Time Machine: 60 years ago, Vail-area prepares to open its first golf course
Vail Trail/Vail Daily archive
30 years ago
May 31, 1996
A new “Share the Road” campaign had been undertaken by the Colorado Department of Transportation, with new signs alongside Highway 6 in EagleVail installed as a result of a recent Colorado statute granting cyclists the same rights and responsibilities as motorists on state roads.
“The signs are part of a two-year study on Colorado Highways 6, 40, 72, 93 and 105, and if officials feel the signs communicate the message of road sharing, the signs may be used nationwide,” the Vail Trail reported.
Meanwhile, in Vail, a debate over free parking was heating up, with some merchants arguing that village parking should be free all year long instead of summers only.
The Vail Trail, quoting Town Manager Bob McLaurin, reported that a loss of the $2 million the town collected in annual parking revenues would require the town to come up with replacement funds for maintenance and other bills, and would also encourage locals to clog up the structures each day.
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“Even if we had the financial ability to make parking free, I’m not sure we’d want to do that,” McLaurin said.
40 years ago
May 30, 1986
Two years after a mudslide hit High Street in Red Cliff, the Colorado Geological Survey said while there were still several masses of unstable earth on the hillside north of the town, a reasonably priced mitigation effort could provide a high degree of safety, the Vail Trail reported.
The slide from May of 1984 brought mud onto High Street which then “dribbled down the road into town, occasionally slopping over the road and down onto the backyards of people living along Water Street,” the Trail reported. “The Geological Survey took a look at the hills around the town last year, and in November reported a new unstable mass of earth that potentially could slide. That report prompted hand-wringing and footshuffling about what to do. Finally, the county commissioners asked Gov. Dick Lamm for help, and he gave $3,600 to pay for the recent study that resulted in the mitigation proposal.”
The proposal involved a series of rock-and-earth berms to be built in the mudslide paths along roads into the town, deflecting the velocity of the mud.
“Guiding walls along the roads would then direct it down the hill, toward Turkey Creek and the center of town,” the Trail reported.
50 years ago
June 4, 1976
A $450,000 lawsuit was filed against Vail Associates following the Vail gondola accident earlier that season, The Denver Post reported.
It was the first lawsuit that had been filed in connection to the incident.
The suit claimed Vail Associates “must prove it was not guilty of negligence, and accuses the company of a violation of Colorado’s passenger tramway safety statute,” The Post reported.
The March 26 accident occurred after an exterior sheath around a track cable frayed, causing two cabins to fall to the ground, killing four and injuring eight others while two additional cars collided and hung suspended in the air above, requiring the commencement of a daring rescue.
“After tending to the fallen cars, the ski patrol began a rescue operation for the more than 200 skiers who were stranded in the remaining gondola cars,” the Vail Trail reported. “18 ski patrolmen, 7 trail crew members, 25 ski school instructors and ski school supervisors and 9 snow cat drivers assisted in evacuating the rest of the skiers.”
60 years ago
June 3, 1966
A new Vail golf course would be available for play later that summer after Joe Ward, also assistant ski lift supervisor at Vail, had started work on the Vail course in the summer of 1965, the Vail Trail reported.
“The sporty course, with 3,480 total yardage, will open with 9 holes of a planned eighteen,” the Trail reported. “According to Ward, the average golfer’s drive will be lengthened 20 to 30 yards at Vail, due to the thin air at high altitude.”
Vail now offered “a 2-mile long aerial cable car ride, tennis courts, riding stables, heated swimming pools, trout fishing, jeeping, ten lodges, continental restaurants, shops, and the complete facilities of a summer vacation community,” according to the Trail. “Starting at the East end of Vail Village, the course extends one-half mile up Vail Valley parallel to rushing Gore Creek. The first interesting hazard is a small lake on Number 2 hole. From an elevated lee, the 615 yd. Number 3 hole crosses another water hazard and ends on a green, which was once a beaver pond. Par for the nine holes is 35. Future plans call for a club house to be situated in the middle of the course, upon completion of the projected 18 holes.”
In anticipation of the September completion, a driving range will be in operation at the site of the No. 1 tee, the Trail reported.
“Superintendent Ward says the excellent local soil conditions have kept course progress on schedule,” the Trail reported. “The verdant expanse of greens and fairways will be maintained by a complete underground irrigation system.”
