Editorial: Keeping Minturn’s charm

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Vail Daily Editorial Board
Vail CO, Colorado
May 7, 2008

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Minturn has never enforced its nuisance law, which is meant to get residents to remove junk from their yards. The town says it’s going to enforce the law this spring, and that residents who don’t get ride of the old, broke-down cars in their yards could face hefty fines.

Some say the piles of hardware and machinery — and the live-and-let-live attitude that allows yards to become so cluttered — is part of Minturn’s small-town character; the reason residents prefer it to more buttoned-up neighborhoods like Vail and Beaver Creek.

After all, Minturn has more history behind it than Vail or Beaver Creek — and Avon and Edwards — combined. Indeed, Minturn serves as a gateway of sorts to the valley’s pre-resort past, when trains and mines were the economic engines.

But the Turntable diner doesn’t need a yardful of junk to give it its charm. It’s the people who work there, the old Battle Mountain High School pictures on the walls and the Mexican-influenced menu — a combination that’s hard to find in Vail Village or Beaver Creek. That’s not a knock on the resorts’ restaurants, but if you want to eat a breakfast burrito in your pajamas, you’re probably not going to Bridge Street.

And we don’t think removing bath tubs and washing machines from people’s front yards will sap the town’s identity. We also don’t think the town enforcing its nuisance law means Minturn is at risk of losing its laid-back atmosphere.

We support the town enforcing its nuisance law and cleaning up some of the worst yards. Because the rest of us in the valley also want to hold onto one of the few links to our region’s past.