34 years ago on March 31, a monumental avalanche wrote a tragic chapter in Aspen history
Category: History
Posted inHistory
Big mountain ski dream: Ski-Hayden was a pre-war vision of what could have been
Andre Roch exclaimed, “Immense schusses, where your face freezes and clouds of powder rise behind you, make the skier feel like a rocket.”
Posted inHistory
Pitkin’s boastful gulch
The first prospectors up Lincoln Creek in the early 1880s faced avalanches, unstable explosives, cave-ins, and odyssey-like distances to marginal medical care.
Posted inHistory
The rich life of Aspen Mountain miner Billy Zaugg
The last miner to live on Aspen Mountain, his life bridged the eras of mining and skiing
Posted inHistory
Aspen’s first international ski race in 1950: true grit versus miners’ mess
Tough terrain scarred by mining era tests ski racing elite at the 1950 FIS Alpine World Championships on Aspen Mountain
Posted inHistory
Aspen’s skiing history: an evolving timeline
In February 1880, B. Clark Wheeler ‘skis’ into town from Leadville on Norwegian snowshoes to complete the first survey of Ute City. He renames the town Aspen.
Posted inHistory
Finding the Silver Queen: the abundant manifestations of Aspen’s Victorian nickname
The original Silver Queen appellation was first coined in the 1880s by town pioneers who saw her reclining across West Aspen Mountain, now more commonly known as Shadow Mountain. Then came the silver statue, and the ski run.
Posted inHistory
Boys of summer: Baseball stoked the passions of early Aspen
During the 1880s the high number of hardy young men in town took to the new game, mirroring the rising popularity of the sport
Posted inHistory, Land Use, Wealth and Property
Portal into time: Mine owner wants to preserve Aspen Mountain history
The Compromise Mine on Aspen Mountain is the site of a historic reckoning between populists and Gilded Age capitalists
Posted inHistory
The Aspen Public Tramway: the first “bucket” on Aspen Mountain
The Aspen Public Tramway, rising from the bottom of Aspen Mountain to Tourtelotte Park, was a precursor to today’s Silver Queen Gondola, known by many locals as “the bucket.” The tramway, little known to local history buffs, was built to haul silver ore, but it also carried a few adventurous passengers.