Snowmass Village, Colorado
Encyclopedia
Snowmass Village is a Home Rule Municipality in Pitkin County
, Colorado
, United States
. The population was 1,822 at the 2000 census
. A popular winter resort location for skiing
and snowboarding
, the town is best known as the location of the Snowmass ski area
, the largest of the four nearby ski areas operated collectively as Aspen/Snowmass
; however, in 2010 the accidental discovery by a bulldozer operator of fossilized elements of a Pleistocene
ecosystem in the ice age lakebed at the Ziegler Reservoir put Snowmass prominently on the paleontological map of North America.
According to the United States Census Bureau
, the town has a total area of 25.6 square miles (66.3 km²), of which, 25.5 square miles (66 km²) of it is land and 0.1 square mile (0.258998811 km²) of it (0.35%) is water.
Snowmass Village is to the north and at the base of the Snowmass Ski Area
. It is on Brush Creek, not on Snowmass Creek, and takes its name from the ski area. Within the area of the town, Owl Creek and Brush Creek confluence then flow north into the Roaring Fork River
.
Visible from the village from east to west is: Burnt Mountain Ridge, Burnt Mountain, Baldy Mountain
, Chapel Peak, Garret Peak, Clark Peak
, Mount Daly
, and Capitol Peak
. Neither Snowmass Mountain
nor Snowmass Peak
, at the headwaters of Snowmass Creek, are visible from Snowmass Village.
The rock of the Snowmass Village area is predominantly Mancos Shale
. On south-facing slopes, this alkaline soil supports Gambel oak
, Sagebrush
, Serviceberry
, and Chokecherry
. The north-facing slopes feature Aspen
, Subalpine fir
, Douglas fir, Engelmann spruce
, and Blue spruce
.
Snowmass Village and adjacent Wildcat have a huge population of black bear
s which feed on the acorns and berries of the south-facing slopes.
in the 1800s. After a school was built in Brush Creek, she attended school at the Brush Creek Frontier School, now called the Little Red Schoolhouse, located on Owl Creek Road. She became a teacher at that school and then at the Red Brick School in Aspen
. At the schoolhouse, she would play the accordion or piano for community dances. When she married Bill Anderson, the Hoaglund Ranch became the Anderson Ranch.
Paul Soldner
, a ceramic artist noted for developing American Raku
, established a studio in the Anderson Ranch buildings in 1966. In 1968, he founded the Anderson Ranch Art Center and it incorporated in 1973. The Anderson Ranch Art Center on Owl Creek Road uses many of the original buildings from the Hoaglund Ranch, although not in their original location, farther down stream on what is now Snowmass Club Circle.
Under the leadership of Bill Janss
and DRC Brown, the American Cement Company developed Snowmass Village as a ski resort starting in 1966. * Hayfields were subdivided and the lots sold for houses. Brush Creek is an unappealing name for a ski area, so they named the resort Snowmass after the valley to the west of Brush Creek. Fritz Benidict acted as the architect of the Snowmass ski area. The west part of ski area, Campground, actually does extend into the Snowmass Valley. Five chairlifts were installed: Fanny Hill, Burlingame, and Sam's Knob, the Big Burn, and Campground. Brush Creek Road was paved in 1968. The former hayfield still had mostly alfalfa into the 1970s. The Snowmass Golf Course was first laid out with nine holes in (need date). It was expanded and redesigned several times (need dates), the latest in 2001 by James Engh. The periodic re-landscaping of the golf course led to the relocation of ranch houses and to changes in the valley floor from flat or sloping fields to rolling hills with ponds.
The Snowmass Wildcat Fire Protection District was founded in 1971 and the firehouse built on Owl Creek Road.
Notorious serial killer Ted Bundy
abducted and murdered victim Caryn Campbell in Snowmass on January 12, 1975.
In 1977, the community incorporated as the Town of Snowmass Village.
The Snowmass Chapel was built near the firehouse on Owl Creek Road in 1988. Previous to this time, church services were held in the Optigon Movie Theatre or in the open air Aspen Grove Chapel, located at what is now condominiums off Wood Road.
of 2000, there were 1,822 people, 864 households, and 393 families residing in the town. The population density
was 71.5 people per square mile (27.6/km²). There were 1,734 housing units at an average density of 68.0 per square mile (26.3/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 97.37% White, 0.16% African American, 0.05% Native American, 0.71% Asian, 0.66% from other races
, and 1.04% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.63% of the population.
There were 864 households out of which 19.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.1% were married couples
living together, 2.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 54.4% were non-families. 36.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 2.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.09 and the average family size was 2.74.
In the town the population was spread out with 15.8% under the age of 18, 7.6% from 18 to 24, 41.6% from 25 to 44, 28.7% from 45 to 64, and 6.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 128.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 132.4 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $57,059, and the median income for a family was $86,338. Males had a median income of $40,625 versus $37,500 for females. The per capita income
for the town was $35,224. About 1.7% of families and 4.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.5% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.
Pitkin County, Colorado
Pitkin County is one of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. The county is named in honor of the late Colorado Governor Frederick Walker Pitkin. The county population was 14,872 at U.S. Census 2000. The county seat is Aspen...
, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The population was 1,822 at the 2000 census
United States Census, 2000
The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...
. A popular winter resort location for skiing
Skiing
Skiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....
and snowboarding
Snowboarding
Snowboarding is a sport that involves descending a slope that is covered with snow on a snowboard attached to a rider's feet using a special boot set onto mounted binding. The development of snowboarding was inspired by skateboarding, sledding, surfing and skiing. It was developed in the U.S.A...
, the town is best known as the location of the Snowmass ski area
Snowmass (ski area)
Snowmass is a part of the Aspen/Snowmass ski resort complex located in western Colorado near the town of Aspen, Colorado. It is owned and operated by the Aspen Skiing Company. Snowmass is the largest of the four Aspen/Snowmass mountains, comprising . The mountain is most notable for its wide...
, the largest of the four nearby ski areas operated collectively as Aspen/Snowmass
Aspen/Snowmass
Aspen/Snowmass is an expansive winter resort complex located in Pitkin County in western Colorado in the United States. Owned and operated by the Aspen Skiing Company it comprises four skiing/snowboarding areas on four adjacent mountains in the vicinity of the towns of Aspen and Snowmass Village...
; however, in 2010 the accidental discovery by a bulldozer operator of fossilized elements of a Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
ecosystem in the ice age lakebed at the Ziegler Reservoir put Snowmass prominently on the paleontological map of North America.
Geography
Snowmass Village is located at 39°12′51"N 106°56′43"W (39.214104, -106.945288).According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the town has a total area of 25.6 square miles (66.3 km²), of which, 25.5 square miles (66 km²) of it is land and 0.1 square mile (0.258998811 km²) of it (0.35%) is water.
Snowmass Village is to the north and at the base of the Snowmass Ski Area
Snowmass (ski area)
Snowmass is a part of the Aspen/Snowmass ski resort complex located in western Colorado near the town of Aspen, Colorado. It is owned and operated by the Aspen Skiing Company. Snowmass is the largest of the four Aspen/Snowmass mountains, comprising . The mountain is most notable for its wide...
. It is on Brush Creek, not on Snowmass Creek, and takes its name from the ski area. Within the area of the town, Owl Creek and Brush Creek confluence then flow north into the Roaring Fork River
Roaring Fork River
Roaring Fork River is a tributary of the Colorado River, approximately long, in west central Colorado in the United States. The river drains a populated and economically vital area of the Colorado Western Slope called the Roaring Fork Valley or Roaring Fork Watershed, which includes the resort...
.
Visible from the village from east to west is: Burnt Mountain Ridge, Burnt Mountain, Baldy Mountain
Baldy Mountain
Baldy Mountain is the highest peak in Manitoba, Canada. It is located in the Duck Mountain Provincial Park, northwest of Dauphin. It is tall, making it the highest mountain in the long Manitoba Escarpment....
, Chapel Peak, Garret Peak, Clark Peak
Clark Peak (Medicine Bow Mountains)
Clark Peak, with a summit elevation of , is the highest peak of the Medicine Bow Mountains. It is situated in the Rawah Wilderness along the border between Larimer and Jackson counties in northern Colorado...
, Mount Daly
Mount Daly
Mount Daly is located on the border of Alberta and British Columbia. It was named in 1898 by Charles E. Fay after Daly, Charles P.-See also:*List of peaks on the British Columbia-Alberta border*Mountains of Alberta*Mountains of British Columbia...
, and Capitol Peak
Capitol Peak
Capitol Peak may refer to:...
. Neither Snowmass Mountain
Snowmass Mountain
Snowmass Mountain is a fourteen thousand foot mountain in the U.S. state of Colorado. It is the thirty-fourth highest mountain peak in the state. It is located in the Elk Mountains, within the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness of the White River National Forest...
nor Snowmass Peak
Snowmass Peak
Snowmass Peak in the U.S. state of Colorado dominates the view from Snowmass Lake. It is often mistaken for Snowmass Mountain the thirty-fourth highest mountain peak in the state, as well as for Hagerman Peak. Snowmass Peak is not really a peak but the lower end of Hagerman Peak's east ridge...
, at the headwaters of Snowmass Creek, are visible from Snowmass Village.
The rock of the Snowmass Village area is predominantly Mancos Shale
Mancos Shale
The Mancos Shale or Mancos Group is an Upper Cretaceous geologic formation of the Western United States dominated by mudrock that accumulated in offshore and marine environments of the Cretaceous North American Inland Sea. The Mancos was deposited during the Cenomanian through Campanian ages,...
. On south-facing slopes, this alkaline soil supports Gambel oak
Gambel oak
Quercus gambelii, or Gambel oak, is a deciduous small tree or large shrub widespread in the foothills and lower mountain elevations of the central southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico: its range is centered on the Colorado Plateau–Four Corners states of Utah-Colorado,...
, Sagebrush
Sagebrush
Sagebrush is a common name of a number of shrubby plant species in the genus Artemisia native to western North America;Or, the sagebrush steppe ecoregion, having one or more kinds of sagebrush, bunchgrasses and others;...
, Serviceberry
Serviceberry
Amelanchier , also known as shadbush, shadwood or shadblow, serviceberry or sarvisberry, wild pear, juneberry, saskatoon, sugarplum or wild-plum, and chuckley pear is a genus of about 20 species of deciduous-leaved shrubs and small trees in the Rose family .Amelanchier is native to temperate regions...
, and Chokecherry
Chokecherry
Prunus virginiana, commonly called chokecherry, bitter-berry, or Virginia bird cherry, is a species of bird cherry native to North America, where it is found almost throughout the continent except for the Deep South and the far north.-Growth:It is a suckering shrub or small tree growing to 5 m tall...
. The north-facing slopes feature Aspen
Aspen
Populus section Populus, of the Populus genus, includes the aspen trees and the white poplar Populus alba. The five typical aspens are all native to cold regions with cool summers, in the north of the Northern Hemisphere, extending south at high altitudes in the mountains. The White Poplar, by...
, Subalpine fir
Subalpine Fir
The Subalpine Fir or Rocky Mountain Fir is a western North American fir, native to the mountains of Yukon, British Columbia and western Alberta in Canada; southeastern Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, western Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, northeastern Nevada, and the...
, Douglas fir, Engelmann spruce
Engelmann Spruce
Picea engelmannii is a species of spruce native to western North America, from central British Columbia and southwest Alberta, southwest to northern California and southeast to Arizona and New Mexico; there are also two isolated populations in northern Mexico...
, and Blue spruce
Blue Spruce
Picea pungens is a species of spruce native to western North America, from southeast Idaho and southwest Wyoming, south through Utah and Colorado to Arizona and New Mexico. It grows at high altitudes from altitude, though unlike Engelmann Spruce in the same area, it does not reach the alpine...
.
Snowmass Village and adjacent Wildcat have a huge population of black bear
American black bear
The American black bear is a medium-sized bear native to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most common bear species. Black bears are omnivores, with their diets varying greatly depending on season and location. They typically live in largely forested areas, but do leave forests in...
s which feed on the acorns and berries of the south-facing slopes.
History
The Brush Creek Valley was settled in about 1910 by ranching families including: Sinclair, Melton, Stapleton, and Hoaglund. * As a child, Hilder Hoaglund would ride her horse into Aspen to go to school. Her father, Charles Hoaglund immigrated from SwedenSweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
in the 1800s. After a school was built in Brush Creek, she attended school at the Brush Creek Frontier School, now called the Little Red Schoolhouse, located on Owl Creek Road. She became a teacher at that school and then at the Red Brick School in Aspen
Aspen
Populus section Populus, of the Populus genus, includes the aspen trees and the white poplar Populus alba. The five typical aspens are all native to cold regions with cool summers, in the north of the Northern Hemisphere, extending south at high altitudes in the mountains. The White Poplar, by...
. At the schoolhouse, she would play the accordion or piano for community dances. When she married Bill Anderson, the Hoaglund Ranch became the Anderson Ranch.
Paul Soldner
Paul Soldner
Paul Soldner was an American ceramic artist.- Biography :...
, a ceramic artist noted for developing American Raku
Raku
Raku-yaki is a type of Japanese pottery that is traditionally used in the Japanese tea ceremony, most often in the form of tea bowls...
, established a studio in the Anderson Ranch buildings in 1966. In 1968, he founded the Anderson Ranch Art Center and it incorporated in 1973. The Anderson Ranch Art Center on Owl Creek Road uses many of the original buildings from the Hoaglund Ranch, although not in their original location, farther down stream on what is now Snowmass Club Circle.
Under the leadership of Bill Janss
Janss Investment Company
The Janss Investment Company was a family run, Los Angeles, California, real estate development company that operated from 1895 to 1995.-First generation:...
and DRC Brown, the American Cement Company developed Snowmass Village as a ski resort starting in 1966. * Hayfields were subdivided and the lots sold for houses. Brush Creek is an unappealing name for a ski area, so they named the resort Snowmass after the valley to the west of Brush Creek. Fritz Benidict acted as the architect of the Snowmass ski area. The west part of ski area, Campground, actually does extend into the Snowmass Valley. Five chairlifts were installed: Fanny Hill, Burlingame, and Sam's Knob, the Big Burn, and Campground. Brush Creek Road was paved in 1968. The former hayfield still had mostly alfalfa into the 1970s. The Snowmass Golf Course was first laid out with nine holes in (need date). It was expanded and redesigned several times (need dates), the latest in 2001 by James Engh. The periodic re-landscaping of the golf course led to the relocation of ranch houses and to changes in the valley floor from flat or sloping fields to rolling hills with ponds.
The Snowmass Wildcat Fire Protection District was founded in 1971 and the firehouse built on Owl Creek Road.
Notorious serial killer Ted Bundy
Ted Bundy
Theodore Robert "Ted" Bundy was an American serial killer, rapist, kidnapper, and necrophile who assaulted and murdered numerous young women during the 1970s, and possibly earlier...
abducted and murdered victim Caryn Campbell in Snowmass on January 12, 1975.
In 1977, the community incorporated as the Town of Snowmass Village.
The Snowmass Chapel was built near the firehouse on Owl Creek Road in 1988. Previous to this time, church services were held in the Optigon Movie Theatre or in the open air Aspen Grove Chapel, located at what is now condominiums off Wood Road.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 1,822 people, 864 households, and 393 families residing in the town. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 71.5 people per square mile (27.6/km²). There were 1,734 housing units at an average density of 68.0 per square mile (26.3/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 97.37% White, 0.16% African American, 0.05% Native American, 0.71% Asian, 0.66% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 1.04% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.63% of the population.
There were 864 households out of which 19.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.1% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 2.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 54.4% were non-families. 36.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 2.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.09 and the average family size was 2.74.
In the town the population was spread out with 15.8% under the age of 18, 7.6% from 18 to 24, 41.6% from 25 to 44, 28.7% from 45 to 64, and 6.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 128.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 132.4 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $57,059, and the median income for a family was $86,338. Males had a median income of $40,625 versus $37,500 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the town was $35,224. About 1.7% of families and 4.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.5% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.
External links
- Aspen Ski & Snow Report
- Snowmass Tourism website
- Snowmass Group Planning website
- Town of Snowmass Village website
- Snowmass Village Press (official website)
- Snowmass Village City Guide
- Snowmass Ski Resort (Snowmass articles and reviews)
- Snowmass-Wildcat Fire Protection District
- Snowmass Golf Club
- Anderson Ranch Arts Center
- The Snowmass Chapel
- Snowmass Colorado (part of AllApsen.com travel guide)