Time Machine: 50 years ago, state’s largest firefighting effort underway in White River National Forest

30 years ago

Oct. 13, 1995

Hearings were held on a plan to develop the Adam’s Rib golf course in Eagle with nearly 900 residential units, hotels, employee housing and 20,000 square feet of commercial space.

Fred Kummer, who owned the Brush Creek Valley land in the Adam’s Rib proposal, defended the project’s size in front of the Eagle County Board of Commissioners, the Vail Trail reported.

“We’re not talking about a thousand units in the next thousand days,” Kummer said. “We’re talking about over a long period of time. We created it so you people could make logical decisions about the development of the land.”

Citizens expressed concerns with the project.

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“The Adam’s Rib revised golf course plan does not meet current proposed master plan criteria in the areas of development, water use, housing and open space,” said Susie Kincade, a member of Concerned Citizens of Eagle County. “But most importantly, it does not involve developing adjacent to an existing city center. This is a city plopped down in the middle of the valley that does not have anything to do with Eagle.”

40 years ago

Oct. 18, 1985

A Gypsum pilot and three elk hunters from Michigan were killed in a plane crash 25 miles northwest of Dotsero, the Vail Trail reported.

The single-engine plane encountered bad weather, with some reporting that a snow squall had reduced visibility to 200 yards when the crash occurred.

The pilot, 35-year-old James Reynolds, of Gypsum, may not have been prepared to fly in compromised visibility using only his instrument panel, the Vail Trail reported.

“Reynolds was not an instrument-rated pilot, which means that he needed three miles of visibility to fly,” the Trail reported. “The skies over the Eagle County Airport that morning were merely overcast, but the area where the plane crashed is at about the 11,000-foot elevation, or nearly 3,500 feet higher than the airport, and there are no reliable weather reporting stations on mountain peaks.”

Quoting Verlin Tranter, an investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, the Trail reported that Reynolds got caught in bad weather.

“He was a pretty experienced pilot,” Tranter said. “The weather just caught up with him.”

50 years ago

Oct. 17, 1975

The Red Dirt fire, burning in the White River National Forest, was reported as contained after consuming 4,438 acres.

The blaze was called “the largest forest fire ever fought in Colorado’s history” by the Vail Trail, which covered the effort to get the blaze under control.

“Forest Service officials suspect that the fire was caused by man and there is an investigation of hunter camps near the origin underway at the present time,” the Trail reported.

There was no injury to anyone on the fire line, nor to hunters, horses, or wildlife, the Trail reported, quoting Erik Martin, public information officer for the Forest Service.

“The fire burned into an area where there were an awful lot of hunters and crossed the road, creating a dead-end for a time,” Martin said. “It’s just awfully fortunate that people weren’t hurt.”

60 years ago

Oct. 16, 1965

The opening of elk hunting season brought an estimated 150,000 hunters afield stalking elk and other game in Colorado, the Vail Trail reported.

“Top-flight action should be in the offing for deer and elk hunters in northwest Colorado,” the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported. “Deer and elk are in the best condition they have been in for several years because of the excellent crop of grass and forage in the high country.”

Elk were occupying lower-elevation locations due to a storm that dumped 6 to 18 inches of snow in the high country, the Enterprise reported.

“Most of the snow has since melted but has left many high roads impassable,” the Enterprise reported. “Hunters will probably not be able to get their vehicles as high this year as in the past.”

Evans said the deer and elk are in the best condition they have been in for several years because of the excellent crop of grass and forage in the high country.