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Show Aspen Plat Drawn-To- wn Begins Growth the town was eventA plat of ually drawn and Ute City settled down to being a town. History does not clearly reveal and when the town's just wny name was changed from Ute City to Aspen. However, Caroline Bancroft writes in her short hisFamous Aspen, torical book, that a representative of a large eastern investor had legally changed the name of the town through filing of a town plat in Leadville in 1880. There were many hardships in of the miners who stayed at Aspen through the harsh winter months, many periods of depression, scurvy from lack of proper clothing and food all the deprivations experienced by early settlers in almost any western community. But remain they did, held by an overwhelming desire to obtain riches from the silver in the surrounding mountains. Some of the mines produced as much as $15 million dollars worth the lues ol silver ore, and yesterdays poverty - ridden prospector may have been tomorows wealthiest man in town. Men became millionaires one day and paupers the next, their wealth controlled by the slender thread that was the silver vein in their mines. Eventually Aspen became a city ot 6,000 people and the D&RGW Railroad built a line to serve the thriving city and to haul out its ore to the smelter at Leadville. Aspens own silver smelter was not large enough to process all the ore brought down from the dozens of mines. Later the Colorado Midland built a line into Aspen over difficult terrain and street brawls between crews of the D&RG and the Midland were frequent. Then in July of 1893, the worst happened. A depression had started earlier but Aspen was not seriously affected. Then Congress removed silver as the standard for currency and tragedy struck the town below Independence Pass. Eighteen hundred miners were thrown out of work, banks failed, and people started abandoning the town and heading for the gold camps. Many Aspen millionaires tried to hang on to their fortunes and the mines which bad brought them wealth by retaining their property and later attempting to reopen their claims. But in most cases they had thrown good money after bad, and silver never came back. During the 1920s and the 1930s Aspen was an almost dormant town. There were a stubborn few people who remained there, held by farming and agricultural investments and the money some Major Starts Drilling had made much earlier in the boom days of silver. While the town slept, a new generation arose and cultural tastes changed. Radio had made the laborer conscious of his likes for other than jazz music and introduced him to symphony; forums and town hall meetings had aroused the common man to fresh mental pursuits. In about 1934 Colorado as a whole began to sense its importance as a winter sports paradise, especially skiing, and within two years the slopes west of Denver were frequented by many skiing parties. In 1935 at Aspen the Swiss skiing expert Andre Roch found what he described as the ideal ski area of North America. After that discovery Aspen needed only the stimulus of venture capital to launch its bid for stardom. And it came in the person of Walter P. Paepcke, visionary and energetic board chairman of the Container Corp. of America. This Chicago industrialist, whose affection for Colorado had already established him as a rancher at Larkspur, came to Aspen and toured the region, talking to Datives, young skiers and business men. In January 1946, Paepcke formed the Aspen Company, and Aspens years of dormancy were soon to end. Paepckes ideas of development of Aspen went much further than a ski center. He was thinking of an ideal community for year round living. . . . with cultural and recreational opportunities in all seasons. For many years Aspen had been a favorite summertime haunt for trout fishermen, mountain pack trail riders, ranchers and the autumn hunting ground for small game and deer. So with the year round sports, the Aspen Co. planned year round cultural activities as well, featuring good music, fine theater, graduate study opportunities, good schools and the equable pleasant year round climate. Potentially Aspen has the unusual opportunity of becoming Americas most livable city. Planned for the near future are a famous European opera season in the summer, as well as study groups headed by Yale, Princeton, Chicago and Colorado University scholars; a summer repertory theater and new crafts and businesses. Indeed, A,spen is once more a thriving community. The silver miner is gone, replaced by people with imagination and the stamina and courage to put over their ideas. Aspen is growing once more! J. William Bona, President Ski 8C Spur BAR RESTAURANT Colorado Aspen LODGE GOLDEN HORN RESTAURANT BAR v Winterskol," a salute to King Winter, is the principal purpose of annual carnival at Aspen, featuring costumed parade and ball with crowning of a Queen, saloon slalom, torchlight parade and fireworks JAN. 22-3- 0 ASPEN SPORTS BADSTU High Grade Ore From Ho. Dakofa DICKINSON, N. of the highest grade uranium ore yet reported in North Dakota is by a Dickinson group headed by T. L. Landis, local oil man, with Dr. Donald Towse of Grand Forks as consultant geologist. The ore submitted by the Dickinson group was found to be of preferred primary source, and related to pitchblende type uranium. Other state ore reports have been on secondary ore only. Report are now in from chemical assay of selected samples by the Minerals Assay Laboratory at Grand Junction, Colo., a government approved laboratory. One sample assayed .43, which is over four times commercial grade and tops all other ore previously reported in this state. Newell W. Dickinson oil Farley, broker, will be in charge of development. An Atomic Energy Commission representative who recently checked representative deposits on the property for an AEC report com-- 1 nented Encouraging. This was previous to the return of the high assay report which showed for ASPEN COLORADO five general samples submitted; 43. .41. .37. .31. and 27 Fountain Prescriptions Luncheonette Liquors One Block West Of Hotel Jerome THE ONE-STO- P DRUG STORE well-know- n MATTHEW DRUG Aspen rhone 4501 Colorado For Your Home in Aspen OFFERING Finest Accommodations in a Victorian Superb French Cuisine and setting Cocktails in a friendly intiService mate atmosphere. WE PROUDLY ANNOUNCE THE PREMIERE SEASON OF THE AIHS CHALETS Try this new and different approach to your winter holiday 44 Luxurious Accommodations, each with private terrace or balHeated Finest Contemporary Design and Furnishings cony Ice Skating. Tennis Courts Swimming Pool T II E I! 0 T E ASPEN FROM a vantage point on a nearby mountain seems to interest a couple of skiers. The Pitkin county seat, once an important silver mining town, then practically abandoned for several years, is now one of the most important cultural centers in Colorado. L J Edies Restaurant Clarence 8C E Edith Rader n Fine Western Food o Tis The Taste That Tells The Tale r.i E Aspen, Colorado of Major Uranium & Drilling Co. with principal offices in Dallas, Texas, has announced that his company started on a drilling program in January on the Colorado' Plateau. The company is expected to drill around 21,500 feet in the next six months. Major aas recei tly purchased a core rig, jeeps, trailers and other equipment necessary for the dnlF ing program. Drilling started ia the Lisbon Valley on some claims under contract with other comp panies. addition to The World's Longest Chair Lift THE ASPEN SKIING CORPORATION |