Dotted across Lakewood, you’ll find remnants of the city’s agricultural past.
Apple trees of many types and sizes sit in people’s yards and along busy streets west of Denver.
Some are rooted in Lakewood’s historical landscape that was full of orchards before suburbia crept in after World War II. And every year, the Cider Days festival celebrates that past.
Dan Klimek is a volunteer at the Heritage Lakewood Belmar Park, which has a museum and other buildings that tell the rich history of the area.
“It was an agricultural area,” Klimek said. “One of the things that’s interesting is this area was actually rural Jefferson County. So people in Denver would want to get out of the city. They’d go out into the country, which was Lakewood.”
In fact, this rural part of Jefferson County was considered the “Fruit Belt” of the Front Range. Back then, visitors would ride the long-gone Denver and Intermountain Railroad for a day of apple picking. These days, RTD’s W Line to Golden follows much of the same route today.
McKenzie Lange/CPR NewsApples are ready for an antique cider press at Heritage Lakewood Belmar Park in Lakewood. Sept. 18, 2026.
Homesteaders in the early 1870s also grew apples for home use. And as their orchards grew, one early settler and farmer capitalized on that.
Valentine Devinny had a ranch near West 6th Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard. By 1890, he had opened a “you-pick-it” orchard marketed to Denver residents – a very early example of agritourism.
Dense clusters of apple orchards existed along West 13th Avenue between Wadsworth Boulevard and Kipling Street in the Eiber neighborhood. Others were located further south and east along Wadsworth between First and Sixth avenues.
You’ll also see apple trees in the front and back yards of numerous homes in other places, like along Tenth Avenue.
While shopping for a house there, Matt Wilgenbusch and his partner instantly fell in love with a 1927 farmhouse they found for sale.
“I walked in the backyard, and I’m like, ‘This is it, I don’t even need to see the house,’” he said.
McKenzie Lange/CPR NewsMatt Wilgenbusch stands near the Delicious apple tree in his yard in Lakewood. Sept. 18, 2026.
The fruit trees in the yard piqued his curiosity. And he noticed plenty of others in the suburban neighborhood.
“There’s actually three different apple trees across the street that are old and kind of heritage,” he said. “You go further down the street about a block or two, there are three or four or five other varieties as far as I can tell that are just in eyesight.”
Wilgenbusch is a landscape architect by trade. And since moving in, he’s become a heritage apple tree preservation enthusiast. He never expected to become so well-versed in all of the apple trees that exist in his neighborhood.
“Beacon, Cortland, Jonathan, Delicious, Macintosh, Golden Delicious,” he listed off.
Working with a laboratory in Washington, Wilgenbusch took DNA samples of the trees in his neighborhood. He sent young spring leaf samples in test tubes for analysis. Today he’s growing versions of heritage apple trees in his expansive backyard garden.
McKenzie Lange/CPR NewsMatt Wilgenbusch inspects grafted apple trees he planted in his Lakewood backyard. Sept. 18, 2026.
“I learned that my grandpa and grandma in Northeast Iowa had [similar apples] on their farm,” Wilgenbusch said. “I can remember my grandma making red hot apples, crab apples for my grandpa. And she would take the crab apples and then drop red hots in it. And they were super sweet. So now I’m hoping to be able to recreate some of that myself.”
Colorado once had hundreds of apple tree varieties. But most have been lost, including in this area where orchards once thrived.
By the 1930s and 40s, the land that now encompasses Lakewood was subdivided in order to build houses. Some were built around existing trees that continued to grow.
Now Wilgenbusch has a big goal to identify those.
McKenzie Lange/CPR NewsMatt Wilgenbusch shows a grafted apple tree he planted in his backyard in Lakewood. Sept. 18, 2026.
He’s working with his neighbors to document and DNA test as many trees as he can. He’s also giving each person a printed document explaining the type of tree they have and its historical significance.
“If we can get those stories, we’re going to share those as best we can and propagate them as we do the trees,” he said.
The city of Lakewood also celebrates this rich agricultural heritage every year with Cider Days at Heritage Lakewood Belmar Park.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the event. It features activities like cider pressing, a trebuchet launching competition (with discarded and non-edible apples), mule-driven wagon rides and tours of the park’s historic buildings.
McKenzie Lange/CPR NewsGerhard and Lisa Leicht make apple cider using an antique cider press at Heritage Lakewood Bel Mar Park in Lakewood. Sept. 18, 2026.
It’s become a marquee event for the city that attracts over 10,000 people, said organizer Mike Pingel. And it’s a huge undertaking.
“It’s a year-round process without a doubt,” he said. “It takes a village to put on an event like this.”
The museum also runs summer camps, blacksmithing classes, cider making and other heritage craft programs, all in an effort to keep Lakewood’s sense of rural and agricultural significance strong.
Lakewood’s Cider Days festival takes place Saturday, Oct. 3, and Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026.
McKenzie Lange/CPR NewsApples are ready for an antique cider press at Heritage Lakewood Belmar Park in Lakewood. Sept. 18, 2026.
Colorado Wonders
This story is part of our Colorado Wonders series, where we answer your burning questions about Colorado. Curious about something? Go to our Colorado Wonders page to ask your question or view other questions we’ve answered.
