In 1876, the year Colorado became a state, the Rocky Mountains stood mostly untouched. There were no lifts, lodges, or roads carved into the high mountain passes. The state was a new frontier of plains, river camps, mining towns, and people with the pioneering spirit and grit to build something lasting out of all of it.
This year, as Colorado marks 150 years of statehood, we’re looking back at how five of those frontier towns became the signature resort communities that attract residents and visitors from around the world.
According to the Grand County Historical Association, the town of Winter Park began as a construction camp for workers building the Moffat Tunnel through the Continental Divide. The tunnel connected the eastern and western slopes of the Rocky Mountains, providing safe railroad access over an otherwise treacherous, high-altitude mountain pass.
By 1929, Denver ski enthusiasts took the train west, strapping on narrow, straight planks of hickory or ash, and riding down the mountain with only wool knickers and leather jackets to keep them warm. In the summer, hunters and fishermen rode the rails to the area’s pristine outdoor playground.
In 1932, a pioneer and small-business owner named Linus Oliver “Doc” Graves moved to Grand County, where he operated drug stores and helped found the area that became known as Hideaway Park. There, he and his family built cabins, a cafe, and a service station to host the city slickers who rode in. Meanwhile, a City of Denver parks and improvements employee, George E. Cranmer, shared his dream of building a European-inspired ski area, and in 1938, the U.S. Forest Service granted permission to the City and County of Denver to develop the land into a resort.
Hideaway Park grew to accommodate the influx of visitors and officially opened the ski resort on January 31, 1940. The price of a ticket was $1.00.
Years later, Denver Mayor Benjamin Stapleton pushed for a rebranding of the resort, and in 1978, the name was changed to Winter Park. Today, outdoor enthusiasts still ride the train through the Moffat Tunnel, and Winter Park’s ski trails carry the names of pioneers like Cranmer, who helped shape the community and its resort.
Breckenridge was founded in 1859 as a gold-mining camp along the Blue River. As the gold supply was depleted, miners and their families moved on, taking the town from boom to bust. World War II halted all mining operations, and by the 1950s, Breckenridge became a virtual ghost town with a population of under 300 residents.
In the late 1950s, Bill Rounds, a Wichita-based lumber company executive, began building small cabins on the thousands of acres his family had purchased for lumber and development in and around Breckenridge. In the summer months, Rounds and his team would construct the cabins and sleep at the Colorado House (now Fatty’s) during the week, and then commute to Aspen on the weekends. In the winter, Rounds skied Aspen Highlands, where he met Norwegian Olympic skiers Trygve Berge and Sigurd Rockne. With his vision for a ski area taking shape, he invited them to Summit County to take a look.
In the winter of 1961, a friend drove Rounds and Rockne to the top of Peak 8 in a military weasel. Peering out over the untouched snow, they knew this would be the perfect terrain for a ski resort. Together, they formed an organization called the Summit County Development Corporation, and under the leadership of Claude Martin and Bill Starks, they secured a U.S. Forest Service permit to build.
On December 16, 1961, Peak 8 opened to the public. For $10, you could reserve a ski lesson with Berge and Rockne, quite a discount for instruction from two Olympians.
Before Vail became a world-renowned destination for its 5,300 acres of skiable terrain, Bavarian-inspired pedestrian villages, and luxury hotels, restaurants, and shops, it was hunting and camping grounds for the Ute tribe.
During the westward expansion of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, eastern and midwestern pioneers migrated to the area to farm, log, and raise livestock. By the 1920s and 1930s, ranchers produced cash crops, including a high-altitude head lettuce that was shipped across the country via the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad.
It wasn’t until 1957 that the mountain was first recognized as a potential ski resort by 10th Mountain Division soldiers who had trained for high alpine combat at the nearby Camp Hale. After returning from the war, veteran Pete Seibert and a local rancher named Earl Eaton hiked to the top of what is now known as Ptarmigan Ridge and gazed out over the future legendary Back Bowls. In Seibert’s memoir, “Vail: Triumph of a Dream,” he described the view as “the most mind-blowing landscape of all: a series of bowls stretched to the horizon, a virtually treeless universe of boundless powder, open slopes, and open sky.”
They would call the mountain “Vail” after Charlie Vail, the chief engineer of the Colorado Highway Department, who had been pivotal in designing US Highway 6, facilitating the transport of concrete, building supplies, and resort infrastructure from Denver to Vail over the steep and winding Vail Pass.
Vail Mountain officially opened to the public on December 15, 1962, with one gondola, two chairlifts, and nine ski runs. Today, the mountain boasts 32 lifts and over 275 trails. Two quaint yet luxurious mountain villages welcome après skiers to the base, and while the area has seen exponential growth in the last 60 years, it still embraces its legacy of pioneerism and a genuine love of alpine adventure.
What began as an Indigenous homeland would later become a coal mining and ranching hub before being transformed into a world-class ski and winter sports destination.
Incorporated in 1880, Crested Butte coal mines were the most productive in Colorado, but when the mines closed in 1952, industry left the area as did most of the population. However, at 9,375 feet, Crested Butte was built for winter sports. People started skiing in the Gunnison Valley as a popular form of winter transportation brought over by the European miners.
Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) traces its origins to December 1960, when Kansas-born architect Dick Eflin and his friend, Fred Rice, purchased the Malensek Ranch on the north flank of what would become Mount Crested Butte. The resort opened for its inaugural 1961-62 season on Thanksgiving Day with only a T-bar to pull skiers up the mountain. It wasn’t until 1963 that a gondola was added, the second one built in the state.
While the ski area struggled to stay open during its first decade in business, 1977 was a turning point as new ownership, improvements, and a new name, CBMR, helped put the ski area on the map. Known as the Callaway-Walton era after Howard “Bo” Callaway and Ralph Walton, the CBMR expanded over 1,100 acres and brought more than $100 million in total improvements. They sold the resort to the Mueller family in 2004 before Vail Resorts acquired the mountain in July 2018.
Today, the resort spans 165 named runs, including Rambo, the steepest lift-serviced cut tree run in the lower 48. 15 lifts and a parallel reputation as a mountain biking destination, with over 30 miles of lift-served summer trails, make Crested Butte a year-round destination.
Telluride’s transformation from fading mining town to ski destination began in 1968, when Joe Zoline, a Chicago-based corporate lawyer, visited the town on the advice of a friend from Aspen. He immediately saw its potential as a ski area and was able to acquire 4,200 acres while Telluride was becoming a shadow of its mining-era self, and the population had dwindled to below 500. Zoline hired French Olympic skier Emile Allais to consult on the mountain’s design and layout. He then enlisted the help of local skiers Bill “Senior” Mahoney and Ed Bowers to help turn the vision into a reality.
Ground broke in 1971 with all five of the original double chairlifts being built in a single year, something that hadn’t been attempted by a new ski area in the U.S. The Telluride Ski Area officially opened on December 22, 1972. Opening day featured free skiing, followed by half-price tickets the next day, with five lifts serving 23 runs. Eventually, Zoline sold the resort to Benchmark Companies (BC) in 1978, which pushed Telluride toward the world-class ski area it is today.
As Telluride sits within a box canyon with one road in, the geography that made mining fail is what made skiing succeed. With the help of Mahoney and Bowers, BC added chairlifts, revamped snowmaking, built on-mountain dining, and broke ground on what would become Mountain Village, all while pushing to have Telluride Regional Airport built. In 1996, the free gondola opened, connecting the historic Victorian town with Mountain Village. The resort has expanded steadily since, today spreading across 2,000 acres of terrain with 148 runs.
From Winter Park to Telluride, the grit mountain folk are known for has become a legacy of world-class living. As Colorado marks 150 years of statehood, its resort towns stand as proof that the boldest visions can turn open wilderness into global destinations. And for those lucky enough to call these places home, that same pioneering spirit is still very much alive.
A special thank you to the Colorado Snowsports Museum and Hall of Fame for providing the amazing photos of yesteryear.