The magic of small towns lies in a bevy of hidden places. Whether that magic is in the Owl Cigar Store, which has been a part of the community since the early 1900s, or the businesses and people that now exist only in the memories of Fremont County residents, they all mean something to Chris Jenkins.
Jenkins was born and raised in Cañon City and, though he has spent time away from Fremont County, his love and passion resides in sharing the magic of the community with others.
"It was a great place to grow up," Jenkins said. "We grew up in Lincoln Park ... and rode our bikes down to the swimming pool in that day -- every day we went there."
After graduating from Cañon City High School in 1981, Jenkins attended USC (now CSU-Pueblo) and obtained a degree in broad journalism, which would provide years of exciting career opportunities and eventually led to him sharing about Cañon City with local residents.
He spent many years with Channel 13 in varying roles and started out as the Southern Bureau Chief in Pueblo before moving to Colorado Springs to be a weekend news anchor. He also spent several years as a reporter with Channel 2 in Denver.
"I think that's when I started to fall in love with history because, to do a good story, you need to build up a story from where it happened," Jenkins said. "I got to learn a lot about Colorado and the Front Range during my time living in Cañon, Pueblo, Springs, and Denver."
He moved back to Cañon City in the early 1990s to take care of his ailing father and did a little work with KRLN before finding a new passion to pursue.
"He [my dad] talked me into building a spec. home, but I had always fiddled with the building. I worked with a framing contractor in the summers while I was in college," he said. "I did a little bit of that while I was working in TV."
Jenkins completed his first home in Penrose shortly afterward and, since then, has built the business, Jenkins Homes Inc., into a successful organization and has completed more than 100 homes in that time. Currently, he's working on a handful of homes throughout Fremont County from Oak Creek Grade to Beaver Creek.
In addition to his busy work as a general contractor, Jenkins has found a niche as a "volunteer historian" of Cañon City. During COVID-19, he came across a Facebook page called 'Growing up in Cañon City, Florence and Fremont County" He was struck with the idea of hosting videos about local shops, businesses, and people that have made Cañon City what it is today.
Using his refined broadcast journalism skills, he has since completed and posted numerous videos about local entities, such as La Petit Chablis, Rosedale Market, Sunset Drive-in, and Nonac Mine number five -- all of which serve to remember various aspects of Cañon City's storied past. He partnered with the Royal Gorge Regional Museum and History Center during the COVID-19 era to bring his videos to their Facebook page, their Youtube Channel, and also Channel 119. The most recent video was posted May 13 and evaluated the life and work of local artist Robert Henderson and the Royal Gorge Hotel.
"I would tease it on Thursdays and then people would come out of the woodwork and remember something about it and, all of sudden, I had all of these great old pictures and stories and it would grow into a really fantastic story," he said.
Because of his innate love of local history, he quickly became a part of the Fremont County Historic Preservation Commission and was elected chairman in 2022. He and the commission work with local business owners to preserve the historic downtown buildings and, though it is tough work, value the classic nature of many buildings that have survived.
"If you can survive 'old' ... you can become classic," he said. "That's been really fun, to be involved in with trying to save a little bit of that [history]."
In addition to his busy contractor business and historical preservation work, Jenkins keeps himself occupied at home alongside his sons, Maddox and Alexander, as they expand their garage to include office space and also enjoys spending time with his daughter and two grandchildren. Life keeps him constantly on his toes in the best of ways.
Though it takes many people to hold any community together, historians like Jenkins help us to remember where we've come from and help us decide where we're headed -- something he takes seriously.
"One thing that stands out to me is how everybody now feels so overwhelmed by how bad things are," he said. "But could we walk through the path of the people that watched World War II start, or lived through the Depression, or lived through Vietnam? All of those people had, I would think, far greater worries than we do today ... History, if you really look at it, is wonderful, and I think Cañon is wonderful."
View Jenkin's videos about the vibrant history of Cañon City
at the museum's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/RGRMHC/videos
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