Time Machine: 40 years ago, landslide danger from Western Slope wet cycle

20 years ago

May 19, 2006

Seven years after the mysterious Earth Liberation Front purportedly set fire to Vail Mountain, four individuals were indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver, the Vail Daily reported.

Chelsea Gerlach and Stanislas Meyerhoff were in custody in Oregon awaiting trial on separate charges, while Josephine Overaker and Rebecca Rubin were believed to be outside the country, said Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Denver.

All four were facing eight counts of arson for the Oct. 19, 1998 arson attack, which destroyed Two Elk Lodge and ski patrol headquarters and damaged four chairlift structures. Vail Resorts estimated the damage at $12 million.

Two days after the incident, a group dubbed the Earth Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the fires, saying the expansion of ski terrain into Blue Sky Basin would ruin lynx habitat. The suspects charged in Denver were linked to the Earth Liberation Front, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.

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The suspects were facing 5 to 20 years in prison and/or $250,000 in fines for each count if convicted.

30 years ago

May 17, 1996

A Vail-based internet access company had amassed 700 users between Dillon and Eagle, and was growing at about 100 new customers per month, the Vail Trail reported.

The World Wide Web had more than 1 million websites at the time and was doubling every six months, the Vail Trail reported, with “the possibilities of technology” including “the notion of a virtual office” and “the speed and economy of email.”

Vail local Patrick O’Neil, a marketing specialist for a locally based company called InterNetWorks, predicted some possibilities for the internet of the future.

“We’ll be like George Jetson and Mr. Spacely — having videoconferences over Internet lines,” O’Neil said. “My parents will watch their grandchild’s first steps from 1,000 miles away.”

40 years ago

May 23, 1986

The Minturn Earthflows Task Force reported to the Eagle County commissioners that “conceivably, if Murphy’s Law prevailed, mudslides could end up causing the deaths of 3,100 people and damages of $1.7 billion,” the Vail Trail reported.

That sort of carnage was unlikely, the Trail added, but the task force reported that the threat to the Dowd Canyon area was real enough that it warranted further study.

A potential slide area along Whiskey Creek, two miles up Meadow Mountain, contained areas of unstable mass going down 150 feet to bedrock, the Trail reported, a landslide area which “dated to a much wetter climatic episode about 8,000 years ago,” the Trail reported.

Geologists had learned much about the area following the recent years of heavy runoff that had occurred, the Trail reported. A massive landslide had occurred three years earlier, dragging a grove of aspen trees across I-70 in Dowd Junction.

Quoting John Rold, director of the Colorado Geological Survey, the Trail reported that Western Colorado was still in a wet cycle, so landslide risk was elevated.

“When we get about five good years of dry weather we can quit worrying,” Rold said.

50 years ago

May 21, 1976

“Business owners in the Crossroads Shopping Center were squaring off against condominium and lodge owners regarding the pedestrianization of East Meadow Drive, the Vail Trail reported.

The merchants opposed the elimination of cars from the street, while the lodge and condominium owners favored the move.

“Although lauded by Vail Village Inn owner Joe Staufer, Kiandra-Talisman owner Bill Bower, the Crossroads and Village Centre Condominium Associations, the street closure plan is seen as a threat by many Crossroads Shopping Center merchants, particularly Village Market owner John Buxman and Wine and Liquor Shop owner Hemmie Westbye,” the Trail reported. “Westbye and Buxman argue their business is based on maximum vehicular exposure teamed with easy access and parking. Without these, which they feel the street closure plan would squelch, they fear business will drop significantly.”