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5 days ago | 
aspentimes.com | Tim Willoughby
Aspen, like the rest of America, responded quickly to Pearl Harbor. Locals volunteered for service, supported causes like the Red Cross, reduced consumption of important war-related items like gasoline, and the mines ramped up production of lead and zinc. It is worthwhile to remind ourselves of what that generation contributed, the example they set for us to follow.
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1 week ago | 
aspentimes.com | Tim Willoughby
Last week, I wrote about a 1950s proposed ski area above Ashcroft in the Columbia Mining District. This week, I will describe what I learned from spending time there. In the 1880s, Aspen Country Day School was looking for a modification to its fall outdoor education trips. Grades 5-12 started the school year with backpacking trips. For a few years, instead of heading to a new location, we decided to have seventh and eighth graders build a cabin.
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2 weeks ago | 
aspentimes.com | Tim Willoughby
Aspen has four ski areas, but there could have been others. They are as wonderful as those you are familiar with, and the story of them is fascinating. The quintessential one was the Highland Bavarian plan from the 1930s with a Swiss Village base at Ashcroft. It would have had the greatest vertical drop and the longest runs. Designed by André Roch, the top lift would have ended on the ridge with Electric Peak (13,600).
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3 weeks ago | 
aspentimes.com | Tim Willoughby
Aspen is a small town with big-city stores. The transition took many years, but the results are overwhelmingly evident today. When longtime residents mourn the passing of the Aspen of the past, their explanation notes the contrast — but it is not just the kind of stores but the proprietors, as well. The first burst of changes took place in the 1960s when Aspen was growing faster than locals could keep up with.
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1 month ago | 
aspentimes.com | Tim Willoughby
I was checking the Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection and found reporting about the 1979 Deaf Camp Picnic. I was involved in part of what it reported — an interesting event in my life — but I left the event to go on vacation, so never read the Times’ accounts and the letters to the editor about that reporting.
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2 months ago | 
aspentimes.com | Tim Willoughby
Editor’s note: This column will be taking a three-week break, according to a note from Tim. So the next column will be for May 4. Resort towns thrive on seasonal jobs, and seasonal employees find ways to survive. Aspen has decades of experience fine-tuning the process. The following gives examples, beginning in 1955, focusing on the ski-season-to-summer transitions using help-wanted ads from four different years a decade apart. There was only one help-wanted posting in the May 26, 1955 Aspen Times.
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2 months ago | 
aspentimes.com | Tim Willoughby
Colorado fishing has been a major tourist draw for many years in several towns for far longer than skiing. Communities created contests to lure advocates to add to the fun, and Aspen was one of them. In the 1920s, Steamboat and Gunnison stood out. Steamboat had a fly-casting contest in 1926. In 1927, the Colorado Sportsmen Federation held the state fly casting championship in Gunnison, with Crested Butte being part of it. The event drew 1,500. Their events carried on into the 1930s.
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2 months ago | 
aspentimes.com | Tim Willoughby
As time goes by, some of the important contributors to the beginning of skiing in Aspen are forgotten — Percy Rideout is one of them. While he was only in Aspen for a few years, they were at a critical time. Rideout attended Dartmouth College, graduating in 1940. He was on the ski team and was elected captain his senior year. At that time, Dartmouth was the center of American skiing, and nearly all national team members were connected to it.
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2 months ago | 
aspentimes.com | Tim Willoughby
The nation was focused on President Carter’s bailout of Chrysler in January of 1980, but Aspen had more pressing and interesting items to focus on. It was Aspen’s centennial year, so organizers, led by Ramona Markalunas, created a theme for the celebrations, Aspen Centennial: A Century of Change. The kickoff event was Wintersköl. The coming Winter Olympics at Lake Placid also garnered attention.
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Mar 8, 2025 | 
aspentimes.com | Tim Willoughby
A recent book chronicling Aspen’s history repeated the mythology that Aspen’s mining industry tanked after the Panic of 1893. I find it important to repeat my annual attempt at ending the myth. There was more silver produced after 1893 than before. The Smuggler Mine went deeper, doubling the depth of its operations. The Midnight more than tripled its depth. Aspen’s three longest tunnels were started and completed after that year.
