Time Machine: 50 years ago, concerns over employee housing, too many people in Vail
30 years ago
Dec. 31, 1993
The Colorado Department of Transportation was considering a plan to connect the state’s ski resorts with an extensive train system, the Vail Trail reported.
“The system, if built, could one day link the resorts in such a way that skiers could use the train to travel from Aspen to Vail to Steamboat Springs to Winter Park and end their vacations in Denver,” the Trail reported. “The concept arose at an Aspen meeting of the CDOT’s Intermountain Regional Planning Commission. The planning is in the conceptual stage, with CDOT officials and consultants beginning their discussion of the system during the Christmas week.”
40 years ago
Jan. 6, 1984
Vail, Beaver Creek and many other ski areas in Colorado broke attendance records for the period through Dec. 31, the Vail Trail reported.
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Quoting Colorado Ski Country USA, the Trail reported that record numbers of skiers had flocked to Vail and Beaver Creek over the holiday season, netting a combined total of skier day numbers which was up 19 percent over the same Dec. 25 to Jan. 2 period from the year before.
“Vail Mountain posted a record of 113,750 skier days, compared to 100,625 for the same nine-day period last season,” said Grace Wezwick, a spokesperson for Ski Country USA. “At Beaver Creek, in its fourth year of operation, skier days shot up 49 percent over last year, the area’s previous record.”
Beaver Creek recorded nearly 32,450 skier days for the holiday season, compared to 21,800 for the same period from the year before.
“Company officials credited the increased skier numbers at Beaver Creek to record snowfall, increased number of beds and services in Beaver Creek Village, along with the opening of Larkspur Bowl and Chair 11,” the Trail reported. “Guest nights at Beaver Creek were also up 83 percent.”
50 years ago
Jan. 4, 1974
As Vail Associates unveiled a plan for 135 units on 10.4 acres located near Golden Peak, one person asked where the employees required for the project would live.
“Rob Buterbaugh raised the question of employee housing,” the Trail reported. “He noted the present housing squeeze, and guesstimated that V.A.I.’s project would generate some 30 maids.”
Buterbaugh emphasized the need for Vail Associates “to provide leadership in the direction of employee housing,” the Trail reported. “He expressed the hope that the corporation would see fit to follow Copper Mountain’s example of purchasing employee housing and then renting at a lower price.”
Architect Fitzhugh Scott said that if Vail Associates did not take the initiative on employee housing, no one would.
Meanwhile, an overabundance of guests in town proved to be problematic for the town’s sewer system, which was forced to send untreated sewage into Gore Creek as a means of compensating for the approximately 500,000 gallons of daily sewage that exceeded the treatment plant’s capacity.
“This over-flow problem at the treatment plant is not a new one,” the Trail reported. “For the past few years during Christmas, Easter, and other periods of high occupancy the treatment plant has just not been able to take care of all of the wastewater sent to it.”
The problem was getting more serious as plant capacity remained static while the number of available beds skyrocketed, the Trail reported.
“This year, for example, the number of beds in town has increased by about 1,000 over last year’s count of 7,552, according to the Vail Resort Association,” the Trail reported. “This means that the sewage treatment plant is faced with about 15,000 gallons per day more this year than last, or 25% of the plant’s capacity.”
At one point during the 1973 holiday season, all available beds were filled in town while more than 1,000 people found themselves stranded in Vail during a severe storm.
“The storm caused the closing of Vail Pass and many people traveling on the Interstate and many who were here for the day, found themselves unable to get back over the pass, and unable to book a room,” the Trail reported. “Although a couple of local residents did call the police department and offer their homes, the Vail Resorts Association did not think that step was necessary.”
The Vail Municipal Building offered refuge to 140 stranded high school students from Nebraska, the trail reported, and the Vail Jail also provided accommodations, which “turned out to be some of the best as free beds were available. Many other stranded people had to spend the night on floors, or couches.”
Among the guests in town was Vice President Gerald R. Ford, who was visiting on an annual family vacation.
60 years ago
Jan. 2, 1964
1963 brought a new outlook for the Minturn-Vail area of Eagle County, due substantially to the birth of nearby Vail Village, the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported.
“Vail Village has had an impact on Minturn,” the Enterprise reported. “Five years ago persons having property for sale kept the property, there was little market,” the Enterprise reported. “The picture is changed now, and the man with property to sell or rent is sitting pretty.”
The town of Minturn also initiated a $71,000 water project, which included two slow filter beds, a clear well and a chlorination system.
And the nearby water diversion project on Homestake Creek was expected to bring more business to Minturn and Red Cliff, as an estimated 350 employees would be in town in the coming year to work on the project.
Meanwhile, details of the proposed interstate highway between Dowd and Vail were set to be discussed at an upcoming meeting in Minturn.
70 years ago
Dec. 31, 1954
A Christmas Eve shooting left three people murdered and one person dead by suicide, the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported.
The dead included Kay Smith, 64, his stepson William Moore, 43, his stepdaughter Edna Copper Kessecker, 45, and his wife, Hattie Smith, who was hospitalized and later died.
The shooting occurred on Christmas Eve, shortly after Kessecker and Hattie Smith had arrived from Denver, the Enterprise reported.
“She was met at Minturn when she arrived by bus by her brother Mr. Moore in his pickup,” the Enterprise reported. “When they arrived in Gilman, they met Kay Smith, their stepfather, on the street. He got in the bed of the pickup and rode with them to his house where he got out and went inside. The others drove up the street to turn around to park in front of the Smith home. When they entered through the kitchen door, Mr. Smith had shot his wife.”
When her son went to her aid, he was shot, as well, and Kessecker was also shot before Smith died by suicide.
“Mr. Smith, employed in the mill of the Empire Zinc Company at Gilman, was described by his neighbors as a good-natured man and were shocked at the shooting,” the Enterprise reported. “Officials stated he had ‘gone berserk.’ Friends said he had seemed depressed during the day of the tragedy, and he was known to have worried over financial affairs.”
