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The original Wild homestead house is located at the west end of Wild Lane. This building, although modified, remains standing today.

Alfred Wild was Loveland's pioneer industrialist.

Loveland Museum / Special to the Loveland Reporter-Herald

The original Buckhorn Plaster Co. mill was destroyed by fire and was replaced with this mill of more modern design. Wild can be seen in a white suit in the center of this photograph.

Alfred Wild constructed a water-powered machine shop. The water wheel is visible between the two stone buildings.

Kenneth Jessen / For the Loveland Reporter-Herald

Alfred Wild named the grounds around his mansion "Peep-O-Day Park" for the hole in the Devil's Backbone.

This drawing shows an aerial perspective of the Wild farm published in about 1903.

Alfred Wild came to the Loveland area in the early 1880s to manage his brother’s homestead. Wild filed for his own homestead near the south end of the Devil’s Backbone and began experimenting with fruit trees. By 1894, he had succeeded in planting 2,000 trees covering 32 acres.

Wild recognized that Colorado brewers purchased hops from other states. This led Wild to begin experimenting with hops, something horticulturists deemed impossible in Colorado’s dry climate. Nevertheless, Wild forged ahead and became a pioneer in the cultivation of hops selling his output to the P. H. Zang Brewing Co. in Denver.

An irrigation company started building a ditch from the Big Thompson River around the southern end of the Devil’s Backbone through Wild’s property.

The workers struck some soft, white material in the shallow valley east of the Devil’s Backbone. They continued excavating, and after it was complete, water was turned into the ditch. Much to the surprise of the ditch company, the white material soaked up the water for weeks.

What was a nightmare for the ditch company became a curiosity for Wild. He sent a sample of the white material to Brown University in Rhode Island for analysis, and it turned out to be gypsum in its purest form.

Using his wife’s pots and pans, Wild began experimenting with the gypsum to discover how to convert the material into plaster. He pulverized it into a fine powder, and then heated it in a kettle over an open fire. It was successfully converted into plaster.

When water is mixed with plaster, the water molecule driven off during the heating process is returned, and it hardens into its original chemical state.

Just like the hops, all of Colorado’s plaster was shipped in from other states. At the time, plastered walls were a luxury and reserved for the rich.

Wild planned to change this and make plaster affordable. He purchased a carload of sacks. By using an old threshing machine engine, Wild constructed a crude crusher for his plaster mill. A large iron kettle was used to heat the crushed gypsum over an open coal fire.

Denver contractors clamored for as much plaster as Wild could produce from what he called his Buckhorn Plaster Co. An enclosed mill was constructed in 1887. The house once used to dry hops was converted into the plaster company’s office and boardinghouse for its employees.

Above the gypsum deposit, Alfred Wild discovered some fire clay suitable for making brick. He did not want to take on the additional burden of running a brick factory so he tried for years to attract investors. Finally, in 1924, a company built a kiln just north of present-day U.S. 34.

The fire clay was hauled by a 2-foot gauge railroad known as the Buckhorn Northern. It ran from the east side of the Devil’s Backbone, through a tunnel, then down to the kilns. After its bankruptcy, Wild was forced to take over its management.

The Buckhorn Plaster Co. was eventually purchased by the United States Gypsum Co. and operated until 1965 when a flood damaged the mill and ruined the contents of the warehouse. The company decided not to repair the mill since the supply of gypsum was nearly exhausted.

Wild was on the board of directors for the First National Bank of Loveland. As a board member, he was personally responsible for the bank’s assets.

During the Great Depression in 1929, this bank, like thousands of others throughout the United States, was on the verge of collapse. Wild was forced to liquidate his stock to keep the bank open and even took out a note secured on his own home. The Loveland First National Bank took over all the obligations of the old bank, and none of the depositors lost a cent.

Wild founded the town of Wilds in 1926 at the south end of the Devil’s Backbone. A post office opened this same year and remained operating until 1934.

His 26-room mansion overlooked what he hoped would become a prosperous little community. With its local plaster industry, brick kilns and other activities, the town was set for growth.

Before he could realize his vision, he died in 1933 from an injury received while backing his car down the driveway from his mansion.

During recent years, Alfred Wild’s mansion was converted into the Wild Lane Inn Bed and Breakfast.

The foundation for the plaster mill sits just below the original portion of the Devil’s Backbone Trail and the piles of waste material from the gypsum quarries can be seen in the valley east of the Devil’s Backbone. The remains of the brick kiln are visible from the west end of Wild Lane.

Kenneth Jessen has lived in Loveland since 1965 and has contributed to area newspapers for more than four decades. He has written more than 2,000 illustrated articles published along with 20 books. Jessen is in his third year teaching adult education at Colorado State University (OSHER program) and has lectured in Northern Colorado.

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