Page 14 - Winter Park 75 Years

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CHAPTER ONE
A wagon on the deep snow of Berthoud Pass. GCHA
Following the opening of the Berthoud Pass Wagon Road, the Colorado Territorial Legislature created
Grand County and a post office was established in the county seat of Hot Sulphur Springs in 1874. During
the long snowy winters, the road was closed to horse and wagon, yet the mail route had to be maintained. Consequently, several days a week the mail would be carried by pack and ski between Georgetown and Hot Sulphur Springs via Berthoud Pass, approximately sixty miles. Bill Kimball was most notable in this occupation. In the winters of 1875–76, Kimball carried the mail on
his Norwegian snowshoes solo between Georgetown and Hot Sulphur Springs, carrying a pack that regularly weighed between 70 and 105 pounds. Most mail carriers did this feat in tandem at the time, trekking the journey between Georgetown and Hot Sulphur Springs for thirty years, until the railroad and telegraph lines arrived into Grand County in 1905.
In 1883 the first known recreational skiing event took place in Grand Lake. According to Mary Lyons Cairns in Grand Lake in Olden Days, County Clerk M. C. Jahren from Scandinavia introduced the enjoyment and convenience of Norwegian snowshoes to the community. Quoting the Grand Lake Prospector newspaper from January
25, 1883, Cairns wrote, “Coasting on snowshoes has taken the place of dancing parties. Quite a number of our ladies are becoming adept in the art. For first class snowshoers, B. W. Towner and Max James are the best; at least they can fall more gracefully than the rest.”
Wintertime recreation in Grand Lake epitomized the way snowbound miners and townspeople passed the time in isolated areas of Colorado’s high country in the 1880s. Local winter sporting events took place
in mining enclaves throughout Colorado’s Rocky Mountains in places such as Irwin, Crested Butte, Aspen,