It was the summer of 1969. It was love at first sight.

From the minute she laid eyes on Sweetwater Lake in a remote pocket of northwest Colorado, 19-year-old Adrienne Brink knew she would be back.

“It’s just so majestic. I can’t even explain it,” she said from the base of the horse packing outfitter she has owned and operated for 37 years.

The base is an old restaurant that overlooks that majesty: the 77-acre lake, one of the state’s largest natural bodies of water, surrounded by cliffs of the Flat Tops Wilderness. Amid the rock is a cave keeping ancient art of the native Utes. From their nests, eagles swoop down and snatch trout. A moose might watch from the willow thickets and elk from the high, aspen groves.

For decades, locals of Garfield and Eagle counties have watched from the deck of the restaurant, enjoying homemade pies from Brink.

For long they’ve worried. Would developers finally have their way here?

Brink has leased from six big-money individuals or groups during her time. She’s known of plans for luxury homes, hotels, a golf course and a bottling plant.

“We’ve lived year-to-year never knowing we’ll be here the next year,” Brink said. “So we’re thrilled now.”

Thrilled that the view is set to last.

Sweetwater Lake will be Colorado’s 43rd state park, as announced by Gov. Jared Polis last month. It was announced as a first-of-its kind arrangement: The 488 acres new to White River National Forest will be jointly managed by the state and U.S. Forest Service.

For Brink and others, the arrangement was unimaginable.

“Amazed,” she called herself. “And relieved.”

The Denver investors previously over the land put it up for sale in 2018. That’s when Brink started thinking about rich people she put on horseback over the years. Would any of them buy?

“Then I heard a neighbor was talking to the Eagle Valley Land Trust,” Brink recalled.

The trust has always kept its eye on Sweetwater Lake, said Bergen Tjossem, the organization’s deputy director. The listing spurred equal excitement and intimidation.

“It was certainly a long shot,” Tjossem said.

To be competitive and cover other fees, the thinking was $9.5 million. The number was a problem for Eagle Valley Land Trust. Another problem was the idea of outright buying and tending to the property; the group has historically been more in the business of conservation easements.

The group’s executive director at the time ran into Justin Spring at a conference in early 2019. Spring represented the Conservation Fund, the national organization’s state director regularly dealing in multimillion-dollar land deals.

The big idea, Tjossem said: “If we could figure out a way for the Conservation Fund to buy this property and then transfer it to a public land agency that could manage it, that would be the best-cast scenario.”

The Forest Service, with land bordering the lake, made sense.

“We were, of course, on it right away,” said White River National Forest Supervisor Scott Fitzwilliams. “We said we’ll try to get this Land and Water Conservation Fund money.”

The hope was the federal money would pay back the Conservation Fund for the lake, completing the transfer. But it was thought to be a big ask. With money depleted until recently, the Land and Water Conservation Fund wasn’t known to allocate that kind of sum to a single acquisition. Spring had to act fast.

“There were at least two other competing offers from developers at the time we submitted our offer in the spring of 2019,” he said. Not knowing if the Land and Water Conservation Fund would come through, “we kind of stuck our necks out,” he said.

Meanwhile, Eagle Valley Land Trust convened meetings at the restaurant by the lake – bringing together valley officials, long-time residents, new families, area resort workers, ranchers, teachers and others. A fundraising campaign was launched, “Save the Lake.” It totaled $1.2 million, with hundreds of thousands of that from local governments.

The money was “pivotal,” Spring said. “But even more important was politically what that represented.”

The fundraising showed local interest, along with nearly 150 letters that were written to appeal to the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

In May of 2020, the Forest Service’s D.C. office released a top-36 list of acquisition priorities around the country. Sweetwater Lake came in ninth. Fitzwilliams’ wish for $8.5 million was recommended.

White River National Forest announced the transfer complete this summer. “Everything really worked faster than anticipated,” Spring said.

Fitzwilliams was pleased. But there were lingering concerns for the man overseeing the national forest that is considered America’s most-trafficked. Since he started 12 years ago, Fitzwilliams said his budget has shrunk in half.

“We felt confident we’d get (the lake) up to par,” he said. “The challenge would’ve been taking on another large, developed recreation site when we don’t have enough money to take care of the ones we have.”

He got to talking with friend and partner Dan Prenzlow, director of Colorado Parks and Wildlife. This was at a time when a trio of bills were in the works to pump more money into the state agency.

In June, Polis signed the three into law, including House Bill 1326, made to set aside $25 million in one-time general fund money for parks and other outdoor initiatives.

At the signing, Colorado Department of Natural Resources’ executive director, Dan Gibbs, said 4.7 million more visits had been logged at the state parks over the last couple of years, including a record of about 19 million last year. “Forty-two state parks ain’t enough for a state our size,” Polis added.

The 42nd, Fishers Peak State Park, was opened last year – a small part of the second-biggest within the system at 19,200 acres.

Now there’s the 43rd. The additions come on the heels of the 2018 Future Generations Act, which empowered Colorado Parks and Wildlife to enact “modest” increases in fees to address feared shortfalls. Those were projected to be $11 million for parks by 2025.

The agency did not make an interview available for this article.

With the latest legislation, “they feel really confident funding for these types of efforts are going to be available,” Fitzwilliams said.

The first effort for Sweetwater Lake will be crafting a plan for recreation and conservation. In what is believed to be a first in Colorado, the Forest Service collaborating on a state park, Spring expects there will be give and take.

“I really hope the upcoming master plan lays out a vision that doesn’t allow future visitors to love that place to death,” he said. “That’s one of the big concerns for folks locally.”

As it is for Brink. She worries about more roads, bigger parking lots, overrun campgrounds, boats and trails everywhere.

“I do think the combination of Forest Service and Parks and Wildlife may be better than just one,” she said. “I think. Maybe.”

This she knows for sure after seeing owners come and go over the decades: “Nobody really owns this,” she said. “We’re just stewards, caretakers.”

43: Colorado state parks, plus Sweetwater Lake

488: Acres making up new park

77: Surface acres of lake

17: Approximate miles from Interstate 70 at Dotsero to Sweetwater Lake

9: Ranking of Sweetwater Lake on Forest Service’s national list of desired acquisitions last year

7,740: Feet elevation of Forest Service’s Sweetwater Campground, with nine sites

7: Years Chicago gangster Louis “Diamond Jack” Alteri is believed to have frequented the area. Sweetwater Lake was a hideout for him starting in the late 1920s until 1935, when he was gunned down back home.