---
title: "About Us | Secret Creek"
url: https://secretcreek.com/about-us
description: "Since 1976 Secret Creek has handcrafted premium yurts, tipis, and tents in Montrose, Colorado. Discover our story, values, and five decades of outdoor innovation."
lang: en
---

Proudly celebrating 50 Years of Colorado Yurts, Earthworks Tipis and Destination Tents

970.240.2111

Contact Us: https://secretcreek.com/contact-us
Login: https://secretcreek.com/admin

# Secret Creek

About our legacy · 1976 – 2026

## About Secret Creek & Our Legacy

Secret Creek's story began in 1976, when Dan and Emma Kigar made their home in a tipi high in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. What started as a personal way of living quickly grew into Earthworks Tipis, then expanded to artistically-engineered yurts and rugged canvas wall tents under the Colorado Yurt Company name — building a five-decade reputation for craftsmanship rooted in Western Colorado.

### A New Chapter: John & Kelly Gibson

In 2020, Dan and Emma handed the reins to John and Kelly Gibson, longtime admirers of the company's craft and culture. John and Kelly took ownership with a clear commitment: honor the legacy the Kigars built, protect the jobs and artistry of the Montrose team, and invest in the next fifty years of the company.

Under their leadership, the company has been reimagined from the ground up — modernizing the shop floor, expanding the product line, deepening relationships with commercial partners across glamping, hospitality, and outdoor education, and building a digital experience worthy of a brand customers have trusted for generations.

### From Colorado Yurt Company to Secret Creek

The transformation to Secret Creek reflects what the company has become: still the home of Colorado Yurts, Earthworks Tipis, and Destination Tents, but now part of a broader vision that includes hands-on retreats, a working showcase property, and a community of builders, dreamers, and outdoor hosts who share our values.

The Secret Creek name pays tribute to the wild Colorado places that inspired Dan and Emma in 1976, while signaling a new era of innovation — smarter engineering, better materials, refined design, and a renewed focus on the customer experience from first conversation to final installation.

### What Stays the Same

Every yurt, tipi, and tent is still designed and fabricated by proud craftspeople in Montrose, Colorado. We still answer the phone. We still build to last. And we still believe the best structures are the ones that bring people closer to each other and to the land.

Fifty years in, with John and Kelly at the helm, we're prouder than ever to be called Secret Creek.

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