|
|
Fun Facts
In 1936, with the idea of starting a ski area on nearby Mt. Hayden, Swiss ski racer André Roch conducted a land survey of the nearby Ashcroft area with plans to build a complete resort, but are thwarted by the outbreak of World War II. Aspen Mountain did open in 1946 when Lift 1 was open for skiing on December 14.
When the first chairlifts were built on Aspen Mountain in 1946, they were the longest and covered the most vertical of any lift system in the world.
The first FIS World Alpine Championships in North America were held in Aspen in 1950, giving Aspen international recognition as a world-class ski area.
Throughout Aspen Mountain's trees, you can find four hidden "shrines" made by locals in homage to John Denver, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and The Greatful Dead's, Jerry Garcia.
In 2004 Aspen Skiing Company and ESPN announced the Winter X Games will return to Aspen/Snowmass through in 2007, totaling seven consecutive years, marking the first time a city has hosted an X Games event (summer or winter) for more then two consecutive years.
Snowmass has the highest vertical rise of any ski area in the country with 4,406 feet. That's higher than three Sears Towers or four Eiffel Towers.
Snowmass is the second largest ski area in the country with 3,010 acres - 36 Disneylands could fit within the ski area boundaries.
Singer John Denver made Aspen his home and was inspired by the town's beauty when he wrote his 1972 world-recognized hit, "Rocky Mountain High."
Aspen is mentioned in more Hollywood films and TV shows than any other ski area in the industry --- Aspen Extreme, Dumb & Dumber, Vanilla Sky, South Park, Legally Blonde, Little Black Book, to name a few.
Aspen has six sister cities: Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany; Queenstown, New Zealand; Shimukappu, Japan; Chamonix, France; San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina and Davos, Switzerland.
The Aspen Institute was created by Walter Paepcke in 1950 as an ideal gathering place for thinkers, leaders, artists, and musicians from all over the world to step away from their daily routines and reflect on the underlying values of society and culture. The Aspen Institute events have attracted presidents, statesmen, diplomats, judges, ambassadors, and Nobel laureates over the years.
Aspen was originally named Ute City after the area's original residents, the Ute Indians. It was renames Aspen in 1880 by the first investors in the new mining camp.
Aspen was the first city in Colorado to experiment with hydro-powered electricity in 1885 using power generated for the silver mines. In 2004, Aspen Skiing Company introduced a micro-hydro power plant, a first in the ski industry, that uses the resort's existing snowmaking system to channel spring runoff through a turbine, generating electricity.
Aspen began using telephones to communicate from the mining offices in town to the mines on the mountains as early as 1886.
In 1887, Aspen became the first Colorado town to provide electricity to the whole of its population, totaling 8,000 at the time.
The Hotel Jerome in downtown Aspen had one of the first elevators west of the Mississippi. Hotel Jerome opened in 1889 and remains one of the premiere hotels in Aspen.
Wheeler Opera House when opened in 1889 was adorned with crimson velvet drapes, gold plush seats with Moroccan leather cushioned arms, an azure ceiling studded with silver stars appropriate for the silver mining town. Thirty-six electric light bulbs, contained in the elaborate chandelier, illuminated the room in an iridescent glow appropriate for such a magnificent theatre.
In the 1890s, Durant Avenue was known as the Red-Light District of Aspen.
West End Street is actually located on the east side of town. Today, the West End of town is some of the most desirable real estate in town.
In 1892 Aspen became the largest silver-producing district in the nation, supplying 1/6 of the United States' and 1/16 of the world's total silver. N 1893 U.S. Congress repeals the Silver Act, demonetizing silver and sending Aspen's economy into a downward slide.
The world's largest piece of silver weighing 1,840 pounds, was discovered in Aspen's Smuggler Mine and was featured at the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1893.
The original Silver Queen was actually a stature created by the citizens of Aspen for the 1893 Columbia World Exposition in Chicago. The purpose of the Silver Queen Statue was to renew interest in the need for the country to remain on a bi-metal money standard of gold and silver.
If you use a little imagination, when viewed from the eastern edge of the town of Aspen, Shadow Mountain appears to cast a silhouette of a reclining Ute Chieftain or The Silver Queen of Aspen. Today, you can ride the Silver Queen gondola to the peak of Aspen Mountain at 11,212 feet.
Independence Pass at 12,095 feet is the highest mountain pass in Colorado.
The first real road over Independence Pass was built in 1880-81 by B. Clark Wheeler, one of Aspen's most prominent boosters and businessmen. Using hand tools and manual labor, Wheeler's crews established a toll road along the route of the trail that had been used by mule trains over the years.
Aspen trees belong to the Poplar family of trees and are nicknamed "quakies" because of the sound they produce as the wind blows through them.
There are over 900 species found in Colorado and over 440 species of birds. There are at least seven species of hummingbirds alone found in the state. Other animals found in Colorado include black bears, elk, moose, deer, antelope, mountain lion, grizzly and black bears, coyote; rare birds such as the bald eagle, and native game fish such as the Colorado Squawfish, the Greenback Cutthroat and the Channel Catfish.
|
