Breckenridge
Breckenridge is one of the most popular mountain towns in Colorado-where else can you find 250 structures on the National Register of Historic Places, lodging capacity for 25,000 people, 3oo days of sunshine a year, over 100 restaurants, charming Victorian houses, a Cold Medal river (the Blue) that runs through town, and chairlifts that reach up to almost 13,ooo feet? It's so popular, in fact, that winter weekends can find the place overrun with ski -schoolers, Denver day-trippers, post-grad burger flippers on their mornings off, pro-snowboarders-in-training, families flocking from condos, and college students on pub crawls. Overrun, for the most part, in a dynamic and wonderful way: You get the sense that Breck is happening.
The Blue River Valley was one of the first places in the state to get gold fever. The shiny stuff was first discovered in 1859, and, in the usual mining-town pattern, a bar-the Gold Pan Saloon-opened its doors soon after (they're still open, by the way). Just a year later, 8.ooo miners had set up shop. General George E. Spencer, one of the first town builders, named the settlement after John Cabell Breckinridge, the vice president to James Buchanan, hoping to flatter the government into giving Breck a post office. It worked, and the first P.O. between the Continental Divide and Salt Lake City was established. But the original name didn't last long: The spelling was changed to Breckenridge after the independent town found out that their namesake opposed Lincoln's Civil War policy.
According to The Denver Post, Breck was known as the mining area that "turned out more gold with less work than any other camp in Colorado." The town's fame spread when a 13.5 pound gold nugget-dubbed Tom's Baby, after miner Tom Groves-was unearthed at the F'uller Placer Mine. But hindsight reveals another claim to fame: Breck was home to Methodist preacher Father John L. Dyer, the so-called "Snowshoe Itinerant," who carried mail, walked, and skied his way over passes and down valleys, spreading the gospel. Some maintain he was the first skier in the United States (but, unfortunately for proud locals, it isn't true)
Unlike some other mining towns, Breck went out with a whimper, not a bang. Gold, silver , lead, and zinc mining gradually slowed down, the population dwindled all the way down to 250, buildings were abandoned, huge dredging boats ruined the Blue River, fires tore through town, and in 1930 Breckenridge was left off maps of the United States- the closest it came to becoming a true ghost town. Speaking of maps, in 1936, residents learned retroactively that they hadn't been included in maps of the Louisiana Purchase there was a missing go-by-So-mile swath of land back when things were drawn up, so Governor Edwin C. Johnson took it upon himself to declare that Breck could be an "independent kingdom" for three days a year. Since then, "The Little Kingdom of Breckenridge" has been celebrated every August.
By the time the clock turned past 1960, fewer than 400 people called the Kingdom home, but change came almost overnight when the Kansas-based Rounds and Porter Lumber Company got a permit to build a ski area (they started on Peak 8, and now the area also includes 6, 7, 9, and 10). After a few months, 17,000 people had already paid the Blue Biver Valley a visit. And when the Eisenhower Tunnel opened in 1971-boring 1-70 through the Continental Divide and reducing the drive time from Denver to an hour and a half- Breck's popularity was sealed.
Okay, so maybe it helped that the ski area installed the world's first high-speed quad in 1981 and decided to allow snowboarding way back in 1984. Or maybe it's the debauchery that is Ullr Fest, the annual celebration of the Norse god of snow-who, according to lore, blesses the area with heaps of snow. Or the world-class mountain biking and hiking trails. Or the number of beers available at Downstairs at Eric's. Whatever it is, Breck is consistently one of the most-visited resorts in the U.S.-if not the most visited. A million and a half people can't be wrong.
The Blue River Valley was one of the first places in the state to get gold fever. The shiny stuff was first discovered in 1859, and, in the usual mining-town pattern, a bar-the Gold Pan Saloon-opened its doors soon after (they're still open, by the way). Just a year later, 8.ooo miners had set up shop. General George E. Spencer, one of the first town builders, named the settlement after John Cabell Breckinridge, the vice president to James Buchanan, hoping to flatter the government into giving Breck a post office. It worked, and the first P.O. between the Continental Divide and Salt Lake City was established. But the original name didn't last long: The spelling was changed to Breckenridge after the independent town found out that their namesake opposed Lincoln's Civil War policy.
According to The Denver Post, Breck was known as the mining area that "turned out more gold with less work than any other camp in Colorado." The town's fame spread when a 13.5 pound gold nugget-dubbed Tom's Baby, after miner Tom Groves-was unearthed at the F'uller Placer Mine. But hindsight reveals another claim to fame: Breck was home to Methodist preacher Father John L. Dyer, the so-called "Snowshoe Itinerant," who carried mail, walked, and skied his way over passes and down valleys, spreading the gospel. Some maintain he was the first skier in the United States (but, unfortunately for proud locals, it isn't true)
Unlike some other mining towns, Breck went out with a whimper, not a bang. Gold, silver , lead, and zinc mining gradually slowed down, the population dwindled all the way down to 250, buildings were abandoned, huge dredging boats ruined the Blue River, fires tore through town, and in 1930 Breckenridge was left off maps of the United States- the closest it came to becoming a true ghost town. Speaking of maps, in 1936, residents learned retroactively that they hadn't been included in maps of the Louisiana Purchase there was a missing go-by-So-mile swath of land back when things were drawn up, so Governor Edwin C. Johnson took it upon himself to declare that Breck could be an "independent kingdom" for three days a year. Since then, "The Little Kingdom of Breckenridge" has been celebrated every August.
By the time the clock turned past 1960, fewer than 400 people called the Kingdom home, but change came almost overnight when the Kansas-based Rounds and Porter Lumber Company got a permit to build a ski area (they started on Peak 8, and now the area also includes 6, 7, 9, and 10). After a few months, 17,000 people had already paid the Blue Biver Valley a visit. And when the Eisenhower Tunnel opened in 1971-boring 1-70 through the Continental Divide and reducing the drive time from Denver to an hour and a half- Breck's popularity was sealed.
Okay, so maybe it helped that the ski area installed the world's first high-speed quad in 1981 and decided to allow snowboarding way back in 1984. Or maybe it's the debauchery that is Ullr Fest, the annual celebration of the Norse god of snow-who, according to lore, blesses the area with heaps of snow. Or the world-class mountain biking and hiking trails. Or the number of beers available at Downstairs at Eric's. Whatever it is, Breck is consistently one of the most-visited resorts in the U.S.-if not the most visited. A million and a half people can't be wrong.
Ski Areas
