Time Machine: 40 years ago, Gilman abandoned, looted

30 years ago

July 21, 1995

The Vail Trail, in a series of editorials, encouraged the Vail Town Council to get on with the Vail Commons development despite the criticism the council and the newspaper had received on the project. The development was set to add another grocery store and an employee housing complex to West Vail.

“From an arm’s length it seems unfair to encourage City Market to build next door to Safeway,” the Trail wrote. “Logic says one store will survive and one will not. And with stores from Eagle to Vail, (City Market) is in position for a monopoly.”

City Market was willing to accept a lease arrangement on the land, enabling the town to retain control of the property, and also agreed to finance the commercial and housing components of the project, making it an attractive partner for the town, the Trail wrote.

“No public funds will be sought to make the project happen,” the Trail wrote. “The project may not make sense from an arm’s length, but up close it was the best option.”

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Nevertheless, the Trail had been inundated with complaints about the project.

“If every phone call and on-the-street conversation we’ve had qualified as a letter, we’d need a space roughly the size of the proposed City Market — 55,000 square feet — to house all the protests, which assail in varying degrees of revulsion the idea of putting City Market next to Safeway — especially on Vail’s last large parcel of open land,” wrote Trail editor Tara Flanagan.

40 years ago

July 12, 1985

Pillaging of the buildings in Gilman had become a problem following the desertion of the town on June 30, 1985, the Vail Trail reported.

The Battle Mountain Corporation, which owned the town, cited low-quality water and high upgrading costs as the reasons for forcing the evacuation. The person who was subsequently hired to look after the property said after residents left, several boarded-up buildings had been broken into, including the town building, the maintenance building, the shaft house and the warehouse buildings.

“Locks were pried off lockers, files were rifled, and desk drawers were yanked open and strewn about,” the Vail Trail reported.

Two men were accused of stealing a 50-pound box containing between 100 and 150 sticks of dynamite from the New Jersey Zinc Mine at Gilman and later setting off the dynamite. The men were charged with possession and use of explosives, burglary and theft.

“The two men periodically ‘experimented’ with the dynamite in the Camp Hale area, blasting tree stumps and rocks,” the Vail Trail reported. “They stashed the box in an abandoned station wagon near the Tigiwon Lodge turnoff from U.S. 24 north of Gilman.”

50 years ago

July 25, 1975

Forest Chief John R. McGuire upheld Regional Forester W.J. Lucas’ designation of Beaver Creek as a winter sports site, allowing the development of the ski area to proceed.

Gov. Richard Lamm had requested that the designation be overturned and a 1-year moratorium placed on the Beaver Creek Management Unit, stalling the development temporarily.

McGuire decreed that a special use permit would not be issued before February 1976, which Lamm applauded, saying McGuire’s decision would “provide an additional period … and the vehicle of an additional Environmental Impact Statement, as further means to allow the State of Colorado the time and ability to evaluate the proposed development and hopefully resolve all our outstanding questions.”

Following the issuance of a permit in February, Vail Associates would next be required to prepare and present a development plan for approval prior to any work taking place on the ground, the Trail reported.

“The development planning is fairly well along,” said Dave Mott of Vail Associates’ Land Planning Department. “It’s our hope to begin construction in the spring.”

Mott estimated three summers would be needed before Beaver Creek could open, putting the estimated opening date at fall of 1979 “or possibly 1980,” the Trail reported. “The project will not be totally completed for 15-20 years.”