A glimpse of Vail’s past

VAIL ” The Gore Creek Valley has quickly gone from sheep pastures to mansions. Even the ski resort’s original buildings ” constructed in the ’60s ” have already grown tired, and they are being replaced in what is marketed as a “billion-dollar renewal.”

But look carefully among the explosive growth of the last 45 years and you can find hints of a history before the ski resort. There are still a handful of buildings in the valley that were here before Vail.

Gust Kiahtipes’ home is now the bus stop at Pitkin Creek in East Vail. Kiahtipes and his family herded their sheep in the summer on their 500 acres in the upper Gore Creek Valley starting in the early 1900s. In the fall they shipped out by train with their sheep from Minturn to their land in Price, Utah.

Minturn resident Lynn Kanakis, godson of Gust Kiahtipes, came to the valley in the mid-’50s to herd sheep with the Kiahtipeses. Kanakis said he spoke in Greek to the family and remembers herding up Pitkin Creek and fishing in Pitkin Lake with the Kiahtipeses.

“They were wonderful people,” he said.

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The family sold their land around the time Vail Mountain Ski Area was developed. Some of the developers of Breckenridge Ski Area bought the ranch.

The Baldauf ranch home still stands near its original location at the campus of Vail Mountain School. The home was built in 1906 by Charles Baldauf, and the school will hold a centennial celebration later this year. Baldauf farmed lettuce on the 500-acre ranch. The Baldaufs had a trained bear that entertained travelers along the old Highway 6, said Emily Tamberino, director of communications for Vail Mountain School. For a nickel, the bear would dance to the music of a squeeze box, Tamberino said.

In the 1930s, the Katsos and Kiahtipes families bought the ranch, after which it was used for sheep farming. The Katsoses and Kiahtipeses were partners at first and later

had separate ranches, Kanakis said.

Vail Associates bought the 500-acre Katsos ranch in 1960 for $75,000, according to Dick Hauserman’s book, “The Inventors of Vail.”

The cabin has been renovated a couple of times to restore it to near its original state, Tamberino said. It’s now used for some classes and special events, she said.

Henry Anholtz owned 160 acres, including where Ford Park is now. One of the buildings from the Anholtz ranch still stands boarded up in Ford Park near Betty Ford Alpine Gardens. A root cellar is nearby, also locked up. Across the creek, the Vail Recreation District Nature Center is housed in one of the original ranch buildings.

Anholtz owned a wheat farm in Kansas and was interested in mining here in the Gore Creek Valley. He found a partner and unsuccessfully tried to mine a spot near the current Vail Public Works facility, said Pete Burnett, a longtime Minturn resident and former longtime town of Vail employee.

Anholtz’s wife lived where the Nature Center is now, and Anholtz lived in the building across the creek, Burnett said.

“He and his wife didn’t get along very well,” he said.

Bob Ruder, who grew up in the valley, said he remembers going with his father to visit Henry Anholtz’s ranch. Anholtz wasn’t the most sociable person, Ruder said.

“I would never go down there alone because I thought he’d shoot you,” he said.

Reluctant at first, Anholtz traded away some of his land to Vail Associates in 1962, according to Hauserman’s book.

The one-room Gore Creek Schoolhouse was originally in West Vail behind where Safeway is now. It was moved to the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens, where it’s the gift shop for the gardens.

The school was built by parents in 1922 on land donated by Richard Elliott. School had previously been held in Elliott’s attic. The schoolhouse held classes from 1922 until 1938, when, with only four students, it closed. The original blackboard is still in the gift shop.

From 1938 until about 1962, it was used as a hut for sheep herders. The MacLeod family from Arvada bought the schoolhouse around 1962, remodeling it for use as a ski lodge. In 1972, the MacLeods sold the land and donated the schoolhouse to the town of Vail. It was then as a storage shed by the town for several years, and moved to Ford Park in the early 1980s to serve as the museum.

The cabin from the Pulis Ranch was built in 1941 on the current Cabin Circle near where the Vail golf course is now. J.B. and Caroline Pulis were Denverites who built the cottage on their 160-acre ranch. The Pulis family bought the ranch adjacent to the Anholtz property in 1940, and later worked out a long-term lease with the town of Vail that allowed the golf course to be built. The Pulis family sold off lots that would become golf-course-side properties.

The cabin was later moved to Meadow Drive in East Vail.

Jacob and Mary Ruder came to the Gore Creek Valley in 1887 and homesteaded 160 acres where the Intermountain neighborhood is now. The third home they built in the valley still stands just off the frontage road beside Gore Creek on the western end of Intermountain. It was probably built around 1915, said Bob Ruder, a current Vail resident who is the great-grandson of Jacob and Mary Ruder. The Ruders farmed lettuce, Ruder said. Jacob and Mary Ruder lived in that home until their deaths in the 1930s, and the last Ruder family to live in the home was Ralph and Bea Ruder and their three children, Ruder said. The family lived in the home and held onto the land until the early 1960s, when it was sold to a developer, Ruder said. Former Vail Town Councilman Chuck Ogilby has lived in the house since 1969 and has build several addition on to the house. One of the additions is an old cabin that was near the current East Vail I-70 interchange that Ogilby brought to West Vail.

Pauline and Henry Elliott built their cabin on their 160-acre homestead in 1912, said Jessie Edeen, a Vail resident who still lives on part of the old Elliott property. The Elliott home still stands in West Vail a few doors west of the Savory Inn. Pauline Elliott grew up just down the creek in the Ruder homestead. The Elliotts’ homestead encompassed land that is now Matternhorn and parts of northwest Vail. Over the years, the family logged, farmed lettuce and ran a dairy that produced milk for Camp Hale, Edeen said.

The old home is still a residence but is no longer owned by the Elliott family.

Bighorn Cabin, high up Bighorn Trail north of East Vail, is a kitchen and cook shack built in the late 1800s or early 1900s, said property co-owner Byron Walker. It is on a private, 71-acre silver claim that was mined by Walker’s grandmother and two

great-uncles at the turn of the century under the name Bighorn Mining Company.

Legend holds the family once shipped $50,000 worth of silver off the claim, Walker said. A bunkhouse and blacksmith shop sat on the property until the 1950s, after which the lumber making up those structures was hauled off or used as firewood. The family held onto the property for sentimental reasons, Walker said.

Staff Writer J.K. Perry contributed to this report.

Staff Writer Edward Stoner can be reached at 748-2929 or estoner@vaildaily.com.

Vail, Colorado