1977-09-14 – Lawton Luther DAMFINO Article – 1977 Version ⧉

An article written by Lawton Luther about his family's cabin at Idlewild known as DAMFINO. ⧉

“The most memorable day in the early 1920’s was that day my mother received a long distance phone call from a Nebraska preacher. He wanted to know if we ever rented out our mountain cabin located at Idlewild up the Big Thompson River. Her answer was, ‘Yes, indeed.’

“Upon hearing that, the preacher said he and his wife would like to rent the cabin for a week or two, and then plied mother with a fist full of questions such as how to get there, rental costs, what to bring, and finally asked if we had a name for the cabin.”

“Mother, of course, answered all of his questions, right down to the title of the cabin- ‘DAM’FINO.’ After a short pause the preacher asked again, ‘What did you say the name was?’ ‘DAM’FINO,’ replied mother, and then told him how come we gave the cabin such a name. The story:

“A year or so before we built the cabin the four of us, Mom, Dad, Albert and I, saw comedian Buster Keaton in a movie titled ‘DAM’FINO,’ a tale of his problems and troubles in a small boat lost in a rough hurricane type tumbling sea. His boat was named DAM’FINO, too.”

“His SOS calls to the Coast Guard and all ships at sea gained him no help because all of their queries is to his location, name of boat, type of boat, and so on were answered by the words DAM’FINO. A sailor he wasn’t. He even went so far as to bore holes in the bottom of the boat to let the sea water flooding the boat to get out.”

“I don’t remember how the picture ended, but we used the title because it best described our love and feelings about the cabin- DAM’FINO- a good place to go to and get away from the everyday rat race.”

“After mother’s death, Dad sold the house and lot to Les Dauth and family, who remodeled the place and gave it a new title. It is now named ‘The Little Brown palace.’ The DAM’FINO sign, Les has hanging in front of another of the cabins the Dauths still own.”

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