck (23:08)
It's

Mary Jane Loevlie (23:09)
it's over the Sun and the Moon mining claim.

And the gold bar is the main level, obviously the gold bar, correct? Yep. And what you don't see yet around the site is the interpretive panels and all of the photos and stuff that will be happening. Okay. For example, right out here there'll be an interpretive panel about the panorama that you're seeing. Okay. Not blue sky, the history, what was up here, and and you'll there'll be a QR code that you can

Kenda Ruck (23:39)
Take your own history. Right.

Mary Jane Loevlie (23:40)
And

stand it and and one of the things I'm I'm digressing, but if you noticed it was very quiet going up the gondola. Yes it was. And very serene. Yes. And we've had to debate back and forth, people wanting music or and I'm saying no. No. This is a space away for ten minutes.

John Wilkinson (24:01)
Well you start taking everything in. Yeah. Right. Right. I mean I the first ride I took up here, we had not we didn't know what to expect. We hadn't seen upstairs yet. Or up here. So you're in there, you're like looking, you're like, wow, this is amazing. And then when you get off, you turn around and you see the mountains, the views, it it's really unbelievable. And you're right. I think that you know in Telluride it has that gondola system, right? And it's quiet and you can guide you go through it's the same thing. You have to have that experience. When you get to the destination, it just makes it special.

Mary Jane Loevlie (24:29)
Right. And the the other thing that we're doing here on the three levels, the Sun and the Moon saloon, you'll be able to watch a Bronco game. Or you'll be able to have that sports bar feel if you want to. But the gold bar won't have any music or any TVs. Yeah. There will be a place that you can if somebody wants to right go do that, they can

Kenda Ruck (24:51)
can do that,

but if when you're here you're present, you're in the moment.

Mary Jane Loevlie (24:54)
And

your outdoors. We want the great Colorado outdoors and being immersed in the history. Yeah. And the outdoors. Yeah. And it's I mean right now I bought nine mining claims and we're sitting this is the Harvest, the Gleaner, the Dorena, and the Sun and the Moon mining claims right here.

John Wilkinson (25:16)
Okay. What has changed or what have you seen happen to Idaho Springs since the Gondolo?

Mary Jane Loevlie (25:23)
Well, I think it's been happening prior because we've been working so hard on it on Idaho Springs in general. And I think COVID helped us, believe it or not. Okay.

John Wilkinson (25:34)
People wanted to get out.

Mary Jane Loevlie (25:36)
Well, and because many of our residents and our business owners were reluctant to have outside

open air al fresco right even though I've been pushing in for it for yep decades because of spending my time in Europe. So I think that has been happening, but this has just been sort of like the tipping point to people I go I'm my daughter's growing up here. Because not only did I grow up here, but I have daughters and grandchildren growing up here now. And

It was interesting their friends, even though Idaho Springs was not cool when they were growing up, their friends loved it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because it was real community, real this and that. And now my daughters are also seeing the renaissance of what yeah is happening. But

Definitely the the mighty Argo and the cable car are helping it. For sure and the Hot Springs is also going through a major renaissance and a restoration. Okay. They've just gotten a major historic fund grant. great. And they're trying to do the right thing. Okay. Good. So I look at Idaho Springs as one ecosystem. Yeah. We're not just Argo, we're a community that feeds. Well you can tell when we went to Tommy Knockers, right?

John Wilkinson (26:53)
Yeah, I know, it's which is great, yeah. But it is cool. It's so you're right. The Al the Alfresco dining is different from, you know, when we came first time, I don't know, eighteen years ago, we went to Bojo's the first time, it's changed significantly. But it's so nice to have that outdoor dining down there. The whole street is

Mary Jane Loevlie (27:11)
Really

great. Yeah, and we've got you know, again, using Dana, she called us a mouse with an elephant's appetite. Because it we because we always reached heights.

Kenda Ruck (27:20)
Okay. Sounds like Dana.

Mary Jane Loevlie (27:26)
Yeah, and because we knew we should be.

John Wilkinson (27:28)
I saw a picture of you at the White House talking to Obama making things happen.

Mary Jane Loevlie (27:32)
Well, y you know that story is funny. I was invited to the White House and I thought it was a sham 'cause people said, people get invited to the White House, it's just a handshake and go. Well the FBI had call everybody called me. The IRS said you owe twenty thousand back taxes and I said, No, I don't. I had to prove that

John Wilkinson (27:48)
Background

screening.

Mary Jane Loevlie (27:49)
That's

great. So I get to the White House and I'm a group of nine small businesses from all over the United States and we do a lot of export from Little Idaho Springs. Fifty percent of our business is export. Okay. And we were supporting the Trans Pacific Trade Treaty and Obama said small business is the backbone of business. And so

We end up nine of us sitting for two hours with Obama. Right. And I'm the only female.

John Wilkinson (28:20)
You were the only thing over there, yeah.

Mary Jane Loevlie (28:21)
And he says, Who wants to speak first? I said, I will.

John Wilkinson (28:25)
Makes

it happen.

Mary Jane Loevlie (28:27)
Make shit happen. And I I start the cause this is about our shotcrete business, our international shotcrete business, which is very niche, uhhuh, very, you know, technical. I'm the business. My was-band is the technology. Right. And I said I started out by saying, and that's why the laughter was in the photo. I said if you can be passionate about concrete, you can be passionate about anything.

Kenda Ruck (28:49)
That's

right.

Mary Jane Loevlie (28:50)
Absolutely.

And that's what got the laugh. Yeah. And that's what broke the ice with the whole and he repeated I was very impressed. He repeated back what everybody said. Wow. In that room.

John Wilkinson (29:04)
He was really listening.

Mary Jane Loevlie (29:05)
He was really listening. Yeah. Yeah. I I was impressed. Yeah. Yeah. yeah.

Kenda Ruck (29:07)
Anyway.

Mary Jane Loevlie (29:11)
So that was so it's it's interesting all these little things that have happened from small towns.

Kenda Ruck (29:19)
And and I think also it's happened from people like you who have a dream and you can kind of see like I can make this happen and y there are no barriers that you're afraid of. You're just like, I wanna come in and I wanna like clear the room and I'm gonna make this happen. So

Mary Jane Loevlie (29:34)
Well,

and if it makes sense, it's not like a pipe dream

Kenda Ruck (29:37)
Right. No, it's a it's it's a really smart business decision.

Mary Jane Loevlie (29:40)
Right. And I really had I cultivated smart people. Look at Steve. Look at Dana. Look at the people that and when Steve first got up here he said,

Kenda Ruck (29:53)
This is a no brainer.

John Wilkinson (29:55)
Yeah,

it really is. Yeah. But you're right. I mean I think then that's what's ch that's what I think Colorado is a lot about because there's so much that you have to do, like there's things you have to build the tunnels through the mountains and I mean you have to have vision to make things happen. I think that you've done here is spectacular.

Mary Jane Loevlie (30:11)
And and and one thing that's really connected to this is the Floyd Hill project, that eight miles that's going on right now. I've been on the I seventy board for the last twenty years making sure that they do the right things and they don't preclude mass transit coming up through here. Mm-hmm. And

We formed the corridor long alliance from Garfield County down through Jeffco and Denver. We all agreed that that was the number one priority. Nobody was fighting for their little interchanges. Nobody was fighting for this or that. They said Floyd Hill is the major pinch point on I 70. So instead of putting 50 million here and 30 million there, it's this giant let's fix this project that but but it took some concensus

census building.

John Wilkinson (31:01)
W what's the projected completion for the twenty eight. Twenty eight. it's coming up.

Mary Jane Loevlie (31:06)
But right now what has been really hurting us is that traffic stops. All the blasting is done. All the stuffs that are stopping traffic are done. So and you can see that how spectacular it's gonna be.

John Wilkinson (31:19)
It is. I

still you know, I'm like a visual person, so like envisioning what it's gonna look like at the end it's I'm still confused. So but it but it it's amazing.

Mary Jane Loevlie (31:28)
So I had a little coup the other day. We our shotcrete company worked on the Veterans Memorial Tunnels. We supplied materials to the shotcrete tunnels. So I happened to know the project manager of the Floyd Hill $900 million project. And C DOT, Shoshana Loo and Matt Hogan of the Kramer Project said I said, Well, why don't you just just do a little happy hour up here? And they all came and were stunned.

No they want to do some little private parties at the end.

Kenda Ruck (31:59)
Sure they

do.

John Wilkinson (32:00)
Yes, yeah. So MJ is here, you'll have private parties and events.

Mary Jane Loevlie (32:04)
We've got event spaces. Yep, plenty. Several, yes. Okay. So we can host up to four hundred people up here.

John Wilkinson (32:11)
That's great. And I think having a you know a bus or a party bus or whatever from Denver or or or anywhere really coming up here would be a great idea to get home safely and have a great time up here.

Mary Jane Loevlie (32:21)
And right now we're just ramping up and as you knew, when you were here in July we were still not finished. Right. And we're on the cusp of being really close to being finished now, as you can see, right?

John Wilkinson (32:33)
Well it's

yeah, in the last two months there's been significant

Mary Jane Loevlie (32:36)
It's a lot more manicured, it's a lot more you can feel it's done. So we have purposely not been pushing events yet. Yet. And now we're at the point, okay, now let's start pushing, because we think it's an automatic. Yeah.

John Wilkinson (32:51)
I mean how fun would it be like having a holiday party up here? 'Cause October you're saying maybe up to mid October.

Mary Jane Loevlie (32:56)
October

fifteen no we can have poliday we can have parties here already. MJs October fifteenth.

John Wilkinson (33:02)
Gotcha,

gotcha. Yeah, but having a holiday party up here, like with the snow, hopefully this season, please let there be snow. Yeah, yeah.

Mary Jane Loevlie (33:10)
Yeah. Yeah,

and so when we don't have the amphitheater music, we bring the music inside into the outposts. Yep. And it's a really cool, intimate we can get two hundred people in there. It's great with music. Yeah.

Kenda Ruck (33:22)
That's great. This has been such an incredible treat. I have been looking forward to it for so long. So

Mary Jane Loevlie (33:28)
Good.

Kenda Ruck (33:28)
thankful that you took the time to host us and show us around and it

Mary Jane Loevlie (33:33)
I'm passionate.

Kenda Ruck (33:34)
I mean I feel I feel passionate. Like I wanna be like how can I im how can I invest and you know like I I I wanna follow you around and just like do what you do. I just am so impressed. So we're so grateful. Again, I most of our listeners are new to Colorado. So if you could give anybody who's coming and moving to Colorado one piece of advice about what life is like in in Colorado, what would you tell them?

Mary Jane Loevlie (33:59)
I would say take advantage of the outdoors, take advantage of the sunshine, take advantage of the history. I mean, as you know, Tourism Colorado says the two reasons people come to Colorado are the mountains and the history. That's right. Yep, I agree. And of course the sunshine. Yeah. And the snow. Yeah, but that's the mountains.

Kenda Ruck (34:16)
And the sunshine and a little bit the snow.

Mary Jane Loevlie (34:21)
But it's twelve percent of people ski. Right. So it's this is not ninety percent and and and you know, bikers, our our market is twelve percent at the most, bikers. Right, right. Our market is the lazy tourists. Right. The people that have never been to the mountains. The people that I had someone up here, it was his birthday, I was in tears. He was it was Tuesday or Wednesday, I was I think it was the day Edit was here. I walk out under the trestle, there's an older gentleman and his son.

and he was weeping. wow. I said, What's wrong? He said, I'm just so happy. my gosh. It's my birthday. I've never been to the mountains.

Kenda Ruck (35:02)
Yeah.

Mary Jane Loevlie (35:03)
And his he said, I was so afraid to come on the gondola, 'cause that's

Kenda Ruck (35:08)
Scary

if you'd never

Mary Jane Loevlie (35:09)
Yeah,

and it and his dad said, No, I'm taking you're doing on this. So we have such an easy way to get up to the mountains. So this he was probably a forty-five year old and he wow lived in Denver all his life. Never been to the mountains. Never been to the mountains. Yeah. And he was he said, This is the best birthday of my life.

Kenda Ruck (35:32)
Yeah.

Mary Jane Loevlie (35:33)
He got me in tears.

John Wilkinson (35:33)
That is so

it is amazing. Yeah. You know, I think, you know, obviously proximity makes it easier. It's like my parents would love to come, you know, up here because they're not skiers, you know, they're they like to easy things, right? So that this is that's a good

Mary Jane Loevlie (35:48)
It's the lazy tourist, it's the hit you know, or ADA accessible.

John Wilkinson (35:53)
All of that. So Mary Jane, so if p somebody wants to come, how do they plan their trip? Where do they go to get tickets? And I saw today the the rides are sold out.

Mary Jane Loevlie (36:01)
Don't no the mill was sold out. The mill

tour was sold out. And this is this is a distinction that we're gonna be working on next year.

We're we're finally we're only f only last week have we been able to combine the mill tours and the cable car tours. Okay. 'Cause they're kind of two separate ownerships. Okay. But I'm working on that collaboration. And we have gotten a combined ticket now that's $59.95 that includes the mill tour and the cable cardi for a day. That's great. That's great. At experiencing

Kenda Ruck (36:32)
It's great. Up and down.

Mary Jane Loevlie (36:36)
my my attorney who just called calls it quintessential Colorado. Okay. And I like big words sometimes. Yeah, yeah. And and I think for a person looking at moving to Colorado or a visitor that comes to Colorado, this is like eye opening about it's like a one-stop shop.

Kenda Ruck (36:55)
And so accessible.

John Wilkinson (36:56)
Yeah, it really is. I mean you think about people who are coming here on business even to Denver, it's an easy thing for them to come up to the mountains without having to go to Breckenridge or Vail or any of the other

Mary Jane Loevlie (37:06)
One of our big selling points is we're before the tunnel. Yep.

Kenda Ruck (37:09)
Yeah that's

John Wilkinson (37:11)
Yes, yeah, I'll have to say too, Loveland's actually one of my favorites places.

Mary Jane Loevlie (37:15)
Well that was Cindy my neighbor who yeah she's I always we're gonna have a picture of Dana up here and we're gonna have our wall of legends and how this thing happened.

John Wilkinson (37:25)
Great.

So what's the website they can go to? Easy, mightyargy.com.

Mary Jane Loevlie (37:28)
Mighty Argo.com How easy

is that? And toast. Yes.

Kenda Ruck (37:31)
That's easy.

Thank you so much for having us.

Mary Jane Loevlie (37:39)
Thanks for being

John Wilkinson (37:40)
Yeah, thank you so much for your time.

Mary Jane Loevlie (37:41)
more

often. We will don't be a whiz by

Kenda Ruck (37:44)
More whiz

butts.

John Wilkinson (37:45)
Yeah.

Kenda Ruck (37:47)
Thanks. See you next time. Bye bye.