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TIPI NEWSNews - Click on a headline or scroll down for the news.Tipi GreenHouse in the news - Product News New Tipi Furnishings - Product News New 15 oz. Fabric with 5 yr. Warranty - Tipi News Denver Post Article - Tipi News Red Beard's Ranch - Featured Customer Cameron Park Zoo - Featured Customer Annual Fort Bridger Rendezvous - Event News CandleLighters Giveaway - Event News Washita Massacre Documentary - Movie News THE GAZETTE Business Sunny side up A detail of a sun on the back of a tepee. Reese Tipis tries to make the symbols as authentic as possible. By JIM BAINBRIDGE THE GAZETTE After more than a quarter-century of creating historically accurate Plains Indian tepees, Colorado Springs-based Reese Tipis is widening its horizons with a GreenHouse Tipi for backyard gardens and small organic farms. The idea is to extend the growing season in any climate, providing the solar heating and convection cooling requirements of a greenhouse in a conveniently portable shelter. The Green-House Tipis come in diameters ranging from 9 feet to 26 feet. “I selected three Colorado locations with distinctly different climates to test the tepees,” owner Mr. Reese said. “We’ve had two in Rocky Ford (elevation 4,135 feet) and two in Alamosa (7,545), along with a cou- ple here in the Springs (6,035). We all used different sizes of tepees and different kinds of crops.” The inspiration came while Reese was working in his own backyard, fretting about how he would protect his tomato garden in winter. He hopes the transparent polyethylene greenhouse tepees he is launching this year will bring a rich harvest for his northeast Colorado Springs business. The core of the business, however, will remain the same: the creation of authentic-looking, hand-painted canvas tepees for commercial and personal use. He sells about 500 of them a year, starting at $500 for a 9-foot-diameter backyard edition and going up to $13,000 for a 26-footer with deck and delivery included. The average price is about $2,000. There are four primary customer categories, Reese said: the Old West re-enactment crowd, people who use tepees for temporary shelter while building a cabin, business owners who place them in front of a store, campground or market and then the biggest segment by far — homeowners. “They account for maybe 75 percent of our business,” Reese said. “These are people who have an interest in history but don’t want to live as though it’s 1820. They want a shower, propane, a comfortable place where their kids can sleep.” Commercial use is the second-most-popular segment, at 20 percent, and all the rest accounts for the final 5 percent, including that ultimate re-enactor subset, the movie business. Over the years, Reese Tipis has provided entire Indian villages for movies such as “Windwalker,” “Peter Pan” and “Grizzly Adams,” for the documentary “Washita,” and for the miniseries “Into the West” and “Dreamkeeper.” For some scenes of Golden Globe-nominated “Into the West” there were more than 80 Reese Tipis in evidence. What has made Reese such a steady provider of movie set pieces is the company’s attention to detail. Every physical detail of the design is carefully researched and made to be as authentic to the time and place as possible, for filmmakers or private customers. “We work directly with the client, by e-mail, phone or on the Web,” said Helen Campbell, an artist who has worked on hundreds of tepees in her first year with the company. “We do a preliminary sketch and then nail down what they would like to have on the tepee. It’s mostly interpretive: a spirit deer, spirit buffalo, phases of the moon, circles. . . . We try to stay true to that. We do research and stay as authentic as we can.” CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0126 or jim.bainbridge@gazette.com
New 15 oz. Fabric with 5 yr. Warranty Recently Reese Tipis introduced a new 15 oz. acrylic-coated flame-resistant cotton-poly fabric in a duck weave to our product line, called StarFire®. The acrylic coating on the fabric does not wash off and is very resistant to mold, mildew and ultraviolet damage if properly cared for. 
StarFire® comes with a 5-year manufactures warranty and is great for some tipi applications. The flame retardant acrylic finish on this fabric is considered a "durable" finish and will not wash out. In addition, it is not susceptible to any secondary chemical reactions with environmental pollutants that can degrade the flame retardant finish or the structure of the fabric in any way. A tipi made from this fabric will maintain a slightly higher interior temperature than a tipi made from cotton army duck and condensation will form in some climates. The average strength of this fabric is very close to our 13 oz. army duck. The added weight is in the acrylic coating and is not, on its own, an indication of the fabrics strength. The 15 oz. overall weight is still low enough that the overall tipi weight is still manageable. This is an exceptional fabric for some tipi uses but as with any fabric that does not breathe, forethought should be used before purchasing a tipi made with this fabric (or any non-breathable fabric) to ensure it will meet you comfort needs. This said, we recommend this fabric for permanently erected tipis and see a limited amount of interior living. Our acrylic coated tipi fabric is a very pleasant canvas color. Additional colors are available at a slight additional charge. Painting acrylic coated fabrics require additional prep so additional charges will apply. [Click here to learn more about tipi fabrics.] "Into the West" 
Reese Tipis is a leading suppliers of tipis to the movie industry and has the pleasure of working on many movie sets over the years. Our ability to respond to the unique needs of the movie industry make us the ideal supplier of tipis (tepees, teepees) for western and other films. Most recently, we had the distinct pleasure of assisting both the Calgary and Santa Fe "set-dec" crews for the upcoming mini-series, "Into the West". Moving the 70+ Reese Tipis from one location to another is a lot of work but very rewarding. It couldn't have been done without the efforts of all involved. Special thanks to all the location crew, Guy, Wendy, Sihu, and Rachel of the Santa Fe crew and to Paul, Alan and Rhonda of the Calgary crew. Their great personalities and awesome work ethics helped ensure all the tipis were up and ready when needed. Episode 1 of "Into the West" is tentatively scheduled to air on 10 June 2005 on TnT. Visit our Movies Page for more info and pictures. Tipis InStyle 
Reese Tipis has introduced its new line of custom-made modular redwood floors (decks), and other accessories to add comfort, convenience and style to your tipi. Live in true tipi comfort with a redwood floor that is easy to maintain and adds beauty to your lodge. Add a gas fireplace to warm your tipi home and to cook over. Lounge comfortably while enjoying the dancing light in your fireplace. Come see what Tipis InStyle is about featuring tipi décor that includes floors and a complete line of decorative and functional accessories to complement your tipi and your lifestyle. Visit our on-line store often as we will be adding new merchandise to make your tipi experience more pleasurable. You will find a variety of products from functional to decor to bring a new feeling to your lodge and lifestyle. Reese Tipis article in the Denver Post They're fun, functional and fashionable Tepees hit perfect pitch By Jack CoxDenver Post Staff WriterSunday, August 18, 2002 - They may not be as upscale as jetted tubs or big-screen TVs or monster ovens, but tepees just might be on the verge of becoming the next must-have amenities. Post / Brian Brainerd
The stately, cone-shaped shelters, once seen mainly as havens for hippies or come-ons for curio shops, are popping up in the yards of mainstream Americans, who use them as personal retreats, spare bedrooms, New Age offices, party spaces, children's playhouses, swimming-pool cabanas, massage parlors or even as oversized pieces of lawn art. Mindful of their origins, fans of the venerable structures often decorate their tepees with Native American motifs and outfit them with Indian-themed items such as drums, buffalo hides, peace pipes or dream-catchers. But tepees also are being furnished with such decidedly modern conveniences as electric lights, cable TV, VCRs, mini-bars, full-sized beds, semipermanent floors, indoor-outdoor carpeting and gas-fueled fire pits. Most owners think their tepees are "way cool," as longtime Parker resident Annika Clark describes one she installed in her backyard last year. "There's something spiritual about a tepee that's very peaceful," she says. "It's great to watch the ribbons fluttering in the wind." Fellow aficionado Ray Baron, a Houston businessman who spends summers in Aspen, feels the same about his tepee, which he has hand-painted with images of animals and Indian dancers. "It's very quiet inside," he reports. "You hear the wind blowing and see a little bit of sky. There's something very peaceful and calming about that experience." John Drew, an Old West buff who lives in the Black Forest area northeast of Colorado Springs, waxes even more poetic about the tepee he put up about two years ago as a sort of centerpiece for his 5-acre property. "On a foggy morning, it looks so neat and mysterious out there, you can actually picture an Indian brave on his war pony coming through the mist," he says. "It's Native American, so everything about it speaks to our heritage. It does the same thing to me as the American flag I have hanging on the house. It gives me chills." Adds Joe Riddle, a lawyer and mediator who has just put the finishing touches on a new tepee outside his house in rural Boulder County, "It's a connection with a simpler way of life. You see all these 5,000- and 10,000-square-foot houses going up, and you wonder how much you really need." Modern tepees (or teepees, or tipis; all three spellings are acceptable) are typically modeled after authentic 19th-century designs and made of heavy-duty white cotton duck - the same kind of naturally water-repellent canvas, ironically, that some of the Plains Indians obtained from traders for use in covering their own lodges. "It's lighter, lasts longer and is less work to create than animal hides," says Mr. Reese, a Colorado Springs manufacturer and tepee expert. "Many Indians were living in canvas tepees before they ever saw the white man." Read More Featured Customer - Redbeard's Ranch - Lebanon, Missouri 
Redbeard's Ranch is a 295 acre, family-oriented campground in the Missouri Ozarks with over a mile of Niangua River frontage. Spend a weekend camping at Redbeard's Ranch and experience the sights and sounds of nature without disruption from noisy camp neighbors. Bring your horse and explore our Ozark trails. Try your hand at fly fishing ... the German Brown Trout almost leap into your frying pan. Choose a quiet campsite on the riverbank, in a peaceful meadow or in the woods ... or settle into a genuine Reese tipi overlooking the Niangua River. Keep your eyes peeled for white-tailed deer, wild turkeys, and bald eagles. Smaller, noisier and more crowded area campgrounds rarely give you the opportunity to observe wildlife in a natural setting. Whether you enjoy primitive camping, canoeing, fishing, trail riding ... or just contemplating the glint and glimmer of sunshine on the water, you will appreciate the opportunity to "get away from it all" at Redbeard's Ranch. Visit Redbeard's Ranch online at Redbeard's ranch Featured Customer - Cameron Park Zoo - Waco Texas 
We installed five new tipis at the Cameron Park Zoo, Brazos River Country Exhibit to be opened Spring 2005. Visitors will follow the footsteps of early Spanish explorers who searched for the seven cities of gold along the Brazos River. The journey through the Brazos River Country will take visitors from the Gulf of Mexico to the Caprock region of West Texas. Throughout this exploration they will encounter a wide variety of wildlife, cultures, and history. Visitors will enter the Brazos River Country exhibit through an archaeological excavation of a sunken Spanish Galleon that will showcase a 40,000-gallon saltwater aquarium. Guests will step onto a beach with coastal shore birds and travel on through the swamplands where children can view alligators from a beaver's lodge. Next they can explore the East Texas forests and Piney Woods region, and view bears, coyotes, and mountain lions. Climb high above the crowd into a Forest Ranger's station before sliding down a clear acrylic tube through the otter exhibit. In the Blacklands, guests will learn about the history of the Huaco Indians (from which Waco earned its name), the flood plains of Central Texas, and the largest mammoth excavation in North America. While traveling through the Cross Timbers area, they will discover jaguars and ocelots. These native cats once thrived throughout much of the state, but are now extinct in all areas of Texas except a small pocket in the South Texas scrub where ocelot sightings have been reported. A barn along the Edwards Plateau will exhibit nocturnal animals, and from teepees (tipis) in the High Plains/Caprock area guests will have the opportunity to observe bison, prairie dogs, and burrowing owls in a manner similar to the early Native Americans of the region. Annual Fort Bridger Rendezvous 
The 33rd Annual Fort Bridger Rendezvous is coming this Labor Day weekend in Fort Bridger, Wyoming. Reese Tipis will be there in force and invites you to come see us. Visit the Fort Bridger Rendezvous Web Page New Products Wood Floors Mattress-Roll Liner Sod Cloths Bedroll Covers Liner Pockets DreamKeeper 
During the spring and summer of 2002, Reese Tipis had the pleasure of working with the production crew of the upcoming Hallmark television mini-series "DreamKeeper" broadcast on ABC in December of 2003. "DreamKeeper" is a four-hour historical saga about the American Indian. We manufactured a total of 63 canvas and leather tipis in four different tribal designs; Sioux, Cheyenne, Blackfeet, and Kiowa. We also provided 5648 square feet of leather for "DreamKeeper" sets. The tipis were shipped to Calgary, Canada where the "DreamKeeper" Set Dec crew, did the final paint and aging to make the tipis look well-used for the movie. We truly enjoyed working with Paul, Alan, Rene, and Rhonda of the Set Dec crew. Visit our Movies Page for more info and pictures. Reese Tipis on HGTV "Dream Builders" 
Reese Tipis featured on Home & Garden Television Dream Builders program. In October 2002, Reese Tipis had the pleasure of working with the Home and Garden TV (HGTV) "Dream Builders" crew to produce a segment on the construction, painting, setup, and accessorization of a Sioux style Indian Tipi (also known as a tepee or teepee). The segment (DRB 1010) was aired on HGTV at 9am Eastern on 7 December 2002. Visit our Movies Page for more info and pictures. WestFest is for Children too 
Tipis attracted more than just crowds at WestFest, the June celebration of Western music and culture in Colorado Springs. Native American-style lodges by Reese Tipis raised funds and awareness for the Candlelighters Foundation, a non-profit organization that benefits children with rare blood disorders and cancer. Festival attendees making a donation to the foundation had fun painting their hand-prints on a tipi. Celebrities who participated in the tipi painting were WestFest host and renowned cowboy singer/songwriter Michael Martin Murphey, and Native American musicians Eddie Three Eagles and Bill Miller. The fantastic, colorfully painted tipi, offered by Reese Tipis as a prize, was won by Louise Abeyta of Westminster, Colorado. This successful fund raising event resulted in $550.00 being donated to the Candlelighters Foundation of Southern Colorado. Candlelighters Foundation of Southern Colorado thanks Reese Tipis and all who participated in the fund raising event for their generosity. 
Washita Massacre Documentary Film
World’s Best Tipis are featured in documentary film about historic Native American massacre. Colorado Springs-based company, Reese Tipis, set the stage for the re-enactment of the historic Washita Battle, being filmed in Colorado for the National Park Service’s Washita Battlefield National Historic Site. The rugged setting was Eagle's Nest Ranch, on the South Platte River near Greeley, where Reese Tipis set up Cheyenne-style tipis to create stunning visual effects for the film "Washita". The actual Washita Battle (we say massacre) took place in 1868 when Lt. Col. George A. Custer and the 7th U.S. Calvary attacked a Southern Cheyenne village. "Washita", the interpretive film, will be shown to park visitors to the historic battlefield located in Cheyenne, Oklahoma. Stephanie Two Eagles of the Colorado Film Commission was pleased that a local Colorado company provided the tipis as well as on-site support and consulting services for the film. Reese Tipis of Colorado Springs makes and sells "The World’s Best Tipis", historically accurate Native American lodges (also known as tipis). Tribal designs include Sioux, Cheyenne, Crow, Blackfoot, and other styles. The movie "Windwalker" featured their tipis due to their authenticity. Reese Tipis is also providing 63 lodges for a Canadian film production. The Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum purchased a tipi for their museum and the Smithsonian Institution purchased one tipi for their exhibit.
© 2001 - Frank Reese - All Rights Reserved.
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