Nestled in the Colorado Rocky Mountains about two miles from the slopes of Breckenridge Ski Resort, a small wooden lodge flies a Pride flag.

At the heart of the structure is an old mining cabin, constructed in 1892, which the lodge has been built around. But the true heart of the Bunk House Lodge is its long history as a gay-operated business and a haven for members of the gay community.

For more than 50 years, the Bunk House Lodge has offered lodging and a sense of community for gay men. Today, current owner Mitch Ringquist, who continues the Bunk House Lodge’s tradition of being gay-owned and operated, has opened the doors of the business to be inclusive of all members of the LGBTQ+ community and “hetero-friendly.”

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“I operate it as my heart,” Ringquist said. “We learn, we live, we laugh, we love. That’s really what this place is all about. If you have been paying attention to the energy of the house, it’s been worked and fine-tuned to present this welcoming feeling.”

Inside, the Bunk House Lodge is decorated with an eclectic mix of rustic mountain lodge decor, including steel mining cables, oil lamps and ski and snowboarding items, and gay memorabilia, like Pride flags, photos of shirtless men and signs with playful sayings like “Bear Hugs 5¢” and “Cowboys only.”

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On the first floor, the family-style dining room table and a living room plush with comfortable leather sofas, blankets and pillows, hint at the intimacy of the lodging space. Upstairs, there are several sleeping areas including lofts, each with their own queen-sized mattress, snuggled in corners of the roofline and accessed by wooden ladders scavenged decades ago from abandoned mines.

When Ringquist first came to the Bunk House Lodge in 1999, he worked as a “bunkette” helping to clean the place and prepare it for guests in exchange for room and board. Now, 10 years into his tenure as owner, the Bunk House Lodge is being considered for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.

“It’s an incredible history that (the Bunk House Lodge) has to entail,” Ringquist said. “Not only for Breckenridge, but because at the time in the 1970s, homosexuality was still listed as a mental disorder and a mental illness.”

Untold stories of LGBTQ+ history

History Colorado national and state historian Damion Pechota said that the Bunk House Lodge was identified for potential inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the state historical society’s Heritage for All initiative.

The Colorado Heritage for All initiative aims to identify 150 currently unrecognized spaces and places that tell the stories of communities of color, women, and LGBTQ+ Coloradans and to add these sites to the state Register of Historic Places by the end of 2026.

Currently, only about 4% of sites on Colorado’s Register of Historic Places represent the stories of the state’s Black, indigenous, Latino, Chicano, Asian American and LGBTQ+ communities, according to History Colorado.

“We made this effort to add 150 sites by 2026 to include all these communities and to move the needle on how we view historic preservation,” Pechota said. “… The Bunk House Lodge tells that remarkable story of the LGBT community that isn’t really told.”

The Bunk House Lodge is “fascinating” because at the time, most LGBTQ+ businesses were located in the Denver metro area or other cities, rather than mountain resort communities, Pechota said. The longevity of the lodging business is also impressive because most LGBTQ+ businesses at the time didn’t last for more than a few years, in large part due to stigma and discrimination from local governments, he said.

“It’s unique to have a resource like this from that time period,” Pechota said. “That it is still owned and operated by and for the LGBTQ+ community is very remarkable. LGBT businesses historically tended not to last longer than five years. Most would fold after three years.”

As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Pechota said that he was the “right fit” to write the application for the Bunk House Lodge’s inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. The Bunk House Lodge qualifies for the National Register’s social history and commerce categories as a business that is more than 50 years old, he said.

The Bunk House Lodge’s application will go before the Colorado State Register of Historic Places review board later this month and, if approved, it will move on for review by the National Park Service before being added to the National Register, Pechota said. Because of the property’s history, he said he expects it to be added to the National Register as soon as mid-March.

“It’s such a wonderful place to go into. It just feels so cozy and has such a warm, inviting space,” Pechota said. “It has so many nooks and crannies for people to be themselves in whatever way that looks like as well as to just relax and be in an environment that has often been inaccessible to the LGBT community. It’s wonderful to see a place like this still exist.”

Bunk House Lodge’s storied history in Breckenridge

When Rudolph “Rudy” Gardner — who founded the Bunk House Lodge — purchased the property in 1964 with his boyfriend John Morgan, the ski industry had only just started to establish itself in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, Pechota said. Breckenridge Ski Resort had opened three years earlier, in 1961.

During those first years, the two “went wild” adding additions to the historic mining cabin with an architectural style that Pechota described as “quite eclectic.” In 1964, Gardner was drafted into the military and served in Vietnam for two years, returning to Breckenridge in 1967, according to the National Register of Historic Places application. Then, in 1972, the Bunk House Lodge officially opened as a business offering lodging to the gay community.

“I envisioned it as sort of an Outward Bound School for gays where gay men could experience and learn about the outdoors with other gay men they feel comfortable and can relax with,” Gardner once said of the Bunk House Lodge, according to the application.

Gardner, a former physical education teacher in the Denver Public Schools, made guests feel welcome and like they were part of the family, while staying at the Bunk House Lodge. One guest wrote that Gardner was “a warm, affable and capable individual who truly enjoys his environment and the people that come into it,” according to the application.

Ringquist said Gardner was a “giver” with a big heart, who would travel the country to promote the Bunk House Lodge. Still, “not just any queen — as one would say — could be welcomed into the Bunk House Lodge,” Ringquist said, noting that the men had to pass a “butch test,” helping to cut firewood and build additions to the house.

“He definitely had a lot of ideas and apparently a silver tongue in order to help people realize his dream and bring the crowd in,” Ringquist said. “He was his own little advertisement.”

When Gardner died of complications due to AIDS in 1989, the property was transferred to Adam Rudziewicz, who had been living and working at the Bunk House Lodge since 1978, Pechota said. In the 1990s, Rudziewicz navigated the business through tough times after the passage of Amendment 2 in Colorado.

Amendment 2 was a ballot measure passed by Colorado voters in 1992 that prevented municipalities from enacting anti-discrimination laws protecting members of the LGBTQ+ community. Its passage earned Colorado the nickname “the Hate State.” 

“A lot of LGBT members protested (Amendment 2) and refused to come to Colorado, but ultimately that hurt LGBT businesses,” Pechota said. “The Bunk House Lodge advertised regularly in the local paper, saying ‘Please help us, because we’re going to go out of business.’ And a lot of businesses did go under during the time. But the Bunk House Lodge remained, and I think in large part because its long-time patrons came back again and again to support it.”

When Rudziewicz met Ringquist while working at a bar one summer in San Diego, California, the two got to talking about potential business opportunities in Summit County, according to the application. The two talked regularly on the phone until Rudziewicz eventually convinced Ringquist to come up and join the Bunk House Lodge.

“From that point on, we had a roller coaster ride of experiences, which have strengthened our friendship to one where I couldn’t imagine not having him in my life,” Rudziewicz wrote of his time with Ringquist, according to the application.

When Rudziewicz died in 2015, Ringquist became the owner of the Bunk House Lodge and expanded its purpose to be accommodating to guests beyond gay men. He continues to operate the Bunk House Lodge as a “fully LGBTQ+ and hetero-friendly” space, accepting bookings at BunkHouseLodge.com.

“You never know who you’re going to meet and become friends with at the Bunk House Lodge,” Ringquist said. “I have gratefully met so many wonderful people. I’ve mentioned what the energy of the house is. They’ve added to it. That only gets added to by everyone who comes in and leaves a bit of themselves here.”