The Ute Indian tribes of the American basin area are the earliest identified peoples to frequent what is now Aspen, Colorado. The Uncompahgre Ute tribe were seasonal hunter-gatherers who summered in the mountains around Aspen. While Aspen is now settled by wealthy families and property management companies looking for their next mountain home, we must remember the history of Aspen and the history of the Ute Indian tribes that this beautiful mountain town belongs to.
Native Aspen
The Ute Indians and their predecessors used the Aspen area for over eight hundred years. There have been some ancient findings of transient habitation dating back over eight thousand years, but there has been no evidence of an organized settlement until the Ute arrived.
The Utes didn’t come for a summer vacation. The women were busy gathering berries, greens, roots, seeds, yucca, yampa, and pine nuts daily. They also processed the meat the men had hunted. The men provided deer, rabbit, elk, buffalo, antelope, bear, beavers, and sage hens. The hunters used spears, arrows, and nets to capture prey. The area was and remains a place of bountiful wildlife and verdant pastures.
Not All that Glitters is Gold
The first non-native settlers were silver miners. In 1870 miners discovered sizable silver deposits in the mountains around Aspen, and the word got out. Aspen developed from a miner’s camp to over 12,000 men, women, and children in little time. But, unfortunately, the boon didn’t last long.
The repeal of the Sherman Silver Act of 1894 was an attempt to cause inflation in the country’s economy. The Sherman Act required the United States government to purchase a substantial amount of silver each month to mint new coins. Repeal of the act effectively ceased demand for silver ore.
Inflation would boost the economy but devalue the dollar. So large debtors pushed for the repeal so that they would then be able to repay loans with a weaker dollar. It didn’t work. For the miners, it was the beginning of the “Quiet Years.” The town’s population dropped to under 1,000 at one point.
The Aspen Idea
Aspen found a new direction in the mid-20th century through three related forces. The first force was skiing. Berthoud Pass was the first major ski resort opened in Colorado in the 1930s. The second force was Elizabeth and Walter Paepcke. History credits them as the founders of contemporary Aspen. And the last was the affluence. Monied people, especially the “nouveau-riche,” found Aspen and “The Aspen Way” a desirable environment to flaunt and to be flaunted.
Ski Aspen
Friedle Pfeifer, an Austrian professional skier, James J. Johnson, H.F. Klock, Judge William E. Doyle, and industrialist Walter Paepcke opened the first Aspen Ski area in 1946. That summer, ski lifts were built and were operational for the first season. The first season passes cost $146, the equivalent of $2,100 today. A day pass was $3.75, the equivalent of $53 today.
In the 2021-22 season SkiCo reported 1.42 million skier visits. There are 76 ski runs on Aspen Mountain. The cost of a premier season pass today is $3,099. A day ticket is $224.
Affluence
In the twenty-first century, Aspen is one of the world’s most expensive places to live. $9.5 million is the median home price. Because of the world-class skiing slopes and limited space and availability, Aspen attracts that 1% that can afford it.
The Paepckes Vision
Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke had culture, money, and the desire to surround themselves with like-minded creative, and innovative people. So, in 1945, the Paepckes embarked on a journey that lasted throughout the rest of their lives in Aspen, Colorado. Aspen, in turn, was shaped and will forever be a reflection of the Paepcke’s vision.
Walter Paepcke was a successful businessman in the 1940s. He made his money out of paper. Paper cardboard, to be exact. With the funds from his company, the Container Corporation of America, he created the Aspen Institute and co-founded the Aspen Ski School, which eventually became SkiCo.
Walter and his wife Elizabeth shared a love of the outdoors and downhill skiing, the arts, humanities, and the idea that mind, body, and spirit could and should be connected. The couple’s influence in the community and the positive message they were striving to foster stimulated a cultural and spiritual awakening in Aspen. Soon, it became a mecca for creative reflection and outlet, as well as for world-class skiing.
Together the Paepckes created the Aspen Music Festival and School in 1949. Originally it was a two-week symposium in tribute to Johan Wolfgang von Goethe. In addition, it offered lectures and musical performances. It was so popular that Igor Stravinsky conducted an original piece at the festival the following year. The school admitted its first class of 183 music students in 1951, its third year.
Today the Aspen Music Festival is a world-known and respected event. During the eight-week summer course, over 400 classical music performances by five orchestras, solo and chamber music performances, opera productions, children’s classes, lectures, and master classes are received. The Aspen Music Festival reaches 70,000 live audience participants and countless recordings. The effects on participants and audiences have been profound.
An Ongoing Legacy
A single few can not claim responsibility for the remarkable development of a nearly abandoned silver mine into the gold mine of class, culture, and internationally acclaimed sport. Many influential people, cultures, and events complemented the financial and philosophical gifts of Elizabeth and Walter Paepcke. Their initial past intentions and premise, however, continue to support and redefine Aspen’s future.
Because the motivation and potential of Aspen are more than the best ski run, Aspen is a dynamic process, continually growing and changing. The framework the Paepckes and other like-minded investors in Aspen’s future laid down in the mid-20th century continues to spark, uniquely showcasing the potential of the human body, mind, and creativity.
The history of Aspen Co started with the advanced culture of the Ute Indians and whoever may have come before them. The early miners’ perseverance and disappointments laid the city’s earliest framework. While Aspen’s ultimate success may have resulted from the financial and intellectual impetus from the Paepckes and others like them, the purpose of the city is perpetuated by each resident and tourist today and every day.