DUNTON HOT SPRINGS, COLORADO
​
In 1993 Bernt Kuhlmann moved to Telluride, Colorado with the idea to find a suitable piece of land for the development of  a boutique resort. On his travels through the popular ski destinations in the Rocky Mountains, he had noticed many Swiss, Swedish, and Austrian inspired resorts. He felt that this approach was dated and that the time was right to create a look that would be tied to the colorful culture of the American West.

​

In 1994 Bernt Kuhlmann and Christoph Henkel purchased Dunton Hot Springs, a real life, now abandoned mining town, located high up in a remote area of the Colorado Rockies. The challenge consisted of developing a story for Dunton that would validate a stylistically fresh, yet historically accurate interpretation of the American West during the nineteenth century.
​
In the spring of 1998 Dunton Hot Springs opened to the public, as a lifestyle resort. The resorts' look and feel was based on a mining town, formerly inhabited by trappers and gold miners hailing from all over the world.



Today Dunton is a good example of a lifestyle resort with much subtext: While the many imported log structures  continue to look rugged and rough on the outside, their interiors comfort, seduce, and surprise.







(To see more pictures, choose any one on the right)