Tim Willoughby

Contributor at The Aspen Times

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Articles

Willoughby: A small town with big city stores

4 days 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.
Willoughby: The rest of the story …

1 week 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.
Willoughby: Seasonal jobs

1 month 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.
Willoughby - Fishing catching tourists, or tourists catching fish?

1 month 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.
Willoughby: Percy Rideout

1 month 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.
Willoughby: 1980 - A milestone year

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.
Willoughby: Tenacious town tackles tough times

2 months ago | 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.
Willoughby: Working in the cold

2 months ago | aspentimes.com | Tim Willoughby

We head to the mountain to ski. If it is very cold and it isn’t a powder day, we might arrive later, hoping it will be warmer. Do you ever think about the mountain employees laboring in the cold? There is cold, and there is COLD. We each have a different tolerance for it — what is freezing to some is just a normal winter day for others. Decades ago, I was on the chairlift on what to me was a dreadfully cold day, thinking of heading home.
Willoughby: Henry P. Cowenhoven - one of the most important Aspen pioneers

2 months ago | aspentimes.com | Tim Willoughby

The Wheeler and Jerome remind us of the legacy of Jerome Wheeler. On Galena Street, two of the dominant buildings attest to their creator, H.P. Cowenhoven. Cowenhoven spent his adult life involved in mercantilism and mining. He participated in the 1849 California Gold Rush, spending three years there. In 1859, he flocked to the bustling Colorado gold rush, landing in Black Hawk. There, he invested in mines and ran his mercantile business.
Willoughby: The magic of steam engines

2 months ago | aspentimes.com | Tim Willoughby

Real trains were a major mode of transportation for my parents. Many boys in my generation spent hours engaged with model trains. The next generation was mildly connected to them. More recently, popular toy trains were tied to the Thomas and Friends television series. Aspen in my youth still benefited from Denver & Rio Grande freight service. The depot, while not operating as such, was still there near where the library is now. The tracks ended upstream from there.