Entry No. 20 — the Denver file — filed under: hidden-landmark

The Shakespeare Elm

In the southeast corner of City Park stands an ordinary-looking elm that is secretly a piece of Shakespeare. It was planted on April 23, 1916, exactly 300 years to the day after the playwright died, grown from a cutting taken off the elm at his grave in Stratford-upon-Avon. A small bronze plaque at the base is the only thing marking it, so thousands of joggers and dog-walkers pass it every week with no idea what it is. It has outlived the Dutch elm disease that killed most of its neighbors.

The move: Make a low-stakes scavenger hunt of it: hunt down the unmarked tree near 17th & Colorado Blvd using only the plaque clue, then sit under it and read each other a sonnet off your phone before walking deeper into the park.

📍 Before you go It hides in the southeast corner of City Park, roughly off E 17th Ave near Colorado Blvd — there's no signage beyond a low bronze plaque at the base, so treat finding it as the challenge and scan the trunks rather than looking for a marker. Go leaf-on, spring through fall, when the canopy actually reads as a tree worth the trip; bare winter branches make it easy to walk right past. It's free, open, and shared with joggers and dog-walkers, so you're on public ground. City Park is vast: pair the hunt with Ferril Lake's skyline-and-mountains view or the Denver Museum of Nature & Science along the park's east edge. Hours shift seasonally — check ahead.

• 📍 City Park
• 💸 Free
• ⚡ Low-key
• 🌗 Outdoors

Where: Southeast corner of City Park, near E 17th Ave & Colorado Blvd, Denver, CO 80205 (look for the small plaque at the base)

Hours: Outdoors in a public park; accessible during park hours (roughly dawn to 11pm). Easiest to find leaf-on, spring through fall.

Plan a visit & invite your people →

Further reading: Westword · denverbyfoot.com · kdvr.com

last checked: 2026-06-07