Time Machine: Progress for the motoring public in Eagle County — 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 years ago

30 years ago

June 16, 1995

Vail’s famous four-way stop was in the process of being replaced by a roundabout. That, along with other construction projects in town, prompted the Vail Trail, in an editorial, to advise motorists to pack a sandwich if they’re driving through Vail.

“This may well be the worst summer of construction yet,” the Trail wrote. “With the roundabout project at the four-way, the Covered Bridge still being renovated, the Chapel Bridge being rebuilt, and various road projects taking place throughout the town.”

Town officials said the circle for the roundabout should be in use by the Fourth of July weekend.

“If there’s anything to learn from this summer, it’s that Vail has a threshold for road projects, and we’ve crossed far over the line,” the Trail wrote. “We need to remember the summer of 1995 when planning new road projects.”

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40 years ago

June 21, 1985

A parking task force appointed by the Vail Town Council made several recommendations, including building a new parking lot at Ford Park and disallowing Frontage Road Parking “until both the Vail Village and the LionsHead structure are filled,” the Vail Trail reported.

The council voted 5-2 in favor of implementing the suggestions. Council members Hermann Staufer and Gail Wahrlich disagreed with the Frontage Road parking restrictions, prompting them to vote against the recommendations.

“Both said they think that if guests want to go to Vail Village, they should not be forced to park in Lionshead,” the Trail reported.

Staufer said allowing parking on South Frontage Road at some times and not at others would be confusing for guests visiting Vail by car.

“One day he can park, one day he can’t park, one day he gets towed, another day he doesn’t,” Staufer said.

50 years ago

June 19, 1975

In a response to the state’s plan to build Interstate 70 along roughly the same route as U.S. Highway 6 through the Eagle River Valley, Eagle Town Board member Hal Koonce suggested the town draft a letter to the Colorado State Highway Commission voicing Eagle’s concerns with “the devastating effects of being by-passed by an interstate highway.”

Koonce said a significant portion of the town’s economic base “is derived from the motoring public as they stop and pass through town on the present highway,” and suggested the town should lobby the highway commission to build the portion of the proposed interstate that was set to run through Glenwood Canyon before the portion of the interstate that was set to run from Eagle to the east canyon entrance.

“Koonce argues that such an approach will give the town of Eagle an opportunity to re-align its economic base and thus be better prepared for the impact that will result when highway by-passes the town,” the Enterprise reported. “Some audience members noted that local restaurants and gas stations would be the first to suffer when I-70 by-passes Eagle.”

But council member Bud Eaton objected, saying he didn’t think writing a letter would be worth it.

“I don’t see where the impact will be so bad,” Eaton said. “People will still stop.”

60 years ago

June 17, 1965

After the Eagle Valley Enterprise published an editorial calling for Eagle County to create proper “oiled” roads in Vail, a former county commissioner responded, saying the county has not only “a moral obligation but also a legal obligation to grant such services as street and road maintenance and construction of bridges.”

“I join with you in urging our county commissioners to extend their services to this very important area of Eagle County,” wrote former County Commissioner Vincent Eichler. “Let’s get behind Vail and support its goals. We are proud to welcome and recognize such an important facet of our county.”

The editorial that prompted Eichler to write to the paper referenced an upcoming 10th Mountain Division reunion in Vail, saying the visiting veterans “may think they are back in the muddy battlefields of Italy” due to the condition of the roads in Vail.

70 years ago

June 16, 1955

George M. Combs of Steamboat was assigned by the State Highway Department to supervise a $217,000 grading job between Toponas and Gore Pass on State Highway 84, the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported.

Gore Pass road was first built in 1854 for Anglo-Irish aristocrat Sir St. George Gore. The road was a foot path used by Native Indigenous Tribes and was widened so the Gore Party could transport over the Continental Divide the wagons that serviced Gore’s Western United States hunting expedition. The Rocky Mountain News, in 1920, called it “the pass by which white men first entered the great country of northwest Colorado.”

The grading project on the Gore Pass section of State Highway 84, which was set to begin in June of 1955, also included the installation of structures, one of which was a plaque to recognize Gore’s passage through the area.