Heritage Lakewood Belmar Park marks its 50th Cider Days this weekend, a two-day festival of cider pressing and wagon rides set for October 3-4, 2026.
The weekend also features heritage craft demonstrations, including blacksmithing.
Lakewood's Agricultural Heritage
Cider Days celebrates Lakewood's agricultural heritage.
Colorado had fruit farmers.
The Railroad That Brought the Crowds
Denver residents didn't need a car to reach the orchards. The Denver and Intermountain Railroad carried visitors from Denver to Lakewood for apple picking, and much of that former route is still followed today by RTD's W Line to Golden, the outlet reports. A Lakewood government survey plan separately notes that the Denver and Intermountain Railroad formed in 1904 and that at least one property along its line included a large apple orchard, according to a City of Lakewood survey document. A separate federal historic-properties report filed with the Colorado Department of Transportation also references a Denver and Intermountain Railroad spur tied to historic archaeology work in Lakewood, according to a Colorado Department of Transportation technical report.
Boulder has heritage apple trees.
Apple Trees and Their History
Matt Wilgenbusch is a landscape architect. The United States once had thousands of apple varieties, many of which have declined.
A Boulder project involves mapping apple trees and collecting leaf samples for DNA sequencing.
